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[3] He posted horses at the gates of the city and came to the entrance of the theatre carrying a Celtic dagger under his cloak. When Philip directed his attending friends to precede him into the theatre, while the guards kept their distance, he saw that the king was left alone, rushed at him, pierced him through his ribs, and stretched him out dead1; then ran for the gates and the horses which he had prepared for his flight.

1 The date of Philip's death is discussed by K. J. Beloch, Griechische Geschichte, 3.2 (1923), 59. The news had not reached Athens by the end of the civil year 337/6 B.C.; IG 2（2）. 1.240 in the tenth prytany does not know of it. On the other hand, the time must be early in the summer, for Philip was busy with preparations for an invasion of Asia Minor. A possible clue to the date is furnished by the statement of Plut. Alexander 16.2, concerning the battle of the Granicus: this would have taken place in the month Daesius, but as that was unlucky, Alexander ordered the intercalation of a second Artemisius. Since there is some evidence that the intercalary month was the last month of the regnal year, this establishes a certain presumption that Philip died and Alexander came to the throne in Daesius; and this squares well enough with the evidence of the Attic inscription. Since Alexander died in Daesius, the Oxyrhynchus chronologist was correct in crediting him with thirteen years of reign. See below on Book 17.117.5 note.

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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