Cleitus the Black

Cleitus the Black (Greek: Κλεῖτος ὁ μέλας; c. 375 BC – 328 BC) was an officer of the Macedonian army led by Alexander the Great. He saved Alexander's life at the Battle of the Granicus and was killed by him in a drunken quarrel several years later. Cleitus was son of Dropides and brother of Alexander's nurse, Lanike.

At the Battle of the Granicus in 334 BC, when Alexander was personally under attack by Rhoesaces and Spithridates, Cleitus severed Spithridates's hammer arm before the Persian satrap could bring it down on Alexander and saved his life.

In 328 BC Artabazus resigned his satrapy of Bactria, and Alexander gave it to Cleitus. On the eve of the day on which he was to set out to take possessions of his government, Alexander organized a banquet in the satrapial palace at Maracanda (what is now the town of Samarkand). At this banquet an angry dispute arose, the particulars of which are disputed by various authors.

Most of the members were rather drunk, and Alexander announced a reorganization of commands. Specifically, Cleitus was given orders to take 16,000 of the defeated Greek mercenaries who formerly fought for the Persian King north to fight the steppe nomads in Central Asia.

Cleitus knew that he would no longer be near the king and would be a forgotten man. Furious at the thought of commanding what he saw as second-rate soldiers, fighting nomads in the middle of nowhere, he spoke his mind. To make matters worse, when Alexander arrogantly boasted that his accomplishments were far greater than that of his father, Phillip II, Cleitus responded by saying that Alexander was not the legitimate king of the Macedonians, and that all of his achievements were due to his father. Alexander called for his guards, but they did not want to intervene in a quarrel between friends.

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