CHAPTER XVII.

DIVISION OF ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE.-FROM THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER TO THE ACCESSION OF ANTIOCHUS SOTER. B.C. 323 TO B.C. 280.

"Therefore the he goat waxed very great; and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven. Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power."-Daniel, chap. viii. 8, 22.

SETTLEMENT OF THE KINGDOM ON PHILIP III. ARIDÆUS-PKRDICCAS REGENT-DIVISION OF THE PROVINCES THE DIADOCHI-FUNERAL OF ALEXANDER-BIRTH OF ALEXANDER AGUS THE LAMIAN WAR-PERDICCAS AND EUMENES, ANTIPATER AND OLYMPIAS— DEATH OF PERDICCAS-NEW PARTITION OF THE PROVINCES-WAR OF EUMENES WITH ANTIGONUS-DEATH OF EUMENES-MURDER OF PHILIP ARIDEUS-CASSANDER MASTER OF GREECE, ANTIGONUS OF ASIA-COALITION AGAINST ANTIGONUS-DEMETRIUS POLIORCETES-BATTLE OF GAZA-GENERAL PACIFICATION-MURDER OF ALEXANDER ÆGUS -RENEWAL OF THE WAR-PTOLEMY IN GREECE-BATTLE OF SALAMIS IN CYPRUSTHE GENERALS BECOME KINGS-SIEGE OF RHODES-DEMETRIUS IN GREECE-SUCCESSES OF SELEUCUS NICATOR-NEW COALITION AGAINST ANTIGONUS-BATTLE OF IPSUS-THE HELLENISTIC KINGDOMS-SYRIA-EGYPT-PERGAMUS-BACTRIA,

THE untimely death of Alexander left his empire without an heir, and found the generals unprepared with any plans. Alexander had left an illegitimate son, Hercules, by Barsine, the widow of the Rhodian Memnon; but no pretensions were put forward on his behalf till some years later. The child of the queen Roxana was not born till after Alexander's death. There only remained the half-brother of Alexander, Philip Aridæus, the son of Philip by a Thessalian woman, a youth of weak intellect, and therefore a convenient puppet in the hands of the generals, till time should decide the real heir by the test of Alexander's dying words,-"To the strongest." The conflict almost broke out at the council which was held the day after Alexander's death, under the presidency of Perdiccas, to whom the dying monarch had given his signet ring; but an arrangement was at last made on the following basis. PHILIP III. ARIDEUS was recognised as the successor to the empire, a share in the inheritance being reserved to the unborn child of Roxana, should it prove to be a son. PERDICCAS took the command of the Companion cavalry, which was vacant by the death of Hephæstion, with the regency on behalf of Philip. The eastern part of the empire was reserved for his immediate government. The pro

B.C. 323.]

DIVISION OF THE PROVINCES.

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vinces west of the Euphrates were divided among the other generals, nominally as satrapies, but virtually as independent governments. PTOLEMY, the son of Lagus, who, besides his great talents, had the claim of consanguinity with the royal family, received Egypt and Syria. EUMENES, a Greek of Cardia in the Thracian Chersonese, who had been Alexander's secretary, and had of late shared his confidence with Hephaestion, was appointed to the government of Cappadocia and Paphlagonia, provinces not yet thoroughly subdued. Phrygia Proper, with Lycia and Pamphylia, were assigned to ANTIGONUS, the ablest soldier of them all; Hellespontine or the Lesser Phrygia, to LEONNATUS,* and Thrace to LYSIMACHUS, an officer of Sicilian extraction and of low birth, but of the most undaunted courage, and celebrated as a lion-killer. Macedonia itself, and Greece, were to be divided between the late regent, ANTIPATER, and CRATERUS, who had been appointed by Alexander to supersede him, but had not yet started. Olympias, the mother of Alexander, was left out of the arrangement, but hers was not a temper to rest quiet. It was fortunate for the generals that Philip Aridæus was at Babylon; for the possession of his person might have transferred the decision to Antipater, who was at first disposed to claim the regency of the whole empire by virtue of his viceroyalty of Macedonia. But sufficient occupation was soon found both for him and Craterus in the common danger of a Greek war; and Olympias was so afraid of her old enemy Antipater, that she fled for the present into Epirus. One general remains to be mentioned, SELEUCUS, the son of Nicator, who, though omitted in the original distribution, raised himself at last to the possession of the seat of empire, and of all the Eastern provinces.

