The "Fred thread": the Argead Macedonian Army

[Rumo]

kai" is here used in its everyday function of a conjunction. The "free" English translation begins a new sentence here though there is no reason for doing so. It likely reads as "here I am, Cleitus!" and thereupon he was struck..." All the words from “all the fault” to “struck with a sarissa” were from Aristoboulos unless Arrian entirely messed up his Greek grammar.

Hmm, my fault for writing "sentence", I did not actually mean that. Indeed "kai" is a mere conjunction and the last words form no independent clause, however I still maintain that can be read as a conclusion of the entire digression, which does not necessarily belong to Aristobulos. Please note that in the last series of infinitives (genesthai, phanai, apothanein) introduced by "kai"s the last one uses a different verbal aspect, a fact which can also be interpreted as a shift from a eye-witness account to a summary of a past event.

In any case, even were it not Aristobulos' testimony there is no compelling need to assume it is some later writer and even less that Arrian would alter dory or longche for sarisa. Arrian dismisses much of the later works on Alexander and tells us that his method is to follow the sources (primarily the two) ostensibly weighing up the evidence before reporting. It is why he wrote the book - to counter the later and, in his view, misinformed works in circulation.

My cut and paste left out a little of the line. It is not Aristobulos refering to a somatophylax rather "some".

Arrian knows two versions of the story, so it seems at some point someone altered something

However there are two occurences of the word in our fragment of text. In the beginning (tôn sômatophulakôn) and in the part which we both agree it comes from Aristobulos (tou sômatophulakos). My observation is that this wording might not be accidental, and thus Aristobulos' account may be a detailed story as known by "some", not by the "others".

The words are ton phylakon and indicate a guard not of the somatophylakes or paides basilikoi.

Or a generic name coming from a later source less concerned about 'technical details'.