A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Ἱερώνυμος), of Cardia, an historian who is frequently cited as one of the chief authorities for the history of the times immediately following the death of Alexander. He had himself taken an active part in the events of that period. Whether he had accompanied his fellow-citizen Eumenes during the campaigns of Alexander we have no distinct testimony, but after the death of that prince, we find him not only attached to the service of his countryman, but already enjoying a high place in his confidence. It seems probable also from the terms in which he is alluded to as describing the magnificent bier or funeral car of Alexander, that his admiration was that of an eye-witness, and that he was present at Babylon at the time of its construction. (Athen. 5.206; comp. Diod. 18.26.) The first express mention of him occurs in B. C. 320, when he was sent by Eumenes, at that time shut up in the castle of Nora, at the head of the deputation which he despatched to Antipater. But before he could return to Eumenes, the death of the regent produced a complete change in the relative position of parties, and Antigonus, now desirous to conciliate Eumenes, charged Hieronymus to be the bearer of friendly offers and protestations to his friend and countryman. (Diod. 18.42, 50 ; Plut. Eum. 12.) But though Hieronymus was so far gained over by Antigonus as to undertake this embassy, yet in the struggle that ensued he adhered steadily to the cause of Eumenes, and accompanied

that leader until his final captivity. In the last battle in Gabiene (B. C. 316) Hieronymus himself was wounded, and fell a prisoner into the hands of Antigonus, who treated him with the utmost kindness, and to whose service he henceforth attached himself. (Diod. 19.44.) In B. C. 312, we find him entrusted by that monarch with the charge of collecting bitumen from the Dead Sea, a project which was frustrated by the hostility of the neighbouring Arabs. (Id. 19.100.) The statement of Josephus (c. Apion. 1.23) that he was at one time appointed by Antigonus to the government of Syria, is in all probability erroneous. After the death of Antigonus, Hieronymus continued to follow the fortunes of his son Demetrius, and he is again mentioned in B. C. 292 as being appointed by the latter governor or harmost of Boeotia, after his first conquest of Thebes. (Plut. Demetr. 39.) Whether he was reinstated in this office when Thebes, after shaking off the yoke for a while, fell again under the power of Demetrius, we are not told, nor have we any information concerning the remaining events of his long life; but it may be inferred, from the hostility towards Lysimachus and Pyrrhus evinced by his writings at a period long subsequent, that he continued unshaken in his attachment to Demetrius and to his son, Antigonus Gonatas, after him. It appears that he survived Pyrrhns, whose death, in B. C. 272, was mentioned in his history (Paus. 1.13.9), and died at the advanced age of 104, having had the unusual advantage of retaining his strength and faculties unimpaired to the last. (Lucian. Macrob. 22.)

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