tection of his life. And they were still encamped together after this victory, when Eumenes' messengers came unto them; whereon they immediately marched to Susa, and there joined him with all their forces, which consisted of about twenty-five thousand men, horse and foot. This reinforcement made him more · than a match for Antigonus, who was then on his march after him; but, the year being far advanced before he could reach the Tigris, he was forced to take up his winter quarters in Mesopotamia, where Seleucus and Pithon, who were then of his party, joining him, they there concerted together the opera tions of the next campaign.

In the interim a great change happened in Macedonia. For Olympias, the mother of Alexander, having formerly fled out of Macedonia into Epirus with Alexander her grandson, and Roxana his mother, for fear of Antipater, now after his death was again returned, and, having gotten the power of the kingdom into her hands, put Aridæus, the nominal king (whom they call Philip,) to death, with Eurydice his wife, after he had borne the title of king six years and seven months; and with him she slew also Nicanor, the brother of Cassander, and an hundred more of his principal friends and adherents: which cruelty was retaliated upon her the next year after; for then Cassander, coming upon her with an army, besieged her in Pydna, and, having forced her to surrender, first shut her up in prison, and afterwards caused her to be there put to death. After the cutting off of Aridæus, Alexander, the son of Roxana, alone bore the title of king, till at length he was also in like manner cut off by the treachery of those who usurped his father's empire. But almost all the time he bore this title alone, he bore it in a jail; for Cassander, after he had taken Pydna, shut up him and his mother in the castle of Amphipolis, till at length he murdered them both, to make way for himself to be king of Macedon; as will hereafter, in its proper place, be more fully related.

q Diodor. Sic. lib. 19. Justin. lib. 14.

Antigonus, in the beginning of the spring, marched An. 316. to Babylon, where, having joined the forces Alexander which Pithon and Seleucus had there got Ægus 1. ready for him, he passed the Tigris to find out Eumenes; and, on the other hand, Eumenes was not wanting to put himself in a posture to encounter him, being now superiour to him in the number of his forces, and much more so in the wisdom and sagacity of his conduct: not that the other was defective herein; for, next Eumenes, he was certainly the best general and the wisest politician of his time. But the great disadvantage which Eumenes lay under, was, he commanded a volunteer army, it being made up of the forces brought him by the several governours of provinces, who had joined him, and every one of these would have the general command; and Eumenes not being a Macedonian, but a Thracian by birth, there was not one of them but thought himself, for this reason, preferable before him. To master this difficulty, he pretended that Alexander had appeared to him in a dream, and shewed him a royal pavilion richly furnished with a throne in it, and told him, that, if they would sit in council there, he himself would be present to prosper all their consultations and undertakings upon which they should enter in his name; and, having wrought the superstition which they had for Alexander into a belief of this, be caused such a pavilion and throne to be erected as he pretended to have seen in his dream; and, placing a crown and sceptre in the throne, he prevailed with them there to meet in council, and consult together in common, under the presidency of Alexander, in the same manner as when he was alive, without owning any other superiour; which quelled all farther strife about this matter; for hereby a priority was yielded to none, and all pretences to it being still kept alive, were reserved to the opportunities which the future events of their affairs might give to lay claim thereto. However, the army had that confidence in the great abilities of Eumenes, that, in time of battle, and in all cases of danger, he was

r Diodor. Sic. lib. 19. Plutarch et Corn. Nepos in Eumene.

always called to the supreme command, and the soldiers would not fight till they saw him in it. And, by the wisdom of his management, he brought it to pass in all other cases, that though in outward shew he seemed to wave all superiority, yet in reality he had it, and all things were ordered according to his directions. And, the royal command to all the keepers of the public treasuries being to give out unto Eumenes all such sums as he should think fitting to require, this command of the purse gave him the command of all things else; for hereby he was enabled constantly to pay his army, and also to give gratuities to the chief leaders among them; which had no small influence to engage them to him. And in this posture stood the affairs of both parties, when this years' war was begun, which was carried on with great vigour on both sides; and all Media and Persia became the field of it; for they ranged these countries all over with marches and counter-marches upon each other, and all manner of stratagems and trials of military skill were put in practice on both sides. But Eumenes having a genius much superiour in all such matters, he did thereby, notwithstanding the disadvantages he lay under from a mutinous and ungovernable army, make the campaign end in his favour; for he had worsted Antigonus in two encounters, in which he had slain and taken a great number of his men; and, when winter approached, he secured the best quarters for himself in the province of Gabiena, and forced Antigonus to march northward, to seek for his in the country of Media, at the distance of twenty-five days march from him.

