XLIX.  Philotas had no idea that he was being spied upon in this manner, and in his conversation with Antigone frequently spoke insolently and slightingly of his sovereign.  Alexander, although he had accumulated terrible proofs of treason against Philotas, nevertheless remained silent, either because he felt assured of the loyalty of Parmenio, or because he feared to attack a man of such power and importance.  At length, however, a Macedonian of Chalastra, named Simnus, formed a plot against Alexander’s life, and invited a young man, named Nikomachus, his own intimate friend, to join him.  Nikomachus refused compliance, and told the whole story of the plot to his brother, Kebalinus, who at once had an interview with Philotas, and bade him bring them at once to Alexander, as persons who had a most important communication to make to him.  Philotas, however, for some reason or other, did not bring them before Alexander, but said that the king was not at leisure to hear them, as he was engaged in more important business.  This he repeated on a second occasion, and as his behaviour made the two brothers suspect his loyalty, they communicated with another officer, and by his means obtained an audience.  They now told Alexander about the design of Limnus, and also said that Philotas had acted very luke-warmly in the matter, as they had twice told him that there was a plot against Alexander, and yet he had, on each occasion, disregarded their warning.

This greatly enraged Alexander:  and as when Limnus was arrested he defended himself desperately and was killed in the scuffle, he was yet more disturbed, as he feared he had now lost all clue to the plot.  He now openly showed his displeasure with Philotas, and encouraged all his enemies to say boldly that it was folly of the king to imagine that an obscure man like Limnus would have ventured to form a conspiracy against his life, but that Limnus was merely a tool in the hands of some more powerful person; and that if he wished to discover the real authors of the plot, he must seek for them among those who would have been most benefited by its success.  Finding that the king lent a ready ear to suggestions of this kind, they soon furnished him with an overwhelming mass of evidence of the treasonable designs of Philotas.  Philotas was at once arrested, and put to the torture in the presence of the chief officers of the Macedonian army, while Alexander himself sat behind a curtain to hear what he would say.  It is said that when Alexander heard Philotas piteously beg Hephaestion for mercy, he exclaimed aloud, “Are you such a coward as this, Philotas, and yet contrive such daring plots?” To be brief, Philotas was put to death, and immediately afterwards Alexander sent to Media and caused Parmenio to be assassinated, although he was a man who had performed the most important services for Philip, had, more than any other of the older Macedonians, encouraged Alexander to invade Asia, and had seen two of his three sons die in battle before he perished with the third.  This cruelty made many of the friends of Alexander fear him, and especially Antipater,[417] who now formed a secret league with the AEtolians, who also feared Alexander because when he heard of the destruction of the people of Oeneadae, he said that he himself, and not the sons of the people of Oeneadae, would be revenged upon the AEtolians.