Philo'tas
5. A Macedonian officer in the service of Alexander the Great, who commanded one taxis or division of the phalanx during the advance into Sogdiana and India. (
Arr. Anab. 3.29,
4.24.)
It seems probable that he is the same person mentined by Curtius (
5.2.5), as. one of those rewarded by the king at Babylon (B. C. 331) for their distinguished services.
There is little doubt also, that he is the same to whom the government of Cilicia was assigned in the distribution of the provinces after the death of
Alexander, B. C. 323 (Arrian apud
Phot. p. 69a; D>exippus,
ibid. p. 64a;
Curt. 10.10.2;
Just. 13.4;
Diod. 18.3; who, however, in a subsequent passage (
ib. 12), appears to speak of him as holding the lesser Phrygia, which was in fact given to Leonnatus. See Droysen,
Hellenism. vol. i. p. 68, note). In B. C. 321, he was deprived of his government by Perdieccas and replaced by Philoxenus, 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 reent united with Alcetas, Attains, and their partizans, in the contest against Antigonus.
He was taken prisoner, together with Attalus, Docimus, and Polemon, in B. C. 320, and shared with them their imprisonment, as well as the daring enterprise by which they for a time recovered their liberty [ATTALUS, No. 2].
He again fell into the power of Antigonus, in B. C. 316. (
Diod. 18.45,
19.16;
Just. 13.6 ; Droysen,
l.c. pp. 115, 268.)
