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Spithridates

Background

Spithridates (in Greek Σπιθριδάτης; lived 4th century BC) was a satrap of Lydia and Ionia under the high king Darius III Codomannus and was one of the Persian commanders at the Battle of the Granicus, in 334 BC, in which engagement, while he was aiming a blow from behind at Alexander the Great, his arm was cut off by Cleitus, son of Dropides. Diodorus calls him Spithrobates, and appears to confound him with Mithridates, the son-in-law of Darius, whom Alexander slew in the battle with his own hand; while what Arrian records of Spithridates is related by Diodorus of his brother Rhoesaces.

References

Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, "Spithridates (2)", Boston, (1867)

Arrian, Anabasis Alexandri, i. 12, 15, 16

Diodorus, Bibliotheca, xvii. 19, 20; Plutarch, Parallel Lives, "Alexander", 16, Moralia, "On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander", i. 2