The Cup Beneath the Pillow

Dioxippus dodged Coragus's thrown javelin and broke the Macedonian's lance with his club. The exchange took place at a drinking banquet hosted by Alexander, where the weapons were raised after the challenge had already divided the room. Coragus, a Macedonian companion or soldier described as having distinguished himself many times in battle, had called Dioxippus to single combat.

Dioxippus accepted. The Macedonians backed Coragus, and the Greeks backed Dioxippus. The contest was therefore set inside a gathering where support had already taken sides. The sources describe the banquet as a drinking scene, but they do not establish intoxication levels for every participant. Alexander's gathering supplied the setting; the men supplied the division.

After the contest, the accusation came through Alexander's household. Alexander and his Macedonian companions had a butler place a golden cup beneath Dioxippus's pillow. They then accused him of stealing it. The surviving accounts present the charge as a trick or conspiracy by hostile Macedonians, not as a proven theft. A cup placed in private became the instrument of a public accusation.

After leaving the banquet, Dioxippus wrote a letter to Alexander saying that a trick had been played on him. He then killed himself. The sources explicitly connect the letter and his death, but they do not describe an independent legal proceeding. The accusation had moved from the household into Dioxippus's final act before any such proceeding is recorded.

Alexander later read the letter and regretted Dioxippus's death.