It happened on this wise. Some people came bringing Greek fruit to the king from the sea-board. He admired its perfection and beauty and called Cleitus, wishing to show it to him and share it with him. It chanced that Cleitus was sacrificing, but he gave up the sacrifice and came; and three of the sheep on which libations had already been poured came following after him.
When the king learned of this circumstance, he imparted it to his soothsayers, Aristander and Cleomantis the Lacedaemonian. Then, on their telling him that the omen was bad, he ordered them to sacrifice in all haste for the safety of Cleitus. For he himself, two days before this, had seen a strange vision in his sleep; he thought he saw Cleitus sitting with the sons of Parmenio in black robes, and all were dead.
However, Cleitus did not finish his sacrifice, but came at once to the supper of the king, who had sacrificed to the Dioscuri. After boisterous drinking was under way, verses were sung which had been composed by a certain Pranichus, or, as some say, Pierio, to shame and ridicule the generals who had lately been defeated by the Barbarians.
The older guests were annoyed at this and railed at both the poet and the singer, but Alexander and those about him listened with delight and bade the singer go on. Then Cleitus, who was already drunk and naturally of a harsh temper and wilful, was more than ever vexed, and insisted that it was not well done, when among Barbarians and enemies, to insult Macedonians who were far better men than those who laughed at them, even though they had met with misfortune.
And when Alexander declared that Cleitus was pleading his own cause when
he gave cowardice the name of misfortune, Cleitus sprang to his feet and
said: It was this cowardice of mine, however, that saved thy life,
god-born as thou art, when thou wast already turning thy back upon
the spear of Spithridates;
Thoroughly incensed, then, Alexander said: Base fellow, dost thou
think to speak thus of me at all times, and to raise faction among
Macedonians, with impunity?
Nay,
said Cleitus, not even now do we enjoy impunity, since
such are the rewards we get for our toils; and we pronounce those
happy who are already dead, and did not live to see us Macedonians
thrashed with Median rods, or begging Persians in order to get
audience with our king.
So spake Cleitus in all boldness, and those about Alexander sprang up to
confront him and reviled him, while the elder men tried to quell the
tumult. Then Alexander, turning to Xenodochus of Cardia and Artemius of
Colophon, said: Do not the Greeks appear to you to walk about among
Macedonians like demi-gods among wild beasts ?
Cleitus, however, would not yield, but called on Alexander to speak out freely what he wished to say, or else not to invite to supper men who were free and spoke their minds, but to live with Barbarians and slaves, who would do obeisance to his white tunic and Persian girdle. Then Alexander, no longer able to restrain his anger, threw one of the apples that lay on the table at Cleitus and hit him, and began looking about for his sword.
But one of his body-guards, Aristophanes, conveyed it away before he could lay hands on it, and the rest surrounded him and begged him to desist, whereupon he sprang to his feet and called out in Macedonian speech a summons to his corps of guards (and this was a sign of great disturbance), and ordered the trumpeter to sound, and smote him with his fist because he hesitated and was unwilling to do so. This man, then, was afterwards held in high esteem on the ground that it was due to him more than to any one else that the camp was not thrown into commotion. But Cleitus would not give in, and with much ado his friends pushed him out of the banquet-hall.