ABSTRACT
The emergence of Alexander's 'New Men' was both the result and the cause of the erosion of the entrenched aristocracy's domination of the highest military commands, which represented nothing less than the chief magistracies of a Makedonian state on the move. The state had quickly formed around Alexander, whose kingship came to be regarded as personal rather than circumscribed by geography. The success of Alexander’s conquests likewise relegated the homeland to little more than a side-show on the western fringe of the burgeoning empire, a source of reinforcements and the guarantor of European stability. It was perhaps a logical development of their training as syntrophoi of the Crown Prince that the 'New Men' also identified the state with the person of the King.1 Friendship and trust played no small part in advancing their careers, and — as hetairoi, taxiarchs, hipparchs, and Somatophylakes — they formed and dominated the King's Consilium. Publicly, and in private, they influenced his policy, advanced and jeopardised the careers of others. Inevitably, they came into conflict with one another.
