Craterus
Krateros
Craterus son of Alexander of Orestis, one of Philip II's Macedonian barons and from the outset of the Asian campaign one of Alexander's two most trusted senior officers alongside Parmenion (Plut. *Alex.* 47.9 preserves the distinction between Hephaestion loved as a friend and Craterus loved as a king — Hephaestion was *philalexandros*, Craterus was *philobasileus*). He commanded the left wing at Gaugamela and directed the infantry phalanx in the pitched battles of the middle and later campaign (Arr. *Anab.* 3.11.10). At the Hyphasis he is one of the senior officers who heard Coenus's speech and conveyed the army's refusal to cross. In 324 BC Alexander appointed him to lead the 10,000 discharged Macedonian veterans home through the Bolan passes and Kandahar to Cilicia, carrying a sealed letter (to be read only after Alexander's death) appointing him regent of Macedon in succession to Antipater — a succession that Antipater blocked (Diod. 18.4 + Arr. *Succ.* F1.3). After Alexander's death in 323 Craterus was allotted Cilicia in the first Partition of Babylon; campaigning from Cilicia against Eumenes of Cardia in 320, he was unhorsed in a cavalry skirmish and died under his own horse's hooves, identified by Eumenes too late for quarter to be offered (Plut. *Eum.* 7; Diod. 18.30–31).