<P> The royal pages were adolescent boys and young men conscripted from aristocratic households and serving the kings of Macedonia perhaps from the reign of Philip II onward, although more solid evidence dates to the reign of Alexander the Great . Royal pages played no direct role in high politics and were conscripted as a means to introduce them to political life . After a period of training and service, pages were expected to become members of the king's companions and personal retinue . During their training, pages were expected to guard the king as he slept, supply him with horses, aid him in mounting his horse, accompany him on royal hunts, and serve him during symposia (i.e. formal drinking parties). Although there is little evidence for royal pages in the Antigonid period, it is known that some of them fled with Perseus of Macedon to Samothrace following his defeat by the Romans in 168 BC . </P> <P> Royal bodyguards served as the closest members to the king at court and on the battlefield . They were split into two categories: the agema of the hypaspistai, a type of ancient special forces usually numbering in the hundreds, and a smaller group of men handpicked by the king either for their individual merits or to honor the noble families to which they belonged . Therefore, the bodyguards, limited in number and forming the king's inner circle, were not always responsible for protecting the king's life on and off the battlefield; their title and office was more a mark of distinction, perhaps used to quell rivalries between aristocratic houses . </P> <P> The companions, including the elite companion cavalry and pezhetairoi infantry, represented a substantially larger group than the king's bodyguards . The most trusted or highest ranking companions formed a council that served as an advisory body to the king . A small amount of evidence suggests the existence of an assembly of the army during times of war and a people's assembly during times of peace . </P> <P> Members of the council had the right to speak freely, and although there is no direct evidence that they voted on affairs of state, it is clear that the king was at least occasionally pressured to agree to their demands . The assembly was apparently given the right to judge cases of high treason and assign punishments for them, such as when Alexander the Great acted as prosecutor in the trial and conviction of three alleged conspirators in his father's assassination plot (while many others were acquitted). However, there is perhaps insufficient evidence to allow a conclusion that councils and assemblies were regularly upheld or constitutionally grounded, or that their decisions were always heeded by the king . At the death of Alexander the Great, the companions immediately formed a council to assume control of his empire, but it was soon destabilized by open rivalry and conflict between its members . The army also used mutiny as a tool to achieve political ends . </P>

Who was the king of macedonia who built an empire that stretched to india