Greece -- Biography -- Early works to 1800; Rome -- Biography -- Early works to 1800
VIII. This victory was won by Eumenes about ten days after his former
one. He gained great glory from this double achievement, as he
appeared to have won one battle by courage and the other by
generalship. Yet he was bitterly disliked and hated both by his own
men and by the enemy, because he, a stranger and a foreigner, had
vanquished the most renowned of the Macedonians in fair fight. Now if
Perdikkas had lived to hear of the death of Kraterus, he would have
been the chief Macedonian of the age; but the news of his death
reached the camp of Perdikkas two days after that prince had fallen in
a skirmish with the Egyptians, and the enraged Macedonian soldiery
vowed vengeance against Eumenes. Antigonus and Antipater at once
declared war against him: and when they heard that Eumenes, passing by
Mount Ida where the king[171] used to keep a breed of horses, took as
many as he required and sent an account of his doing so to the Masters
of the Horse, Antipater is said to have laughed and declared that he
admired the wariness of Eumenes, who seemed to expect that he would be
called upon to give an account of what he had done with the king's
property. Eumenes had intended to fight a battle on the plains of
Lydia near Sardis, because his chief strength lay in his cavalry, and
also to let Kleopatra[172] see how powerful he was; but at her
particular request, for she was afraid to give umbrage to Antipater,
he marched into Upper Phrygia, and passed the winter in the city of
Kelainæ. While here, Alketas, Polemon, and Dokimus caballed against
him, claiming the supreme command for themselves. Hereupon Eumenes
quoted the proverb, "No one reflects that he who rules must die."
He now promised his soldiers that in three days he would give them
their pay, and accomplished this by selling the various fortified
villages and castles in the neighbourhood to them, all of which were
full of human beings to sell for slaves, and of cattle. The officers
who bought these places from Eumenes were supplied by him with
siege-artillery to take them, and the proceeds of the plunder were set
off against the arrears of pay due to the soldiers. This proceeding
made Eumenes very popular with his army, indeed, when a proclamation
was distributed in his camp by contrivance of the enemy, in which a
reward of a hundred talents and special honours were offered to the
man who would kill Eumenes, the Macedonians were greatly enraged, and
determined that a body-guard of one thousand men, of the best families
in Macedonia, should watch over his safety day and night. The soldiers
obeyed him with alacrity and were proud to receive from his hands the
same marks of favour which kings are wont to bestow upon their
favourites. Eumenes even took upon himself to give away purple hats
and cloaks, which is accounted the most royal present of all by the
Macedonians.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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