He tried to come in again, however, by another door, very boldly and
contemptuously reciting these iambics from the Andromache
of Euripides:
And so, at last, Alexander seized a spear from one of his
guards, met Cleitus as he was drawing aside the curtain before the door,
and ran him through.
No sooner had Cleitus fallen with a roar and a groan than the king’s anger departed from him. And when he was come to himself and beheld his friends standing speechless, he drew the spear from the dead body and would have dashed it into his own throat, had not his body-guards prevented this by seizing his hands and carrying him by force to his chamber.
Here he spent the night and the following day in bitter lamentations, and
at last lay speechless, worn out with his cries and wailing, heaving
deep groans. Then his friends, alarmed at his silence, forced their way
in. To what the others said he would pay no attention, but when
Aristander the seer reminded him of the vision he had seen concerning
Cleitus, and of the omen,
Therefore they brought in to him Callisthenes the philosopher, who was a relative of Aristotle, and Anaxarchus of Abdera. Of these, Callisthenes tried by considerate and gentle methods to alleviate the king’s suffering, employing insinuation and circumlocution so as to avoid giving pain; but Anaxarchus, who had always taken a path of his own in philosophy, and had acquired a reputation for despising and slighting his associates, shouted out as soon as he came in:
Here is Alexander, to whom the whole world is now looking; but he
lies on the floor weeping like a slave, in fear of the law and the
censure of men, unto whom he himself should be a law and a measure
of justice, since he has conquered the right to rule and mastery,
instead of submitting like a slave to the mastery of a vain opinion.
Knowest thou not,
said he, that Zeus has Justice and Law seated
beside him, in order that everything that is done by the master of
the world may be lawful and just?
By using some such arguments
as these Anaxarchus succeeded in lightening the suffering of the king,
it is true, but rendered his disposition in many ways more vainglorious
and lawless; he also made himself wonderfully liked by the king, and
brought the intercourse of Callisthenes with him, which had always been
unpleasant because of the man’s austerity, into additional disfavour.
It is said that once at supper the conversation turned upon seasons and
weather, and that Callisthenes, who held with those who maintain that it
is more cold and wintry there than in Greece, was stoutly opposed by
Anaxarchus, whereupon he said: You surely must admit that it is
colder here than there; for there you used to go about in winter in
a cloak merely, but here you recline at table with three rugs thrown
over you.
Of course this also added to the irritation of
Anaxarchus.
Moreover, the other sophists and flatterers in the train of Alexander
were annoyed to see Callisthenes eagerly courted by the young men on
account of his eloquence, and no less pleasing to the older men on
account of his mode of life, which was well-ordered, dignified, and
independent, and confirmed the reason given for his sojourn abroad,
namely, that he had gone to Alexander from an ardent desire to restore
his fellow-citizens to their homes and re-people his native city.
And besides being envied on account of his reputation, he also at times
by his own conduct furnished material for his detractors, rejecting
invitations for the most part, and when he did go into company, by his
gravity and silence making it appear that he disapproved or disliked
what was going on, so that even Alexander said in allusion to him:—