In Asia Minor Perdiccas had undertaken the conquest of Cappadocia on the Taurus. The old Persian satrap, Ariarathes, who had since become king, could not withstand this offensive (Diod. XVIII 16), and Eumenes of Cardia, Alexander’s archivist, whom in 323 Perdiccas had appointed as satrap, now took charge of his satrapy. Next Perdiccas turned to Pisidia, a mountainous region that had not yet been pacified, and brought it under the empire’s control (Diod. XVIII 22). In 323 and 322, Perdiccas had consolidated the empire’s position in Asia. However, as Perdiccas’ grip on the empire grew steadily firmer, the other marshals began to cooperate against him. Antigonus Monophthalmus, the satrap of Greater Phrygia, met with Antipater and Craterus and convinced them that Perdiccas would soon act against them. Thereupon they contacted Ptolemy who agreed to cooperate against Perdiccas (Diod. XVIII 25).
In the spring of 321, Perdiccas marched against Egypt while he sent Eumenes, the satrap of Cappadocia, to hold the Hellespont against Antipater and Craterus (Diod. XVIII 29). The archivist Eumenes, who was nearly untested militarily, was going up against some of the most experienced Macedonian generals. As a Greek, his control over Macedonian troops was tenuous at best (see Diod. XVIII 32; 40; 60), yet in battle Eumenes defeated Craterus who himself fell (Diod. XVIII 30-32). Meanwhile, Perdiccas became bogged down in fighting at Pelusium on the Egyptian border where his officers with Ptolemy’s connivance assassinated him (Diod. XVIII 33-36).
Since Ptolemy stayed in Egypt and both Craterus and Perdiccas were dead, Antipater had no rival left, excepting Eumenes, who as a Greek hardly counted. He calmly proceeded to Triparadeisus in Syria, secured his election as regent by the troops, and redistributed the satrapies (see Box 20.1). Noteworthy was the promotion of Seleucus as satrap of Babylon. Antipater also appointed Antig-onus Monopthalmus as commander of the army in Asia and his own son, Cas-sander, as chiliarch or vizier. Thereafter he returned to Macedonia with the co-kings Philip III Arrhidaeus and Alexander IV (together with his mother, Rhoxane). Antigonus remained in Asia Minor to deal with the outstanding matter of Eumenes.
Eumenes’ cavalry having deserted him, Antigonus defeated him easily in 320. During the winter of 320 to 319 Antigonus besieged Eumenes in the fortress of Nora, somewhere in the Taurus range. Antigonus, in charge of the largest army in the empire and with access to the revenues of his and Eumenes’ satrapies, now set his sights higher (Diod. XVIII 40-41). Ptolemy too, however, was conceiving ambitions and towards the end of 320 he seized control of the so-called Hollow Syria, the southern portion of the Syrian satrapy together with Phoenicia (Diod. XVIII 43).
In 319 the by now very old Antipater died, but not before appointing Poly-perchon, a veteran officer of Alexander’s, as regent (Diod. XVIII 48). This reset the board. Antigonus now made peace with Eumenes and began his own play for power (Diod. XVIII 50 and 53). Cassander, Antipater’s son, bitter because he had not become regent, conspired with Antigonus and Ptolemy against Polyperchon (Diod. XVIII 54). For his part Polyperchon offered Eumenes money, and Eumenes, reneging on his alliance with Antigonus, accepted. With the money Eumenes began to raise an army, and, in the name of the Kings Philip III Arrhidaeus and Alexander IV, Polyperchon wrote to satraps and treasurers throughout the empire to order them to assist Eumenes (Diod. XVIII 57-58). Although Antigonus and Ptolemy tried to hinder him, Eumenes collected a large army and in a perilous march led it into the so-called Upper Satrapies in the eastern half of the empire (Diod. XVIII 59-63 and 73).
In Greece, meanwhile, Polyperchon reversed Antipater’s policy of backing oligarchies and ineffectively threw his support behind democracies (Diod. XVIII 55-56). Many oligarchies (e. g., in Megalopolis) thereupon sought support from the still-embittered Cassander (Diod. XVIII 68). Nicanor, the commander of the Macedonian garrison in the Peiraeus, welcomed Cassander when he appeared with a fleet (Diod. XVIII 64-65 and 68). Polyperchon’s lackluster attempts at besieging both the Peiraeus and Megalopolis (Diod. XVIII 68-72) merely eroded his support in Greece, and by the end of 318 Cassander had won over most of the Greek cities, including Athens (Diod. XVIII 74).
Shortly thereafter, Eurydice, Philip’s granddaughter and the wife of the feebleminded Philip III Arrhidaeus, acting in the name of her husband, removed Polyperchon from the regency and assumed it herself (Just. XIV 5; Diod. XIX 11). It was the first bold assertion of power by a Hellenistic queen, yet Eurydice had precious little support among the soldiers. When Polyperchon (together with Olympias, Alexander’s mother and a rather more formidable queen) approached with an army, Eurydice’s troops deserted (early 317). Polyperchon handed Philip III Arrhidaeus and Eurydice over to Olympias who saw to it that both died (Diod. l. c.). This left in Olympias’ keeping a six-year-old boy as titular king, but from now on there was no (generally recognized) regent. Where Per-diccas and Antipater had succeeded, Polyperchon had failed; and his failure delivered the empire into the hands of the warlords.
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