Eumenes

When Alexander was dead[*](June 13, 323 B.C.) and a quarrel had arisen between the Macedonian men-at-arms and his principal officers, or companions,[*](The quarrel was over the succession to Alexander’s throne. The officers, supported by the cavalry, proposed that the crown be reserved for the child of Roxana by Alexander, if it should be a son, and that Perdiccas should be regent in the meantime; the infantry demanded that Arrhidaeus, the bastard brother of Alexander, should at once be proclaimed king. In the end a compromise was effected, and Perdiccas became chief in command under Arrhidaeus, with whom Alexander’s son, when born, was to be joint king. Cf. the Alexander, lxxvii. 5.) Eumenes sided with the latter in his opinions, but in what he said he was a kind of common friend to both and held himself aloof from the quarrel, on the ground that it was no business of his, since he was a stranger, to meddle in disputes of Macedonians. Moreover, when the rest of the principal officers had withdrawn from Babylon, he remained behind in the city and mollified many of the men-at-arms and made them more disposed towards a settlement of the quarrel.

And when the officers, having conferred with one another, brought their first tumultuous proceedings to an end, and were distributing satrapies and commands, Eumenes received Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, and the southern coast of the Euxine sea as far as Trapezus. It is true that at the time this territory was not yet subject to the Macedonians, for Ariarathes held royal sway over it; but Leonnatus and Antigonus, with a great army; were to conduct Eumenes thither and declare him satrap of the country.

Now, Antigonus paid no heed to the edicts of Perdiccas, being already lifted up in his ambitions and scorning all his associates; but Leonnatus came down from the interior into Phrygia in order to undertake the expedition in behalf of Eumenes. Here, however, Hecataeus the tyrant of Cardia joined him and besought him to go rather to the assistance of Antipater and the Macedonians besieged in Lamia.[*](On the death of Alexander the Greeks had revolted from Macedonia, and had driven Antipater and his army into Lamia, a city of southern Thessaly.) Leonnatus therefore determined to cross over to Greece, invited Eumenes to go with him, and tried to reconcile him with Hecataeus.

For they had a hereditary distrust of one another arising from political differences; and frequently Eumenes had been known to denounce Hecataeus when a tyrant and to exhort Alexander to restore its freedom to Cardia. Therefore at this time also Eumenes declined to go on the expedition against the Greeks, saying he was afraid that Antipater, who had long hated him, would kill him to please Hecataeus. Then Leonnatus took him into his confidence and revealed to him all his purposes.

Assistance to Antipater, namely, was what he alleged as a pretext for his expedition, but he really meant, as soon as he had crossed into Europe, to lay claim to Macedonia; and he showed certain letters from Cleopatra[*](The sister of Alexander, widow, since 326 B.C., of the king of Epeirus. No less than six of Alexander’s generals sought her hand in marriage.) in which she invited him to come to Pella and promised to marry him. But Eumenes, either because he was afraid of Antipater, or because he despaired of Leonnatus as a capricious man full of uncertain and rash impulses, took his own equipment and decamped by night.[*](According to Nepos (Eumenes, ii. 4), Leonnatus, failing to persuade Eumenes, tried to kill him.) And he had three hundred horsemen, two hundred armed camp-followers, and in gold what would amount to five thousand talents of money.

With this equipment he fled to Perdiccas, and by telling him of the designs of Leonnatus at once enjoyed great influence with him and was made a member of his council. Moreover, a little while after he was conducted into Cappadocia with an army which Perdiccas commanded in person. There Ariarathes was taken prisoner, the country was brought into subjection, and Eumenes was proclaimed satrap.

He entrusted the cities of the country to his own friends, appointed commanders of garrisons; left behind him such judges and administrators as he wished, Perdiccas not at all interfering in these matters, and then marched away with Perdiccas, desiring to pay court to that general, and not wishing to be separated from the kings.[*](Arrihidaeus and the infant son of Alexander, both under the guardianship of Perdiccas. Eumenes thus ranged himself with the legitimists.)