by David Grant
26.‘Owls to Athens’ taken from the Greek proverb describing a pointless action or journey; owls roosted in the ‘old’ Xerxes-burned Parthenon. As a symbol of Athens, owls appeared on coins it minted. Thus to bring an owl to a city full of them was idiomatically ‘a pointless journey’.
27.Diodorus 20.37.5 confirmed Antigonus’ governor of Sardis had been instructed not to let Cleopatra leave. Diodorus 18.49.4 for Olympias’ fleeing Pella and Blackwell (1999) p 94 for its dating.
28.Diodorus 18.11.1 for Molossian support of Greeks in the Lamian War.
29.Arrian 7.12.5-6 and Curtius 10.4.3 for the correspondence from Olympias and Antipater and Alexander’s quip about his mother. Other examples at Justin 12.14.3, Plutarch 39.7-14. Slanders from Olympias against Antipater were cited at Arrian 7.12.5, Justin 12.14.3, Plutarch 39.7-14. Diodorus 17.118.1. Diodorus 18.49.4 claimed she fled Pella because of her quarrel with Antipater.
30.Plutarch 39.11-13 for Alexander’s warning to Antipater and quoting Plutarch 68.4-5. Diodorus 19.11.9 for Antipater’s deathbed warning.
31.For the capture of Attalus, Polemon and Docimus, see Diodorus 18.44.1-1845.3, Polyaenus 4.6.7 and 19.16-17 for Alcetas’ siege. Its final location in Phrygia is likely as Antigonus’ wife was in the vicinity, possibly at Celaenae. An escape was attempted ‘when Antigonus was heading to the East’ (Diodorus 19.16.1-5) which suggests Eumenes had already headed into the upper satrapies in 317 BCE when it finished; this vouches for the year-plus siege of the Perdiccans and for a far shorter siege at Nora. Diodorus 19.16 for Docimus betraying his comrades.
32.For the mutilation of Alcetas’ body, Diodorus 18.47.3. Antigonus did pardon Docimus, who had betrayed Alcetas and Polemon to him. Moreover, Docimus had also refused to serve under Eumenes. Plutarch Eumenes 8.4. Also Heckel (2006) p 115. Nothing more is heard of Polemon or Attalus who were likely executed.
33.Diodorus 18.25.3 stated Antigonus reported Perdiccas’ designs on the Macedonian throne. Phila had been married to Balacrus who died in Pisidia; Photius 166. Diodorus 18.22.1 for his death; discussion in Heckel (2006) pp 68-69.
34.Arrian Events After Alexander 1.42; Anson (2004) p 138 for discussion. Alexander crossed the Hellespont in 334 BCE and Antipater had controlled Greece since then, thus fifteen years.
35.Justin 13.6.16 suggested Cleitus was cooperating with Alcetas, Perdiccas’ brother, in 322/1 BCE; see Heckel (1992) p 186 for detail. Arrian Events After Alexander 1.26 (implied) Cleitus’ alignment with Craterus and Antipater and 1.37 for his satrapy at Triparadeisus. For Aristonus’ capitulation see Arrian Events After Alexander 24.6.
36.A thalamios was a rower on the bottom deck of the three-decked trireme, thus with the least chance of survival in the event of its sinking.
37.Diodorus 18.41.4-5 for confirmation of Antigonus’ military strength. Plutarch Eumenes 11.7-9 and Nepos 5.4-6 for the exercising contraption. For Eumenes’ charm and friendliness that ‘seasoned’ the meals they had, Plutarch Eumenes 11.1.
38.Plutarch Eumenes 10.1-3 for the suffering of the men, translation from Loeb Classical Library edition, 1919. Diodorus 18.50.1-3 for Antigonus’ strength.
39.Nepos 5 for Eumenes’ delaying and his sorties on the palisade.
40.Diodorus 18.47.4-5, 18.50.1 and Plutarch Eumenes 12.1-2 for news of Antipater’s death arriving. Cretopolis has never been formally identified. See discussion of its location in Sekunda (1997). For Alcetas’ legitimacy in Pisidia see chapter titled Lifting the Shroud of Parrhasius. Diodorus 18.44-5-18.45.3 for Alcetas’ activity in Pisidia.
41.Billows (1990) p 80; Anson (2004) p 135. Billows and Anson have differing views on Hieronymus’ whereabouts.
42.Diodorus 18.59.4-6, translation from the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1947.
