354 BC. Philip, king of Macedon, inspects siege engine sheds during his siege of Methone.

354 BC. Philip, king of Macedon, inspects siege engine sheds during his siege of Methone.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a whistling sound and a cry: Philip falls backwards, an arrow protruding from his eye!

At first, the soldiers around Philip think he has been killed, but it is not so. The arrow did not strike him head-on but at an angle - deflected, perhaps, by the king’s helmet.

Philip is rushed to the infirmary. There, Critobulos of Cos operates on him. He removes the arrowhead and parts of Philip’s destroyed eye. The rest is hidden forever when Critobulos stitches Philip’s eye socket shut.

This injury is Philip’s first on the battlefield. According to whichever writer you read, Critobulos managed to treat the would without causing permanent disfigurement to Philip’s face; or, having been left disfigured by his injury, Philip would explode in anger whenever it was mentioned.