Bagoas (courtier)

[7] Historian William Woodthorpe Tarn rejected the stories of Bagoas as fabricated in ancient times to defame Alexander, mainly referring to the Rufus's fairly fictionalized biography of Alexander that criticized the Macedonian's "degeneration" in embracing foreign Persian customs.

[9] Author Mary Renault also addressed Rufus's biased animosity towards Alexander, stating: "[Rufus's account of Alexander] is bent that way by recourse to Athenian anti-Macedonian agitprop, written by men who never set eyes on him, and bearing about as much relation to objective truth as one would expect to find in a History of the Jewish People commissioned by Adolf Hitler.

[4][11] … one day after [Alexander] had drunk pretty hard, it is said, he went to see a prize of dancing contended for, in which his favourite Bagoas, having gained the victory, crossed the theatre in his dancing habit, and sat down close by him, which so pleased the Macedonians, that they made loud acclamations for him to kiss Bagoas, and never stopped clapping their hands and shouting till Alexander put his arms round him and kissed him.The fullest surviving account of Bagoas is given in the Latin Histories of Alexander the Great by Rufus, a first century Roman historian.

Bagoas thus manoeuvres to have Orxines accused of plundering the tomb of Cyrus the Great, and the satrap is executed for this crime.

In his final words, Orxines decries the state of affairs: "I had heard that women were once rulers in Asia but this really is something new – a eunuch a king!".