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Somatophylakes (Greek:Σωματοφύλακες; singular:somatophylax, σωματοφύλαξ) were the bodyguards of high-ranking people in ancient Greece.
The most famous body ofsomatophylakes were those ofPhilip II of Macedon andAlexander the Great. They consisted of seven men, drawn from theMacedonian nobility, who also acted as high-ranking military officers, holding command positions such asgeneral orchiliarch.Alexander the Great appointedPeucestas as eighthsomatophylax after thesiege of Malli.
(Note that this list is speculative in several cases and would be disputed by scholars. For example, Hephaestion was probably not named as early as given below. The onlycomplete list of Alexander's bodyguard in the original sources is found in Arrian (6.28.4), upon the extraordinary appointment of Peucestas in Carmania.)
The termsomatophylakes is also used to refer to a member of the Royal Hypaspists, theagema, who acted as the King's bodyguard in battle. The Royal Pages would expect to begin their military service in this unit: thus Pausanias,Philip II's assassin was a member of this corps, not one of the Seven Bodyguards.
W Heckel[2] believes that the Ptolemy* given above for 336 BC was not one of the Seven but commander of this unit. He was killed at Halicarnassus in 334 BC and succeeded by Admetus. The latter was killed at Tyre in 332 BC and appears to have been succeeded byHephaestion.