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Demaratus, an elderly man of Philips age, but more inclined to believe older, arrives in Pella presumably on a business trip and is quizzed by Philip on how the remaining Greek states are taking to Macedonian rule! Not so good he replies, as they perceive you as struggling to keep your own house in order! Sobered by this, Philip employs Demaratus, a close friend of Alexanders and the family, to bring home his rebellious son. Demaratus finaly succeeds to bring home the reluctant boy and is repatriated with his father.A short time later Philip is assasinated and Demaratus is elevated to the position of 'Bodyguard'.I know I'm heading into conspiracy theory waters, but am I the only one to see something odd in this story?
Perhaps to the point of even redefining the purpose of the royal 'Bodyguard'! I must admit, I'm down to only having access to two books at moment, Arrian and Putarch, the rest are packed away due to
moving house again So my info is kind of limited, but interesting anyway
just my thoughts.Cheers!
Hi Smitty,Between Alexander's return home (by Demaratus's intervention) and Philip's assassination there was another banishment of Alexander and his closest friends: related to the arranged marriage between Pixodorus's eldest daugther and Philip Arrhidaeus. Alexander sent Thessalus (also the Corinthian) to persuade Pixodorus to accept Alexander for his son-in-law.... and this part is interesting... when Philip heard about this transaction, he reproached him bitterly before Philotas. Afterwards, Philip wrote to the Corinthians to send the same Thessalus to him in chains..... But, I can't recall that Demaratus has been elevated to the position of a 'Royal Bodyguard'!? Do you have the list of all seven (or nine) Royal Bodyguards?Now, considering that Philip's murderer was one of the Royal Bodyguards (Pausanias) and that there were TWO "getaway" horses, we can only guess that there were to be two assassinations (it could have been Alexander, too?!)as well as we can only wonder who could have done the second one. And why Pausanias has been murdered "on the spot"?! Regards, Poliksena
Poliksena_atg It's better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life.
Hi Poli,
the reference to Demaratus comes from Arrian on battle of Granicus.
Book 1:15'During the fight Alexanders spear was broken. He called on Aretis, one of his grooms, for another, but Aretis was himself in difficulties for the same reason, though still fighting gallantly enough with the remaining half of his weapon. Showing it to Alexander, he called out to him to ask someone else, and Demaratus the Corinthian, one of Alexanders personal bodyguard, gave him his spear.'cheers!
Hi Smitty,Demaratus was not one of the bodyguard - however, the term 'somatophylax' is sometimes used by Arrian for the agema of Companions - the Royal squadron - and it was as a member of that that Demaratus is close to Alexander at the Granicus.All the bestMarcus
Hi Marcus,
Interesting mess up on Arrians behalf, perhaps my fault, I need to learn Ancient Greek :(It still doesn't change my way of thinking regarding his possible involvement with the death of Philip, but does so on the bodyguard.Now you've got me curious about this over usage of the word 'somatophylax'. Is the word used in reference to any specific individual other than Demaratus? , and secondly, who would the bodyguard have been at the time of the Granicus? My limited understanding of Greek is that the Royal squadron was refered to as the 'Agema'. Sounds like he indiscimanantly uses both terms , if I read you right.Appreciate your feedback!
Cheers!
getting back to the point!how/why is it that a Corinthian statesman ends up in the Agema/Bodyguard! He was apparently a friend of the family,including Philip. Why hadn't Phil included him into his Agema/Bodyguard?What services had been rendered, apart from the prompt to get Al back into town? Like the remaning
city states gave a damn about Phil and his relationship to his son!
just my thoughts.
still like to know more about the 'body guard', reading Arrian ( English version) sure doesn't make it clear who the body guard were!
Cheers!
