United States or Ghana ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
XXVI. Some writers say that Aristeides died in Pontus, to which country he had been sent on matters of state: while others say that he died of old age at Athens, respected and honoured by all his countrymen there. Kraterus of Macedonia tells us the following particulars about his end.
Kraterus at this broke out into violent abuse of Neoptolemus, saying that he had been deceived by him about the Macedonians who were to have deserted. However, he called upon those about him to quit them like men, and advanced to meet the horsemen. The shock was terrible. Their spears were soon broken, and the fight was continued with swords.
Privately also he sharply rebuked Kraterus; and calling them both before him, made them be friends again, swearing by Zeus Ammon, and all the gods, that they were the two men whom he loved best in the world; but that if he heard of any more quarrelling between them he would put them both to death, or at least him who began the quarrel.
However, in the collection of Athenian decrees made by Kraterus, there is a copy of the articles of this treaty, which he mentions as though it really existed. It is said that on this occasion the Athenians erected an altar to Peace, and paid great honours to Kallias, who negotiated the treaty.
When Hephæstion was absent on some business, he wrote to him to say that Kraterus had been struck in the thighs with Perdikkas's spear, while they were amusing themselves by baiting an ichneumon. When Peukestas recovered from some illness, he wrote to the physician Alexippus, congratulating him on the cure which he had effected.
The Macedonians meanwhile flocked round him, eager to see what sort of man this Eumenes was, of whom they had heard so much; for since the death of Kraterus no one had been talked of so much as Eumenes in the Macedonian camp.
Kraterus privately introduced the woman to Alexander; and he, after he had heard her repeat what she had been told, ordered her to take secret note of the confidential expressions of Philotas, and to report them, from time to time, to himself.
Alexander immediately set these men at liberty, and sending Kraterus to Macedonia bade him hand over to Phokion whichever he might choose of the Asiatic cities of Kius, Gergithus, Mylassa, and Elæa; showing all the more eagerness to make him a present because he was angry at his former refusal. Phokion however would not take them, and Alexander shortly afterwards died.
For instance, he sent a letter to Kilikia ordering search to be made for a slave boy belonging to Seleukus, who had run away, and praising Peukestas because he had captured Nikon, the runaway slave of Kraterus.
But Kraterus offers no documentary evidence of this, neither of the sentence of his condemnation nor the decree of the people, although in general it is his habit to quote his authority for statements of this kind.
Word Of The Day