“In times of trouble, bad men rise to fame.”

This speech caused the Macedonians to hate him most bitterly, and provoked Alexander to say that Kallisthenes had made a display, not of his own abilities, but of his dislike to the Macedonians.

LIV.  This is the account which Stroebus, Kallisthenes’s reader, is said by Hermippus to have given to Aristotle about the quarrel between Kallisthenes and Alexander; and he added that Kallisthenes was well aware that he was out of favour with the king, and twice or thrice when setting out to wait on him would repeat the line from the Iliad,

     “Patroklus, too, hath died, a better man than thou.”

On hearing this Aristotle acutely remarked, that Kallisthenes had great ability and power of speech, but no common sense.  He, like a true philosopher, refused to kneel and do homage to Alexander, and alone had the spirit to express in public what all the oldest and best Macedonians privately felt.  By his refusal he relieved the Greeks and Alexander from a great disgrace, but ruined himself, because he seemed to use force rather than persuasion to attain his object.  We are told by Charon of Mitylene that once when at table, Alexander, after drinking, passed the cup to one of his friends; and that he after receiving it, rose, stood by the hearth, and after drinking knelt before Alexander:  after which he kissed him and resumed his seat.  All the guests did this in turn until the cup came to Kallisthenes.  The king, who was conversing to Hephaestion, did not take any notice of what he did, and after drinking he also came forward to kiss him, when Demetrius, who was surnamed Pheidon, said, “My king, do not kiss him, for he alone has not done homage to you.”  Upon this Alexander avoided kissing Kallisthenes, who said in a loud voice, “Then I will go away with the loss of a kiss.”

LV.  The breach thus formed was widened by Hephaestion, who declared that Kallisthenes had agreed with him to kneel before Alexander, and then had broken his compact; and this story was believed by Alexander.  After this came Lysimachus and Hagnon, and many others, who accused Kallisthenes of giving himself great airs, as though he were a queller of despots, and said that he had a large following among the younger men, who looked up to him as being the only free man among so many myriads of people.  These accusations were more easily believed to be true because at this time the plot of Hermolaus was discovered; and it was said that when Hermolaus enquired of Kallisthenes how one might become the most famous man in the world, he answered, “By killing the most famous man in the world.”  He was even said to have encouraged Hermolaus to make the attempt, bidding him have no fear of Alexander’s golden throne, and reminding him that he would have to deal with a man who was both wounded and in ill-health.  Yet none of those concerned in Hermolaus’s conspiracy mentioned the name of Kallisthenes, even under the most exquisite