Hi Smitty,Sorry, I tried to send you a reply yesterday but the site was playing up and I couldn't post.A little while ago I spent some time documenting exactly who the seven somatophylakes were at various points in the campaign (such as, who replaced Balacrus when he was made a satrap, who replaced xxx when he was killed etc.). Unfortunately, my notes are 165 miles away (an exact distance by car, I'll have you know) so, at the risk of making John laugh yet again, I can't give you chapter and verse. But I gleaned most of it from Heckel's "Marshals", if you can be bothered to pore through that for a few hours! Otherwise I can pull out my notes at the weekend - I wonder whether this site will accept tabulated information?I think that Demaratus was probably one of Philip's companions before he became one of Alexander's. All the bestMarcus
Thanks for responding Marcus
I don't usually like to read to many modern sources (tend to generally paint pictures that arn't necessarily so!), but guess I'll have to look to purchasing Heckles works on the Marshalls.
Another one to add to the list ;(In regards to Demaratus being a companion of Phils, I think we can safely assume that not to be the case. Remember, according to Plutarch, he's paying Phil a visit at court!, also he's being asked what the other Greek states think of the current political climate, implying Demartatus is in tune with the city states political pursuasions. I would imagine the only way Demaratus was aware of the political climate was if he lived outside of Macedon.just my thoughts.( you have got me so paranoid now about reading the English versions of the sources, how can I trust what has been interpreted)! :oChhers!
Smitty,I didn't intend to make you paranoid - my own Greek and Latin is by no means good enough to read them in their original, so I use translations, too.On Demaratus (still) - I might be wrong, but I never assumed that a 'companion' had to be living in Macedonia, which is why, although I think you're right about D. visiting, I don't think it precludes him from being a companion. I see it more as being the sorts of 'duties' and 'obligations' he would have had when he did visit. There are good comparisons on medieval history of this sort of arrangement - even to the point where James I of Scotland, when he was a prisoner of the English, ended up *fighting* with them against the French in the Hundred Years' War: his relationship to his captors was such that he ended up more a guest-friend than a prisoner.All the bestMarcus
Perhaps, with the backlash that started against Macedonia when Philip died, the other cities decided he was an undesirable, and so he had to move permanently to Pella?All the bestMarcus
Hi,I would like to enter into your discussion. First, it's obvious that the Argead house had some Corinthian friends ... Demaratus is the case now, but it's also strange why ATG sent Tessalus (also the Corinthian) in Persia to persuade Pixodorus to accept him for his son-in-law instead of his half-brother. And why in both "private" cases there is one Corinthian mediator? Or they have been some sort of "pawns" from the Corinthian side like Philip has been during the reign of his brother.Regards, Poliksena
Poliksena_atg It's better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life.
You do have to be careful of the translations because they are mistakes everywhere.It would be nice to be able to look at the originals.Look at this writing:http://www.csad.ox.ac.uk/Egypt/OGIS/OGI ... especially the beginning of the 6th line, you will see ALE(KS)ANDROSThe Greek "ks"(ksi) is represented (also on some of his coins) by:-----------------------
------------------------------------ And that is why alexander is pronounced as it should be, ie with a KS, but we preferr and expect it written with the latinised X.Where some get confused is (for one example) the word on the 7 th line at the end:DIADOXOSPeople automatically say "diado"ks"os". The X can not be a "KS" as well. This is just one you need to be aware of.Cheers
Link, you don't know your Greek well :-)The Greek letter "ksi" is represented in the Greek alphabet with three parallel horizontal lines: "+Ä" (for those who have greek fonts) and it is equivalent to the Latin character of "X".
So there's no point in writing one extra letter when the Greek "ksi" ("+Ä") can be perfectly represented by "x". Alexandros is just fine, or Alexander for his Latinized version.You are misspeling the word DIADOXOS. In latin languages is should be translated as "DIADOCHOS" (successor-heir). The latin letter "X" is the letter "chi" (not ks) in Greek although it is written the same.
Nice link you posted, it's obviously from Ptolemaic Egypt, isn't it?
So my info is kind of limited, but interesting anyway
