Author(s):
Badian, Ernst (Cambridge, MA)
|
Nutton, Vivian (London)
(Φιλώτας;
Philṓtas). [German version] [1] Macedonian nobleman, 4th cent. BC Eldest son of Parmenion [1]; following Philippus' [I 4] II marriage to Cleopatra [II 2] P. stood by him against Alexander [4] the Great in the Pixodarus affair. After Philip’s death (336 BC) and the murder of Attalus [1] by Parmenion [1], P. was promoted to the command of the
hetaíroi , whom he led in the great battles against the Persians. In autumn 330 BC his brother Nicanor [1] died. P. remained behind for the funeral while Alexander continued the march. P. caught up with the army in Drangiana and became immediately entangled in a conspiracy against Alexander by one Dimnus. According to Arrian (Arr. Anab. 3,26, following Ptolemaeus) the affair had already begun in Egypt (332 BC); P. was now sentenced by the army and executed as 'patently guilty'. According to Diodorus (17,79,3) and Curtius (6,11,21) he was perhaps guilty. Curtius, one of the Vulgate (Alexander historians), reports a coup against P.: lulled into security by Alexander, he is attacked in his tent at night by friends of the king and two
sōmatophýlakes (court title B.2). He is accused before the army, condemned, tortured and stoned. The report, albeit embellished with speeches by Curtius, rests in the last analysis upon an official bulletin which above all reveals P.'s coerced 'confession' of a plot between Parmenion and Hegelochus [1], by then already dead. After P.’s death Alexand…