But the licentiousness of Eumenes' soldiers being such, that they would not be kept together, An. 315. but, for the sake of a more luxurious plenty, Alexander scattered themselves over the province, and Ægus 2. quartered at so great a distance from each other, as would require several days for them again to embody. Antigonus, on his having an account hereof, took a march towards him in the middle of winter, reckoning

1

to be upon him before he should be able to get his army together, and thereby gain an easy and absolute victory over him. But Eumenes, who was never wanting in any precautions necessary for his security, had his spies and scouts so well placed, and so well furnished with dromedaries, the swiftest of beasts, to give him intelligence, that he had notice of this march of Antigonus some days before he could arrive, and thereby had time to defeat it by a stratagem, which saved the army, when all the other commanders gave it for lost. For getting up upon those mountains which lay towards the enemy, with such forces as were nearest at hand, he there caused them, the next night, to kindle fires in such manner as might represent the encampment of an army; which being seen by Antigonus' scouts at a great distance, and speedily notified to him, this made him believe that Eumenes was there with all his army ready to encounter him; and therefore, not thinking it proper to engage his men, as then fatigued and tired out by a long march, with a fresh army, he stopped so long to refresh them, that Eumenes had gotten all his forces together before he could come up with him, and then he found he came too late to put his designs in execution. However, not long after, this brought on a battle between them, wherein Eumenes got the victory; which would have proved decisive in his favour, but that he lost all the fruits of it, and himself too, by the treachery of his own men. For the battle being fought in a sandy field, the feet of the men and horses in the engagement raised such a dust, as involved all in a cloud, so that there was no seeing of any thing at the least distance of which Antigonus taking the advantage, sent out a party of horse, that seized and carried off all the baggage of Eumenes' army, before they could be perceived; whereby he gained the main point, though he lost the victory. For Eumenes' soldiers, when returned from the pursuit of the enemy, finding their camp taken, and all their baggage, with their wives and children carried off, instead of using their swords against the enemy again to recover them, turned all their rage upon their general; and therefore, having

seized and bound him, sold him to Antigonus to redeem what they had lost, and then went all over to him; which absolutely determined the war for the interest of Antigonus; for immediately hereon he became master of all Asia, from the Hellespont to the river Indus. Eumenes being thus fallen into his hands, he was for some time in a doubt how to dispose of him, he having been formerly his intimate friend, while they both served together under Alexander. The remembrance hereof did at first put the affection he had for him into a struggle with his interest for the saving of his life; and Demetrius his son became an earnest solicitor for him, being very desirous, out of the generosity of his temper, that so gallant a man should be kept alive. But at length, reflecting on his immovable fidelity to Alexander's family, how dangerous an antagonist he had in him on this account, and how able he was to disturb all his affairs, should he again get loose from him, he durst not trust him with life, and therefore ordered him to be put to death in prison. And thus perished the wisest and the gallantest man of the age in which he lived. He had not indeed the fortune of Alexander, but in every thing else far exceeded him: for he was truly valiant without rashness, and wise without timidity, readily foreseeing all advantages that offered, and boldly executing all that were feasible; so that he never failed of any thing that he undertook, but when disappointed by the treachery of his own men. By this means he lost the battle which he fought with Antigonus in Cappadocia; and by this means only was it that he was at last undone in Gabiena. After his death, Antigonus, with all his army, in the solemnest manner, attended his funeral pile, and shewed him the greatest honour that could be done him after his death, and sent his bones and ashes, in a sumptuous urn of silver, to his wife and children into Cappadocia. But this could make no amends for the taking away of his life. However it shewed, that, even in the opinion of the worst of his enemies, he was a person of that eminent merit as deserved a much better fate.