ander, 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 tortures. Alexander himself, in the letters which
he wrote to Kraterus, Attalus, and Alketas immediately after the
discovery of the plot, states that the royal pages, when put to the
torture, declared that they alone had conspired, and that they had no
accomplices. "The pages," Alexander goes on to say, "were stoned to
death by