Who was the leader of the 'Pages' conspiracy against Alexander?

Hermolaus was the leader of the Pages conspiracy against Alexander the Great. He was a young Macedonian royal page serving at Alexander’s court in Bactria in 327 BC.

The conspiracy began after Hermolaus killed a wild boar during a royal hunt before Alexander could strike it. Alexander regarded this as a breach of court discipline and ordered Hermolaus flogged in front of the other pages, while also taking away his horse. Humiliated and resentful, Hermolaus recruited his close companion Sostratus and several other pages.

The group planned to assassinate Alexander while he slept, taking advantage of the pages’ rotating duty guarding the king’s bedroom. Their opportunity never came: Alexander stayed out drinking on the intended night, and another page later revealed the plot.

Hermolaus and the other conspirators were arrested, interrogated, and condemned. Accounts differ over the precise details, but the pages were generally said to have been stoned to death by the Macedonians. Callisthenes, Alexander’s former court historian and Hermolaus’s tutor, was later implicated, though his actual role remains disputed.