1 THE TORTURE OF PHILOTAS
Alexander’s aides closed ranks against Philotas, persuading the king to permit his torture:
[H]e was seized, and while his eyes were being bound, while his clothing was taken off, he called upon his country’s gods and on the law of nations, but vainly to deaf ears . . . now fire, and now the lash were used on him, no longer for the purpose of seeking the truth, but as a punishment . . . but when his body, swollen with wounds, could no longer endure the blows of the scourges . . . he promised that if they would moderate his tortures, he would tell them what they wished to know . . . [Later, he was] stoned to death, on a given signal,…
