The Refusal of Callisthenes to drink the Health of Alexander

Abstract

In his recent article on The Hellenistic Ruler-Cult and the Daemon W. W. Tarn regards the story of Callisthenes' refusal to drink the cup of unmixed wine at a banquet of Alexander's as apocryphal, having its sources, as he says, only in the later literature of gastronomy. His reason for doubting the authenticity of the story is that ‘Chares in both versions (i.e. of the Banquet at Bactra, where the proskynesis was performed by all but Callisthenes) is clear that Callisthenes did drink.’ Assuming for the moment that the story is true, he says of it: ‘The Greeks as a rule disliked unmixed wine; and Callisthenes was thus able to veil his refusal to drink “The King” by saying that if he drank Alexander's health (in unmixed wine) he would be ill.’ He argues that since Chares attests that Callisthenes did drink the King's health on the important occasion at Bactra, that Chares and probably Aristobulus, who are given as sources by Athenaeus, are both wrong in vouching for this remark, and the sole remaining authority Lynceus is only a third-century writer on gastronomy.