The general executed by Alexander for conspiracy in 330 BC was Philotas, commander of the elite Companion Cavalry and eldest son of the veteran general Parmenion.
Philotas became entangled in a plot discovered when Dimnus, a member of Alexander’s circle, allegedly planned to assassinate the king. Ancient accounts differ over how much Philotas knew and whether he was personally involved. He was accused of failing to report the conspiracy and was tried before the Macedonian army at the winter headquarters of Phrada, in modern Afghanistan.
Philotas was convicted after interrogation and torture, then executed along with other alleged conspirators. Alexander immediately treated his father, Parmenion, as a potential danger and arranged for him to be killed before news of Philotas’s execution reached him. The episode reshaped Alexander’s command structure: Philotas’s former cavalry command was divided between Hephaestion and Cleitus.
Philotas is sometimes confused with Parmenion because both men were destroyed in the same purge. However, Philotas was the general directly tried and executed for the alleged conspiracy.