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20 she might hope to be rescued:Diodorus attributes this hope to her at 19.35.6.
21 unprecedented grandeur:Alexander’s banquet at Opis, on which Peucestas’ feast was clearly modeled, is said to have had nine thousand guests.
22 while his men fretted:Their anxiety increased when the gleam of the enemy’s armor was sighted in the distance. According to Plutarch, some of the troops vowed not to fight until Eumenes was back in command; Eumenes had his litter brought alongside them, drew back the curtains, and feebly extended a hand, prompting a vigorous battle cry from the men (Plutarch Eumenes14.3). But Bosworth (“History and Artifice”) and Roisman (“Hieronymus of Cardia”) are skeptical.
23 The two armies:For details of the battles of Paraetacene and Gabene, I am grateful for the analyses in chapter 4 of Bosworth’s Legacy of Alexanderand in the two articles by Devine listed in the bibliography under “Eumenes.” The basic narrative of events comes from Diodorus; Plutarch’s Eumenesbecomes confused and abbreviated when it reaches these two battles.
24 Gabene:The spelling here used is that found in Diodorus and Plutarch; other sources use “Gabiene,” and this is often seen in modern writings as well. Bosworth locates the region near modern Isfahan, Iran ( Legacy of Alexander, p. 127).
25 he made haste to cremate his dead:Polyaenus reports the ploy (4.6.10) without specifying what battle it followed, but Paraetacene gives the most fitting context.
Chapter 10: The Closing of the Tombs
1 after which it disappeared:The fate of Alexander’s body, or the possibility of its recovery, has been the focus of much speculation and lore. An amusing survey has been compiled by Nicholas Saunders, Alexander’s Tomb: The Two-Thousand Year Obsession to Find the Lost Conqueror(New York, 2006).
2 They revered no commander:Unique information provided by Justin (14.2). The details that follow regarding Eumenes’ flattery of the Shields are from the same passage.
3 oaths of allegiance:Justin has Eumenes make reference to these in his final speech to the Shields at 14.4.
4 plotting against his life:The plot is discussed by Plutarch at Eumenes16. Apparently, Eudamus brought word to Eumenes that the satraps and Silver Shields were pla
5 an act of cowardice:This is the judgment of the sources (Diodorus 19.38.1; Plutarch Eumenes15.8), but it has long been recognized that, as they are based on Eumenes’ partisan Hieronymus, they have a negative bias toward Peucestas. The truth may be more closely co
6 Plutarch eulogizes them: Eumenes16.4. The age range given by Plutarch has been doubted by some but demonstrated by Hammond to be quite plausible (“Alexander’s Veterans After His Death,” under “Antigenes, the Silver Shields, and the Macedonian Army” in the bibliography).
7 They shouted:Details and quotations provided by Justin 14.3.
8 made his valedictory speech:Different versions of this speech are reported by Justin (14.4) and Plutarch ( Eumenes17.3), though the main point is very much the same in both. Justin gives Eumenes a bitter series of reproaches against the Shields after they refuse to grant his request. I have opted, somewhat arbitrarily, to include here a portion of the version of Plutarch.
9 called up a column of elephants:Another point on which I have preferred Plutarch’s version over that of Justin. Justin portrays the elephants and Asian troops as part of Eumenes’ army, a kind of honor guard, not a security detail sent by Antigonus.
10 Nearchus of Crete:It is curious to find Nearchus in the service of Antigonus, and none of our sources explains how he got there. He was last observed advocating for Heracles as a successor to the throne, in the council at Babylon (this page).
11 sent a man to kill him:Nepos ( Eumenes12) has an alternative account in which Eumenes is strangled by his guards without Antigonus’ knowledge, but concurs with the other sources that Antigonus had resolved on Eumenes’ death.
12 returning his ashes:Plutarch Eumenes19. There is no evidence concerning to whom Eumenes was married at the time of his death. In the Susa weddings eight years earlier, Alexander had matched him with a highborn Persian named Artonis. But it is unlikely this is the woman who received his ashes.
13 The platoon was broken up:Portrayed by Plutarch ( Eumenes19), in typically moralistic fashion, as a punishment inflicted by the gods for the impiety the Shields had committed in their betrayal of Eumenes.
14 watching for the masts:Diodorus (19.49.3) tells us that Olympias, not Alexander, was still clinging to hopes of rescue, but I have assumed that the grandson took his cue from his grandmother.
15 Polyperchon devised a plan:As related by Polyaenus 4.11.3.
16 or perhaps a resumption of the first:There is much that is unclear about Olympias’ trial and death; the two accounts in the sources, those of Diodorus and Justin, diverge. The account of Diodorus has been followed here. Carney ( Olympias, pp. 82–85) conducts a thorough review of the evidence.
17 He did not yet know:Most chronologies place the deaths of Eumenes and Olympias at about the same time. News of Antigonus’ victory would have taken several weeks to reach European shores.
18 caused him to tremble with fear:Plutarch Alexander74.6.
19 “dry” cremation:This is the opinion of the paleoanthropologist Antonis Bartsiokas, as reported in Science228 (2000). See note 3.
20 and a scepter:The scepter, according to Borza and Palagia (see note 2), has subsequently disappeared from the collection of items found in the tomb.
21 a series of kings:Another possibility, advanced by the tomb’s excavator, is that the diadem was meant to be adjusted to be worn with or without another piece of headgear.
22 Cassander prepared a fine chamber tomb:There is no clear evidence of who built Tomb 3 at Vergina, but its apparent date indicates that Cassander was responsible. Diodorus, however, says that Cassander killed Alexander in secret and hid his body (19.105). The most likely scenario is that, after the death of the boy inevitably leaked out, Cassander felt obliged to conduct a proper royal burial. See Adams, “Cassander, Alexander IV and the Tombs at Vergina,” AncW22 (1991) 27–33. A different theory of the tomb’s construction, unconvincing in my view, has been put forward by Franca Landucci Gattinoni (“Cassander and the Legacy of Philip and Alexander II in Diodorus’ Library,” pp. 113–21 of Philip II and Alexander the Great: Father and Son, Lives and Afterlives, eds. Elizabeth Carney and Daniel Ogden [Oxford and N.Y., 2010]).