guarding the king whilst he slept, and accompanying the king in his hunts and battles. 11 It is
reasoned that the Pages joined Hermolaus out of loyalty because this education system
meant they were eve rything to each other, friends, confidants and often each other’s lovers
– as seen with Hermolaus and Sostratus. 12 Realistically, this bond amongst Macedonian
teenagers would have attributed to the events of the Page’s Conspiracy.
However, scholars have failed to note that because of this training system, the Pages
could not have been on Alexander’s campaign from the start. Hammond specifies that it was
only after 331 B.C. that Pages were allowed to join Alexander’s campaign. 13 This is an
incredibly important fact to consider because any gradual inclusion of Persian culture in
Alexander’s army would have been extremely apparent and barbaric to these young
Macedonians. Overall, the academic reflection on the involvement of the Royal Youths is
quite perceptive; but their arguments could have transformed into a comment on the
evidently growing divide between traditionalist Macedonians, who were completely foreign
to Persian customs, and those who were present for the entire progression of the campaign.
Despite this lost opportunity to comment on the court instability, the most
problematic issue is that there appears to be a recurring attempt to broaden the significance
of the Page’s Conspiracy by connecting it to other tribulations in Alexander’s court. A main
scholar for the Page’s Conspiracy, Elizabeth Carney, prefaces the problem of referring to the
proskynesis episode and the Page’s Conspiracy as a single entity because it restricts
analysis. 14 However, in later works she too begins her description of the Con spiracy as ‘the
11 Curtius, History of Alexander 5.1.42 & 8.6.2-6; Carney, ‘Conspiracy’ , p. 227; Tony Spawforth, ‘The court of Alexander the Great between Europe and Asia’ in The Court and Court Society in Ancient Monarchies , Ed. A. J. S. Spawforth (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2007), pp. 82-120 (pp. 84-85) 12 Reames. pp. 88-94; Tony Spawforth, p. 85 13 Hammond, pp. 269 14 Carney, ‘The Conspiracy of Hermolaus’, The Classical Journal, 76 (1981), pp. 223-231 (pp. 223-229)
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