Cleitus the Black saved Alexander's life
E367306
Cleitus the Black saving Alexander's life refers to the famous incident during the Battle of the Granicus in 334 BC when the Macedonian officer intervened in combat to prevent King Alexander the Great from being killed by a Persian attack.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Cleitus the Black saved Alexander's life canonical | 1 |
| Cleitus the Black severed the Persian's arm with his weapon | 1 |
| Cleitus the Black struck the Persian attacker | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3543191 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Cleitus the Black saved Alexander's life Context triple: [Battle of the Granicus, notableEvent, Cleitus the Black saved Alexander's life]
-
A.
Alexander the Fierce
Alexander the Fierce is the epithet of Alexander I of Scotland, a 12th-century king noted for his vigorous rule and military assertiveness.
-
B.
Kreios
Kreios is an alternative spelling of Crius, one of the twelve primordial Titans in Greek mythology associated with the constellations and the measure of the year.
-
C.
Orestes, prefect of Alexandria
Orestes, prefect of Alexandria, was a Roman imperial official in early 5th-century Alexandria known for his political and religious conflict with Bishop Cyril of Alexandria.
-
D.
Neocles
Neocles was an Athenian of the late 6th century BC, best known as the father of the prominent statesman and general Themistocles.
-
E.
Pyrrhus of Epirus
Pyrrhus of Epirus was a Hellenistic Greek king and general, famed for his costly victories against Rome that gave rise to the term “Pyrrhic victory.”
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Cleitus the Black saved Alexander's life Target entity description: Cleitus the Black saving Alexander's life refers to the famous incident during the Battle of the Granicus in 334 BC when the Macedonian officer intervened in combat to prevent King Alexander the Great from being killed by a Persian attack.
-
A.
Alexander the Fierce
Alexander the Fierce is the epithet of Alexander I of Scotland, a 12th-century king noted for his vigorous rule and military assertiveness.
-
B.
Kreios
Kreios is an alternative spelling of Crius, one of the twelve primordial Titans in Greek mythology associated with the constellations and the measure of the year.
-
C.
Orestes, prefect of Alexandria
Orestes, prefect of Alexandria, was a Roman imperial official in early 5th-century Alexandria known for his political and religious conflict with Bishop Cyril of Alexandria.
-
D.
Neocles
Neocles was an Athenian of the late 6th century BC, best known as the father of the prominent statesman and general Themistocles.
-
E.
Pyrrhus of Epirus
Pyrrhus of Epirus was a Hellenistic Greek king and general, famed for his costly victories against Rome that gave rise to the term “Pyrrhic victory.”
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (43)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
historicalEvent
ⓘ
militaryIncident ⓘ |
| actionTaken |
Cleitus the Black saved Alexander's life
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Cleitus the Black severed the Persian's arm with his weapon
Cleitus the Black saved Alexander's life self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
Cleitus the Black struck the Persian attacker
|
| AlexanderRole |
commander of the Macedonian army
ⓘ
king of Macedon ⓘ |
| battlePhase | cavalry engagement near the beginning of the Battle of the Granicus ⓘ |
| CleitusRole |
Macedonian officer
ⓘ
companion cavalry commander ⓘ |
| commemoratedIn | classical historiography of Alexander the Great ⓘ |
| commonlyInterpretedAs |
example of personal loyalty among Alexander's companions
ⓘ
illustration of the dangers Alexander faced in front-line combat ⓘ |
| description | Cleitus the Black intervened in combat at the Battle of the Granicus to prevent Alexander the Great from being killed by a Persian attack ⓘ |
| hasAftermath |
Alexander the Great was indebted to Cleitus the Black
ⓘ
Cleitus the Black gained great prestige for bravery ⓘ |
| hasContext |
Invasion of the Achaemenid Empire
ⓘ
surface form:
Alexander the Great's invasion of the Achaemenid Empire
early phase of the Wars of Alexander the Great ⓘ |
| hasDate | 334 BC ⓘ |
| hasLocation |
Asia Minor
ⓘ
Battle of Granicus ⓘ
surface form:
Battle of the Granicus
Granicus River ⓘ |
| hasParticipant |
Alexander the Great
ⓘ
Cleitus the Black ⓘ Persian cavalryman ⓘ |
| hasSource |
Arrian’s Anabasis of Alexander
ⓘ
surface form:
Arrian's Anabasis of Alexander
Diodorus Siculus ⓘ
surface form:
Diodorus Siculus' Bibliotheca historica
Life of Alexander ⓘ
surface form:
Plutarch's Life of Alexander
|
| historicalPeriod | Hellenistic era beginnings ⓘ |
| immediateCause | Persian cavalryman struck Alexander and raised weapon for a killing blow ⓘ |
| involvesPolity |
Achaemenid Empire
ⓘ
surface form:
Achaemenid Persian Empire
Macedonian army ⓘ |
| languageOfPrimarySources | Ancient Greek ⓘ |
| partOf |
Alexander’s Asian campaign
ⓘ
surface form:
Alexander the Great's Asian campaign
|
| relatedEvent | Alexander the Great killed Cleitus the Black in a drunken quarrel at Maracanda ⓘ |
| relatedTheme |
fragility of royal favor
ⓘ
ingratitude of rulers ⓘ |
| result |
Alexander the Great avoided death in battle
ⓘ
Alexander the Great continued to command at the Battle of the Granicus ⓘ Macedonian forces maintained leadership continuity ⓘ |
| significance | often cited as a turning point that could have ended Alexander's career prematurely ⓘ |
| threatType |
attempted decapitation or killing blow against Alexander
ⓘ
close-quarters combat ⓘ |
| weaponUsedByCleitus | sword ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Cleitus the Black saved Alexander's life Description of subject: Cleitus the Black saving Alexander's life refers to the famous incident during the Battle of the Granicus in 334 BC when the Macedonian officer intervened in combat to prevent King Alexander the Great from being killed by a Persian attack.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Battle of the Granicus
Cleitus the Black saved Alexander's life
→
actionTaken
→
Cleitus the Black saved Alexander's life
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
Cleitus the Black struck the Persian attacker
Cleitus the Black saved Alexander's life
→
actionTaken
→
Cleitus the Black saved Alexander's life
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
Cleitus the Black severed the Persian's arm with his weapon