Philotas was a Macedon

Macedon

Macedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom, centered in the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, bordered by Epirus to the west, Paeonia to the north, the region of Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south....

ian officer in the service of Alexander the Great, who commanded one taxis

Taxis

A taxis is an innate behavioral response by an organism to a directional stimulus or gradient of stimulus intensity. A taxis differs from a tropism in that the organism has motility and demonstrates guided movement towards or away from the stimulus source ...

 or division of the phalanx

Phalanx formation

The phalanx is a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar weapons...

 during the advance into Sogdiana

Sogdiana

Sogdiana or Sogdia was the ancient civilization of an Iranian people and a province of the Achaemenid Empire, eighteenth in the list on the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great . Sogdiana is "listed" as the second of the "good lands and countries" that Ahura Mazda created...

 and India

History of India

The history of India begins with evidence of human activity of Homo sapiens as long as 75,000 years ago, or with earlier hominids including Homo erectus from about 500,000 years ago. The Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent from...

. It seems probable that he is the same person mentioned by Curtius

Quintus Curtius Rufus

Quintus Curtius Rufus was a Roman historian, writing probably during the reign of the Emperor Claudius or Vespasian. His only surviving work, Historiae Alexandri Magni, is a biography of Alexander the Great in Latin in ten books, of which the first two are lost, and the remaining eight are...

, as one of those rewarded by the king at Babylon

Babylon

Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...

 (331 BC

331 BC

Year 331 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Potitus and Marcellus...

) for their distinguished services. There is little doubt also, that he is the same to whom the government of Cilicia

Cilicia

In antiquity, Cilicia was the south coastal region of Asia Minor, south of the central Anatolian plateau. It existed as a political entity from Hittite times into the Byzantine empire...

 was assigned in the distribution of the provinces after the death of Alexander, 323 BC

323 BC

Year 323 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Longus and Cerretanus...

. In 321 BC

321 BC

Year 321 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Calvinus and Caudinus...

, he was deprived of his government by Perdiccas

Perdiccas

Perdiccas was one of Alexander the Great's generals. After Alexander's death in 323 BC he became regent of all Alexander's empire.Arrian tells us he was son of Orontes, a descendant of the independent princes of the Macedonian province of Orestis...

 and replaced by Philoxenus

Philoxenus (general)

Philoxenus was a Macedonian officer appointed to superintend the collection of the tribute in the provinces north of the Taurus Mountains after Alexander the Great's return from Egypt...

, but it would seem that this was only in order to employ him elsewhere, as we find him still closely attached to the party of Perdiccas, and after the death of the regent united with Alcetas

Alcetas

Alcetas , the brother of Perdiccas and son of Orontes from Orestis, is first mentioned as one of Alexander the Great's generals in his Indian expedition...

, Attalus

Attalus of Macedonia

Attalus , son of Andromenes the Stymphaean, and one of Alexander's officers, was accused with his brothers, Amyntas and Simmias, of having been engaged in the conspiracy of Philotas, 330 BC, but was acquitted, together with his brothers...

, and their partisans, in the contest against Antigonus

Antigonus I Monophthalmus

Antigonus I Monophthalmus , son of Philip from Elimeia, was a Macedonian nobleman, general, and satrap under Alexander the Great. During his early life he served under Philip II, and he was a major figure in the Wars of the Diadochi after Alexander's death, declaring himself king in 306 BC and...

. He was taken prisoner, together with Attalus, Docimus

Docimus

Antigonos Dokimos, commonly shortened and Latinized as Docimus , was one of the officers in the Macedonian army.After the death of Alexander the Great he supported the party of Perdiccas....

, and Polemon

Polemon (general)

For other uses, see PolemonPolemon , son of Andromenes the Stymphaean, was a Macedonian officer in the service of Alexander the Great...

, in 320 BC

320 BC

Year 320 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Cursor and Philo...

, and shared with them their imprisonment, as well as the daring enterprise by which they for a time recovered their liberty, when they took possession of their prison, overpowering their guards. He again fell into the power of Antigonus, in 316 BC

316 BC

Year 316 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Rutilus and Laenas...

.