Harpalus

Harpalus (Greek: Ἅρπαλος), son of Machatas, was a Macedonian aristocrat and childhood friend of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. Harpalus was repeatedly entrusted with official duties by Alexander and absconded with large sums of money on three occasions. Alexander appointed him treasurer of his empire in Babylon in 330 BC. In 324 BC he fled from Babylon to Athens with a large sum of money. The resulting political controversy in Athens ("the Harpalus Affair") was a contributing factor in the Lamian War.

Life Lame in one leg and therefore exempt from military service, Harpalus did not follow Alexander into the Persian Empire, but was nevertheless given a post in Asia Minor. Alexander is said to have contacted him to request some reading material for his leisure time. Harpalus sent the king plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, the History of Philistus and odes by Philoxenus and Telestes.

Harpalus Affair In 324 BC, Harpalus sought refuge in Athens. He was imprisoned by the Athenians at the instigation of Demosthenes and Phocion, despite the opposition of Hypereides, who wanted an immediate—and certain to fail —uprising against Alexander. The Ecclesia, at the suggestion of Demosthenes, he escaped and travelled around Calauria, Aegina and Troezen. The Athenians soon overturned the sentence and sent a ship to Aegina to bring Demosthenes back to the port of Piraeus.

Demosthenes did not return to Athens until nine months later, after Alexander's death. The geographer also tells the following story: "The steward of his money fled to Rhodes, and was arrested by a Macedonian, Philoxenus, who also had demanded Harpalus from the Athenians. Having this slave in his power, he proceeded to examine him, until he learned everything about such as had allowed themselves to accept a bribe from Harpalus. On obtaining this information he sent a dispatch to Athens, in which he gave a list of such as had taken a bribe from Harpalus, both their names and the sums each had received. Demosthenes, however, he never mentioned at all, although Alexander held him in bitter hatred, and he himself had a private quarrel with him." .

Harpalus appears in the historical novel Fire From Heaven by Mary Renault. In it, he is entrusted by his teacher Aristotle with the task of observing and recording the lives of wild animals. Renault speculates that this would explain some of the fantastic accounts in Aristotle's zoological writings as Harpalian hoaxes.