These, and others yet to be mentioned, are the men known in history as the DIADOCHI, that is, Successors of Alexander the Great. Their wars occupied a space of two-and-twenty years, before the final division of the empire in consequence of the decisive battle of Ipsus (B.c. 323-301). In untwining the intricate thread of these events, it is desirable to confine our attention as much as possible to Asia, reserving for a separate view the last struggles amidst which Greek liberty set, but not without the hope of a temporary revival. First, however, it is necessary to mention the obsequies of Alexander, which were conducted with the grandest barbaric pomp. The body was placed on a funeral car, of such size and so loaded with gold ornaments, that eighty-four mules * Leonnatus only just needs to be named, as he was killed in the following year.

laboured for a whole year in drawing it to Syria, on its way to Alexandria, where the conqueror fitly rested amidst the most enduring monuments of his fame, in what afterwards became the sepulchre of the Ptolemies. Meanwhile Roxana gave birth to a son, who was named Alexander Egus; after she had got rid, by assassination, of the rival queen Statira, and her sister, Drypetis, the widow of Hephæstion.

For the present, we keep in the background the gallant struggle of Greece for liberty, attempted in vain by Agis, and renewed,. after Alexander's death, by Athens in the "Lamian War," which ended in the victory of Antipater, and the proscription and death of Demosthenes (B.C. 322). During this war, Leonnatus crossed over into Europe to aid Antipater; but he was defeated and slain by the allied Greeks, and thus one name is already erased from the list of the Diadochi. Craterus also arrived in Greece in time to contribute to the victory of Antipater; and both had begun measures for the subjugation of Greece, when they were recalled to Asia to take part in the general war which was kindled by the ambition of Antipater and the arts of Olympias.

Perdiccas, possessed of the command of the choicest troops, and of the persons of the two nominal sovereigns-Philip Aridæus and the infant Alexander IV.--was not disposed to forego the substance of power over the satraps in Asia. He began the consolidation of his government by aiding Eumenes in the conquest. of Cappadocia; and the campaign gained him, besides much military reputation, the alliance of the most intelligent and prudent of the Diadochi, for such was the character of Eumenes. Alarmed at the growing power of Perdiccas, Antipater made him overtures for an alliance, with the offer of the hand of his daughter Nicæa. But when Olympias proposed to him a marriage with Cleopatra, her daughter by Philip, as the price of his aid against Antipater, the aged Perdiccas was dazzled with the prospect of uniting the whole empire under his own government. Meanwhile, he attempted to assert his authority as regent by bringing Antigonus to trial for alleged misconduct in his satrapy. But Antigonus fled to Macedonia, carrying to Antipater information of the schemes of Perdiccas and Olympias. A league was formed by Antipater and Craterus with Antigonus and Ptolemy; while Perdiccas was joined by Eumenes, who, besides being moved by gratitude, had

The beautiful sarcophagus in the British Museum, formerly supposed to be that of Alexander, has been identified by the inscriptions upon it as that of Nectanebo I. (See vol. I., pp. 140, 141).

B.C. 319.] DEATHS OF PERDICCAS AND ANTIPATER.

