Parmenion

Parmenion was a senior Macedonian general who served Philip II and Alexander the Great. He commanded major sections of the army at battles including Granicus, Issus and Gaugamela, but was executed after his son Philotas was accused of conspiracy.

Parmenion had already become one of Philip II’s most trusted commanders before Alexander inherited the Macedonian throne. He led the left wing at several of Alexander’s major battles and remained a senior voice in the high command as the army advanced into Asia. In 330 BC his son Philotas was executed for alleged involvement in a conspiracy, and Alexander ordered Parmenion killed at Ecbatana before he could react.

In Quintus Curtius Rufus’ The History of Alexander, the executions of Philotas and Parmenion, the killing of Cleitus, the conspiracy involving Callisthenes, Alexander’s marriage to Roxana and the death of Hephaestion reveal a command fractured by fear and rivalry. In David Gemmel’s Dark Prince, Parmenion has helped Philip build a powerful kingdom, but the future now turns on Alexander, a gifted child surrounded by ambition, prophecy and fear. Further fictional perspectives on Parmenion can be found in David Gemmel’s Lion of Macedon, Valerio Massimo Manfredi’s Child of a Dream, and Valerio Massimo Manfredi’s The Sands of Ammon. For broader historical treatment of Parmenion, see Diodorus Siculus’ The Library, Books 16-20.