Cleitus the Black

And if you look at Alexander, he has this real idea, he wants to be this philosopher king, and he wants to bring learning and teaching and, and fair rule to people.

But then you have this other side of him that is a maniacal, murderous, um, you know, "I wanna be bigger and better than everybody else." And he's managed this for quite a while to, to stand on the edge of that razor, and then later in life, he falls off the edge, and he actually kills one of his top lieutenants, a guy named Cleitus the Black, because Cleitus is challenging him in the direction he's going.

And that's kind of where you see this maniacal slide on Alexander.

So for me, I think it's an interesting case study on what amount of power someone can handle, and at the same time, you know, can someone keep that goodness in them long enough to achieve a good ends? And I think in Alexander we see that that didn't really work.

Was Hannibal a Negro? General Burt's article on the Negro soldier, reprinted elsewhere in this magazine, aroused some discussion.

Dr. G. Harrison wrote to the New York Evening Post saying that he had no criticism to make of the heroism of the colored soldiers, but he would would like to know on what authority Clitus, the Macedonian cavalry commander, and Hannibal and the Carthaginians are classed as Negroes.

I do not think, adds Dr. Harrison, that the Abyssinians are considered Negroes.

I would like to know what authority the author has for the number of Negro soldiers he states served in the Revolutionary War.

Among other interesting things which this diary contained was a statement that, of the 20,000 soldiers in this camp, one-fourth of them are Negroes, and the best drilled and disciplined regiment here is one from Rhode Island, three-fourths of which are composed of Negroes.

Again, in G. W. Williams' admirable history of the Negro soldier, Dr. Harrison will find much valuable data regarding the military services of the black man in our war for independence.

Dr. Harrison asks for my authority for stating that Clitus, Alexander the Great's foster brother, ENC Britannica, was a Negro.

The proofs concerning the ethnic origin of Clitus were obtained from Mr. Daniel Murray, who for about 30 years had been an assistant to the Librarian of Congress and has collected more than 25,000 biographies of people of African origin, which is soon to be published.

Whatever's inside comes out unfiltered.

To prove it, Seneca recalls Alexander the Great, the conqueror of the world, in the middle of a banquet, drunk, killed Clitus with his own spear, one of his dearest friends, the man who had saved his life in battle.

When the wine wore off, he wanted to die of shame.

Seneca summed it up like this: "The man who had defeated so many armies was defeated by the cup.

In later times, moreover, as we are told, the calamity of the Thebans often gave him remorse and made him milder towards many people.

And certainly, the murder of Cleitus, which he committed in his cups [Footnote: See Chapter Fifty-one] and the cowardly refusal of his Macedonians to follow him against the Indians [Footnote: See Chapter Sixty-two], whereby they as it were robbed his expedition and his glory of their consummation, he was wont to attribute to the vengeful wrath of Dionysus.

[Footnote: This god was said to have been born of Semele, daughter of Cadmus, the founder of Thebes].

And there was not a Theban of those that survived who afterwards came to him with any request and did not get what he wanted from him.

Here, as we are told, on hearing Philotas beset Hephaestion with abject and pitiful cries and supplications, he said, 'So faint-hearted as thou art, Philotas, and so unmanly, couldst thou have set hand to so great an undertaking?' After Philotas had been put to death, Alexander sent at once into Media and dispatched Parmenio also, a man whose achievements with Philip had been many and who was the only one of Alexander's older friends, or the principal one, to urge his crossing into Asia, and who, of the three sons that were his, had seen two killed on the expedition before this and was now put to death along with the third.

These actions made Alexander an object of fear to many of his friends, and particularly to Antipater, who sent secretly to the Aetolians and entered into an alliance with them, for the Aetolians also were in fear of Alexander because they had destroyed the city of Oeniadae, and because Alexander, on learning of it, had said that it would not be the sons of the Oeniadae, but he himself who had punished the Aetolians.

