Eumenes

Meanwhile, however, Eumenes gave back all the Cappadocian hostages whom he was holding in Nora, and received from those who came for them horses, beasts of burden, and tents. He also collected all the soldiers who had become scattered by his flight and were now wandering about the country, so that he had a force of almost a thousand horsemen. With these he set out in flight, being rightly in fear of Antigonus. For Antigonus not only ordered his Macedonians to wall him in again and besiege him, but also wrote back bitter reproaches to them for accepting the correction of the oath.

While Eumenes was in flight, letters were brought to him from those in Macedonia who feared the growing power of Antigonus. Olympias invited him to come and take charge of Alexander’s little son and rear him, feeling that plots were laid against his life; Polysperchon and Philip[*](Philip Arrhidaeus (see the note on chapter iii. 1).) the king ordered him, as commander of the forces in Cappadocia, to wage war upon Antigonus, to take five hundred talents of the treasure at Quinda[*](Or Cyinda, better known as Anazarbus, a stronghold in Cilicia whither Antigenes and Teutamus had brought the royal treasure from Susa.) in reparation of his own losses, and to use as much of it as he wished for the war.

They had also written concerning these matters to Antigenes and Teutamus, the commanders of the Silver-shields. These men, on receiving their letters, ostensibly treated Eumenes with friendliness, but were plainly full of envy and contentiousness, disdaining to be second to him. Eumenes therefore allayed their envy by not taking the money, alleging that he had no need of it;

while upon their love of contention and love of command, seeing that they were as unable to lead as they were unwilling to follow, he brought superstition to bear. He said, namely, that Alexander had appeared to him in a dream, had shown him a tent arrayed in royal fashion with a throne standing in it, and had then said that if they held their councils and transacted their business there, he himself would be present and would assist them in every plan and enterprise which they undertook in his name. Eumenes easily convinced Antigenes and Teutamus that this was true. They were unwilling to go to him, and he himself thought it undignified to be seen at the doors of others.

So they erected a royal tent, and a throne in it which they dedicated to Alexander, and there they met for deliberation on matters of highest importance. And now, as they advanced into the interior of the country,[*](In 317 B.C., against Antigonus, who was in Mesopotamia. He had received the satrapy of Susiana.) Peucestas,[*](One of the most distinguished officers of Alexander, who bad been made satrap of Persia during Alexander’s lifetime.) who was a friend of Eumenes, met them with the other satraps, and they joined their forces, so that the number of their men and the splendour of their equipment raised the spirits of the Macedonians. But the leaders themselves had been made unmanageable by their exercise of power, and effeminate by their mode of life, after the death of Alexander,