Alexander of Lyncestis

Alexander of Lyncestis was a Macedonian nobleman from the ruling family of Lyncestis and a contemporary of Alexander the Great. Two of his brothers were executed after the assassination of Philip II in 336 BC, but Alexander was initially spared and received military commands.

He was later arrested after correspondence linked him to Persian attempts to assassinate the king, remained imprisoned for several years and was executed in 330 BC after the conspiracy of Philotas. Alexander of Lyncestis was born in Lynkestis.

In Harry Sidebottom’s The Shadow King, Alexander of Lyncestis survives the murder of Philip II and the execution of his brothers because the new king, Alexander the Great, spares him. Bound to the conqueror by friendship, family rivalry and suspicion, he joins the Macedonian invasion of Persia while others continue to regard him as a possible claimant to the throne. Across six years of campaigning, Alexander of Lyncestis is caught between loyalty to the king and the grievances of his own house. Persian approaches and accusations of conspiracy turn a military companion into a guarded prisoner whose fate depends on the increasingly absolute power of his namesake. Additional non-fiction treatment of Alexander of Lyncestis comes from Quintus Curtius Rufus’ The History of Alexander and Diodorus Siculus’ The Library, Books 16-20.