46 MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 



unbridled tongue might shorten his days/* The 

 prophecy was literally fulfilled. Callisthenes, for- 

 getting the advice of Arrian, that the attendant of a 

 prince ought never to be wanting in due deference 

 to his will, rudely and outrageously opposed Alex- 

 ander's resolution of exacting the same marks of 

 homage and prostration from the Greeks which were 

 paid to him by the Persians. It is also said he had 

 joined a conspiracy against the life of his sovereign ; 

 having taken great offence that Hermolaus, a noble 

 youth who had studied philosophy under him, should 

 have been severely punished with stripes, for having 

 dared at a hunting-match to throw the first dart at 

 a wild boar in the royal presence. The conspira- 

 tors, it is added, were all stoned to death ; the plot 

 being discovered by one of their own number. 



The punishment and fate of Callisthenes, whether 

 his treachery was real or imaginary, is related more 

 variously than almost any historical event of such pub- 

 lic notoriety ; some asserting that he perished in a 

 dungeon, after being mutilated of his ears, nose, and 

 limbs ; and others that he was carried about in an 

 iron cage, a miserable spectacle, covered with filth 

 and vermin, and at last devoured by a hungry lion* 

 Whatever might have been the manner of his death, 

 most writers concur in opinion, that he met with 

 the just reward of his rashness and arrogance. This 

 transaction is alleged to have much estranged the 

 affections of Alexander from his favourite preceptor 

 The assertion, however, is not accompanied with 