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now the prospect of becoming master of all Asia Minor, by the addition of the satrapies of Leonnatus and Antigonus to his own. While Eumenes defended himself against the united forces of Antigonus and Craterus, Perdiccas attacked Ptolemy, who stood on the defensive in an entrenched camp beyond the Nile, near Pelusium. The failure of all attempts to carry this position wore out the soldiers of Perdiccas, who mutinied and murdered their general. Antipater, who was in the camp of Ptolemy, now obtained the regency, with the persons of the two kings, whom he carried into Europe, with Roxana, the mother of Alexander Ægus, and Eurydicé, the wife of Philip Aridæus. After the death of Perdiccas, the allied generals met at Triparadisus in Syria, and made a new partition of the provinces. Antipater retained Macedonia and Greece, with the nominal regency of the empire; Ptolemy kept Egypt; Antigonus received Susiana, in addition to his former province; and Seleucus, as satrap of Babylon, succeeded to much of the central authority of Perdiccas. Eumenes was declared an outlaw by the vote of the Macedonian army (B.C. 321).

It devolved upon Antigonus to conduct the war with Eumenes, who, though deserted by Alcetas, the brother of Perdiccas, and embarrassed by the jealousy of his Macedonian officers, had gained a decisive battle, in which Craterus himself fell, shortly before the murder of Perdiccas. Pressed by the superior force of Antigonus, he shut himself up with a few followers in the fortress of Nora in Cappadocia, and held out against a long blockade, till he found an opportunity of escaping to the upper provinces (B.C. 319). Meanwhile, Antipater died in Macedonia, at the age of eighty, bequeathing his authority, not to his son Cassander, but to the Epirot Polysperchon, who was, like himself, one of Alexander's oldest generals. Cassander, whose military fame made him a formidable enemy, and who had a powerful party among the oligarchies which Antipater had established in the Greek cities, rose in open rebellion; and Polysperchon, feeling the need of new support, invited Olympias back from Epirus to become the guardian of the royal family, who were kept at Pella. Olympias engaged Eumenes to renew the war in Asia, and the influence which she had always been known to possess with Alexander obtained for him the support of the "Argyraspids," a body o veterans who were living in retirement in Upper Asia. His cause was espoused also by the satraps of the eastern provinces, who gave up to him the royal treasures in their possession. Thus the

whole monarchy, both in Europe and Asia, was involved in a war between those who used the name of Alexander's family and those who possessed the greater part of his power. Of the course of affairs in Europe we shall have presently to speak. Had Polysperchon and Olympias been content to abandon Asia, and to call over Eumenes to their aid, his vast ability would have consolidated their authority in Macedonia and Greece. That ability was vainly exerted on behalf of what Eumenes considered the cause of his master's family, in a series of campaigns which are among the most brilliant of any recorded in ancient history. For two years he maintained himself against the united forces of Antigonus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus, while beset by treachery in his own camp. The seat of the war was first in Cilicia and Phoenicia, afterwards, as Eumenes was compelled to give ground, in Susiana, Persis, and Media. The struggle ended at last, not by his defeat, but by his betrayal by the Argyraspidæ, who added to the fickle arrogance of a favoured body of soldiery the cupidity which made them accessible to the bribes of Antigonus. Eumenes was put to death by the vote of a council of officers, in opposition, it is said, to the wish of Antigonus himself. He was the most honest and humane, the best educated, and in the whole combination of qualities, the most able of all the generals of Alexander. The best authorities are agreed that he was only prevented from distancing all competitors for the empire by the prejudice which his Greek origin excited among the Macedonians. He was fortyfive years old at his death (B.c. 316).

It was his misfortune, in death as in life, to have fought for a cause that was falling of itself. For while Polysperchon was engaged in Greece in a fierce and doubtful contest with Cassander, Eurydicé, the wife of Philip Aridæus, formed the plan of casting off the regent's yoke. In her husband's name she gathered an army in Macedonia, and made an alliance with Cassander. Polysperchon and Olympias marched against her, in league with the king of Epirus. Olympias displayed herself at the head of a train equipped with Bacchanalian emblems. Her presence won over the wavering fidelity of the Macedonians. Eurydicé fled with her husband to Amphipolis, where both were seized and murdered in the most cruel manner by Olympias, who proceeded to put to death the family and friends of Antipater. Cassander now marched into Macedonia to stay and avenge these barbarities. After a siege of some months, Olympias surrendered Pydna, with Roxana and the young Alexander, on condition that her own life