Not long afterwards came the affair of Cleitus, footnote, during the campaign of 328 BC, at Samarkand in Sogdiana, end footnote, which those who simply learn the immediate circumstances will think more savage than that of Philotas.

If we take into consideration, however, alike the cause and the time, we find that it did not happen of set purpose, but through some misfortune of the king, whose anger and intoxication furnished occasion for the evil genius of Cleitus.

And there are three or four incidents there which really show tension at the Macedonian court.

The most famous example is Alexander getting drunk and murdering one of his generals, a guy called Clitus.

Then you get a conspiracy against Alexander by his own pages.

There's another moment in there where Alexander allegedly attempts to introduce a Persian gesture called proskinesis, which is a Greek word that means kind of I kiss towards, and it's a ritual gesture.

And what Arian does is he tells all of those stories together.

And he basically says, Alexander is led astray by Persian kind of customs.

He murders Clitus.

He goes back to his tent.

In later times, moreover, as we are told, the calamity of the Thebans often gave him remorse, and made him milder towards many people.

And certainly, the murder of Cleitus, which he committed in his cups, footnote, see chapter fifty-one, end footnote, and the cowardly refusal of his Macedonians to follow him against the Indians, footnote, see chapter sixty-two, end footnote, whereby they as it were robbed his expedition and his glory of their consummation, he was wont to attribute to the vengeful wrath of Dionysus.

Footnote.

This god was said to have been born of Semele, daughter of Cadmus, the founder of Thebes.

Then, while he was thus engaged with Rhosaces, Spithridates rode up from one side, raised himself up on his horse, and with all his might came down with a barbarian battle-axe upon Alexander's head.

Alexander's crest was broken off, together with one of its plumes, and his helmet could barely and with difficulty resist the blow, so that the edge of the battle-axe touched the topmost hair of his head.

But while Spithridates was raising his arm again for another stroke, Cleitus, black Cleitus, got the start of him and ran him through the body with his spear.

At the same time Rhosaces also fell, smitten by Alexander's sword.

SINCE HILLIBOR DOES NOT GROW HEREABOUTS, DO YOU, AT LEAST, EVEN GULP DOWN AND DRINK WITH WIDE OPENED MOUTH FORTHWITH THE WATERS OF LITH, AND DRINK AGAIN AND OFTEN, FOR THUS WILL YOU CEASE TO BE TROUBLED AT THE GOODS OF ARISTOTLE.

Why, really, I see the Cleitus you know about, and Callisthenes, and many others rushing towards you, as though they would tear you in pieces and wreak their vengeance upon you for what you did to them.

So step you off by this other path, and, shouting after him, drink often, as I told you.

End of Dialogue 13

In later times, moreover, as we are told, the calamity of the Thebans often gave him remorse and made him milder towards many people.

And certainly, the murder of Cleitus, which he committed in his cups, footnote See Chapter Fifty-One, end footnote, and the cowardly refusal of his Macedonians to follow him against the Indians, footnote See Chapter Sixty-Two, end footnote, whereby they as it were robbed his expedition and his glory of their consummation, he was wont to attribute to the vengeful wrath of Dionysus.

Footnote This god was said to have been born of Semele, daughter of Cadmus, the founder of Thebes.

End footnote.

These actions made Alexander an object of fear to many of his friends, and particularly to Antipater, who sent secretly to the Aetolians, and entered into an alliance with them.

For the Aetolians also were in fear of Alexander, because they had destroyed the city of Oeniadae, and because Alexander, on learning of it, had said that it would not be the sons of the Oeniadae, but he himself who would punish the Aetolians.

Not long afterwards came the affair of Cleitus, footnote, during the campaign of three twenty-eight BC, at Samarkand, in Sogdiana, end footnote, which those who simply learn the immediate circumstances will think more savage than that of Philotas.

If we take into consideration, however, alike the cause and the time, we find that it did not happen of set purpose, but through some misfortune of the king, whose anger and intoxication furnished occasion for the evil genius of Cleitus.