Eumenes

But meanwhile many of the Macedonians came running together in their eagerness to see what sort of a man Eumenes was; for no one else had been so much talked about in the army since the death of Craterus. Then Antigonus, afraid that Eumenes might suffer some violence, first loudly forbade the soldiers to approach, and pelted with stones those who were hurrying up, but finally threw his arms about Eumenes and, keeping off the throng with his bodyguards, with much ado removed him to a place of safety.

After this, Antigonus built a wall round Nora, left troops to guard it, and retired; Eumenes, however, although closely besieged in a stronghold which had grain, water in abundance, and salt, but no other edible, not even a relish to go with the grain, nevertheless, with what he had, managed to render the life of his associates cheerful, inviting them all by turns to his own table, and seasoning the meal thus shared with conversation which had charm and friendliness.

For he had a pleasant face, not like that of a war-worn veteran, but delicate and youthful, and all his body had, as it were, artistic proportions, with limbs of astonishing symmetry; and though he was not a powerful speaker, still he was insinuating and persuasive, as one may gather from his letters.

But most of all detrimental to his forces thus besieged was their narrow quarters, since their movements were confined to small houses and a place only two furlongs in circumference, so that neither men nor horses could get exercise before eating or being fed. Therefore, wishing to remove the weakness and languor with which their inactivity afflicted them, and, more than that, to have them somehow or other in training for flight, if opportunity should offer,

he assigned the men a house, the largest in the place, fourteen cubits long, as a place to walk, ordering them little by little to increase their pace. And as for the horses, he had them all girt round the neck with great straps fastened to the roof, and raised them partly up into the air by means of pulleys, so that, while with their hind legs they rested firmly upon the ground, they just touched it with the tips of their fore hoofs.

Then, while they were thus suspended, the grooms would stand at their sides and stir them up with shouts and strokes of the goad; and the horses, full of rage and fury, would dance and leap about on their hind legs, while with their swinging fore feet they would strike the ground and try to get a footing there, thus exerting their whole bodies and covering themselves with sweat and foam,—no bad exercise either for speed or strength.[*](This device of Eumenes is described also in Diodorus, xviii. 42, 3 f., and in Nepos, Eumenes, v. 4 f. ) Then their barley would be thrown to them boiled, that they might the sooner dispatch and the better digest it.

But presently, as the siege dragged along, Antigonus learned that Antipater had died in Macedonia,[*](In 320 B.C. After the death of Perdiccas the supreme regency devolved upon Antipater, and he retired into Macedonia with the two kings. On his death he left the regency to Polysperchon, a distinguished officer of Alexander, to the exclusion of his own son Cassander.) and that matters were in confusion owing to the dissension between Cassander and Polysperchon. He therefore cherished no longer an inferior hope, but embraced the whole empire in his scheme, and desired to have Eumenes as friend and helper in his undertakings. Accordingly, he sent Hieronymus to make a treaty with Eumenes, and proposed an oath for him to take. This oath Eumenes corrected and then submitted it to the Macedonians who were besieging him, requesting them to decide which was the juster form.

Antigonus, namely, for form’s sake, had mentioned the kings[*](See the notes on chapter iii. 1 and 7. Olympias was the queen-mother, the widow of Philip, mother of Alexander.) at the beginning of the oath, and then had made the rest of it refer to himself; but Eumenes wrote at the head of the oath the names of Olympias and the kings, and proposed to swear fealty, not to Antigonus alone, but also to Olympias and the kings, and to have the same enemies and friends as they. This was thought to be more just, and the Macedonians accordingly administered this oath to Eumenes, raised the siege, and sent to Antigonus, that he too, on his part, might take the oath to Eumenes.