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19 There is a legend:The most complete version is found in Augustine’s City of God(4.4), though the story was already circulating well before Augustine’s time; Cicero refers to it in his Republic(3.14.24).
20 somehow their stash:The profligacy of the Macedonian rank and file might be the cause of this insatiable need for pay. Arrian relates in the Anabasis(7.5) that in 324, even after despoiling much of Asia and the richest cities of the Persian empire, thousands of Alexander’s troops were deep in debt.
21 One day Eumenes returned:The story is told most fully by Justin (14.1), but is also mentioned by Plutarch ( Eumenes8.6).
22 The erased passage:Details of the recovery of the palimpsest by digital imaging, and a preliminary version of the text, can be found in Dreyer’s “Arrian Parchment” (under “Fragmentary Sources and Commentaries” in the bibliography).
23 Eumenes reached out:It is not clear whether Eumenes held a summit meeting with the other former officers of Perdiccas’ regime or carried on negotiations by letter. Pisidia was a few days’ travel from Celaenae.
24 the five-way parley broke up:Sadly, I have been unable to deduce the meaning of a remark Plutarch assigns to Eumenes here, “It’s just like the old saying, olethrou oudeis logos.” There is no other instance in Greek of this “old saying,” nor is its sense—literally, “of destruction [there is] no account”—at all clear from this context. Plutarch evidently regarded this as a very memorable remark, but its point is lost on me and on others I have consulted.
25 He sent out a high officer:The story is found in Polyaenus 4.6.6. It is significant that Antigonus’ list of stratagems is far longer in Polyaenus’ catalog than that of any other Macedonian general (King Alexander’s of course is longer).
26 one last indignity:Arrian, Events After Alexander1.44–45.
27 who chose it as the end point:Scholars often maintain that the portion of Events After Alexandersummarized by Photius does not represent the entirety of the original work, but I see no grounds for this assumption. The great problem for a historian of the post-Alexander period is where to conclude, and Antipater’s crossing of the Hellespont makes a reasonably good end point.
28 a demoralizing trick:The source is of course Polyaenus 4.6.19.
29 a fortress called Nora:The fort was atop the ten-thousand-foot Mount Hasan, near a site known today by the Turkish name of Viransehir. The ruins shown to tourists there are Roman and medieval, not those of Eumenes’ times, which as far as I know are no longer in evidence.
Chapter 8: The War Comes Home
1 Loss of the right:It was unclear whether the poor were stripped of their voting rights de facto or de jure; see discussion by Hughes in chapter 4 of “After the Democracy.”
2 ma
3 Convicted five years earlier:See this page. It is unclear whether his penalty was imposed for conviction in the bribery scandal, for support of the measure making Alexander a god (see this page), or for a host of different violations (Diodorus 18.18.2 mentions three unspecified convictions and Plutarch no fewer than seven).
4 subsidize all his pleasures:The story that follows comes from Plutarch, Phocion30.3.
5 to stop him from deporting:Plutarch, Phocion29.3. The Ceraunian Mountains were considered the limits of European Greece to the north; Taenaron, to the south, formed a similar limit and is also mentioned by Plutarch as the place beyond which Antipater banished his enemies.
6 Phocus:Anecdotes about this colorful man are related by Plutarch at Phocion20, 30, and 38.2. At 38.1, Plutarch tells us that Phocus ultimately hunted down and took vengeance on those who had brought down his father.
7 According to Plutarch:The episode of Demades’ brutal execution by Cassander was compelling enough to Plutarch that he narrated it twice, Phocion30.8–9 and Demosthenes31.4–6. Diodorus, by contrast, leaves Cassander out of the story and instead has Antipater handing the two Athenians over for execution in a dispassionate ma
8 probably not Aristotle’s adopted son:See Bosworth, “A New Macedonian Prince” (in the bibliography under “Leosthenes and the Lamian War”).
9 the countryside:The highlands surrounding central Macedonia had always been uneasy with the authority exerted from Pella.
10 The first warning:As described by Polyaenus 4.6.7. It is impossible that Antigonus traveled with slow-moving elephants on his forced march from Nora, even if Diodorus’ estimate of his speed (18.44.2) is exaggerated. Presumably, he had been keeping the beasts stabled somewhere near Pisidia or had sent them on ahead to await his arrival there.
11 to a fort he controlled:The remarkable escape attempt of these three prisoners, which succeeded in gaining Docimus his freedom, is described by Diodorus at 19.16.
12 had arrived in Pella too late:In fact the man Antigonus had sent to confer with Antipater in Pella was the same one who returned with news of the old man’s death.
13 one last, stern injunction:Reported by Diodorus 19.11.9.
14 He did not belong:Very little is known about Polyperchon’s lineage or early life, but this very lack of evidence is significant. In Alexander’s army he had served only as an infantry commander and never fought with the cavalry, which again suggests an inglorious family heritage.
15 arrogantly seizing a treasure fleet:As described by Diodorus 18.52.7.
16 in this letter or in a later one:It is uncertain whether the messages described differently by Diodorus (18.58.3) and Plutarch ( Eumenes13.1) came from the same letter or two different ones.
17 a proclamation:The exact wording of the decree is given, at some length, by Diodorus (18.56).
18 He had kept up the morale:The remarkable details that follow, undoubtedly deriving from Hieronymus, who shared Eumenes’ confinement on Nora, are preserved by Plutarch ( Eumenes11) and Nepos ( Eumenes5).
19 According to Plutarch’s account:The story of the altered oath is found only in Plutarch ( Eumenes12.2) and Nepos ( Eumenes5.7) and has been rejected by Anson (“Siege of Nora”), whose opinion is seconded by Bosworth (“History and Artifice,” pp. 66–67). Anson regards the tale as a fiction concocted by Hieronymus to excuse Eumenes from what was, in his view, a brief alliance with Antigonus and a betrayal of the Argead house. Most other historians accept the story as valid, however. Michael Dixon has brought forward new support for this position in a chronological analysis of the movements of Hieronymus, Eumenes’ envoy to Antipater, showing that Eumenes must have had knowledge of the looming civil war in Europe at the time he left Nora and may even have been recruited by Polyperchon as an ally (“Corinth,” pp. 163–67).
20 or perhaps just before departing:The timing of the arrival of the letters is unclear in the sources. Dixon (see previous note) has proposed that Eumenes had already gotten word of Polyperchon’s offer from Hieronymus before he left Nora.