43.Antipater had appointed Cassander second-in-command or chiliarch to Antigonus ‘so that the latter might not be able to pursue his own ambitions undetected’; Diodorus 18.39.7 and also Arrian Events After Alexander 1.38. The Heidelberg Epitome 1.4 reported Cassander urged his father to remove the kings from Antigonus’ custody, though this makes little sense when Antipater took the kings back to Pella and did not leave them in Asia. This might however be a reference to Heracles based in Pergamum.
44.Diodorus 18.53.5, Plutarch Eumenes 12.2-3, Nepos 5.7 and Diodorus 18.50.4-5, translation from the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1947 for the terms of Eumenes’ release.
45.Plutarch Eumenes 5.4-6 for Antipater’s offer of an alliance with Eumenes in defeating Perdiccas.
46.Diodorus 18.47.5 and 18.50.5, based on the translation from the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1947.
47.Lysimachus was to assist the Antigonid cause in 318 BCE when capturing and killing White Cleitus who had aligned with Arrhidaeus, satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia; Diodorus 18.72.5-9 for events leading up to Cleitus’ capture. Lysimachus was satrap of Thrace, although Heckel suggested he had a wider strategos role. See Heckel (2006) p 155 and Curtius 10.10.4, Diodorus 18.3.2, Arrian Events After Alexander, 1.7, Justin 13 4.16, and Dexippus F8.3. Lysimachus must have initially relied upon the network of ‘agents’ and tyrants Antipater had installed over the previous decade and he had his hands full with the rebellious Thracian king, Seuthes. For the first clash with Seuthes see Diodorus 18.14.2-15 and for the second referenced battle 19.73.8. Also Arrian Events After Alexander 1.10, yet here Lysimachus is incorrectly reported as slain in the battle.
48.Plutarch Eumenes, The Comparison of Sertorius with Eumenes 2; the text heads the chapter titled The Tragic Triumvirate of Treachery and Oaths: ‘If Eumenes could have contented himself with the second place, Antigonus, freed from his competition for the first, would have used him well, and shown him favour.’
49.Full discussion of excavations at Lampron Castle in Robinson-Hughes (1969).
50.Heckel (1988) p 48 and Heckel (2006) p 226 for a summary of Polyperchon’s lineage. Heckel (1992) p 188 for the label ‘jackal among lions’.
51.Curtius 4.13.7-10 for Alexander’s vocal rejection of Polyperchon’s advice. This appears a Cleitarchean device to denigrate an opponent of Ptolemy. Aelian 12.43 for his living as a brigand, Athenaeus 4.155c for Duris’ claim that he danced when drunk; see Heckel (1992) p 188 for citations. Curtius 8.5.22 for the proskynesis incident.
52.Polyperchon operated at Gaugamela as taxiarch of the Tymphaean battalion; Diodorus 17.57.2 and Arrian 3.11.9, Curtius 4.13.28. He was involved in various other missions with Meleager, Amyntas and Coenus and later under Craterus in India; Heckel (2006) pp 226-227 for a career summary. He was appointed second-in-command to Craterus at Opis, Diodorus 18.48.4, 47.4, Plutarch Phocion 31.1, Plutarch Eumenes 12.1. Arrian 7.12.1 stated there were about 10,000 veterans to return under Craterus, Diodorus 17.109.1, 18.4.1 and Diodorus 18.16.4 suggested the make-up of the 10,000 was 6,000 who originally crossed to Asia with Alexander and 4,000 enlisted on the march. Further, ‘1,000 Persian bowmen and slingers and 1,500 horsemen’ are also mentioned although their role and destination is unclear.
53.Arrian Events After Alexander 1.38 for the appointment of Polyperchon’s son as a bodyguard to the new kings.
54.Plutarch 49.14-15 reported that Antipater had entered into secret negotiations with the Aetolians after Alexander’s execution of Parmenio, fearing for his own life. Yet an alliance with Aetolians was unlikely to have offered much protection against the agents of Alexander. For Antipater’s acknowledging Alexander see Arrian Events After Alexander 25.1, Curtius 3.1.6-7, Justin 11.1.8, 11.2.2, Diodorus 17.2.2. Quoting Blackwell (1999) p 35 on devotion. Alexander Lyncestis was held in captivity for three years and executed; he was Antipater’s son-in-law; Justin 11.2.1-2 and Curtius 7.1.6-7; Curtius 7.1.5-9, Diodorus 17.80.2, Justin 12.14.1 for his execution. Blackwell (1999) p 156 for discussion of Antipater’s fear of Alexander; Bevan and Berve believe he rebelled in 323 BCE.
55.Plutarch Phocion 17.10.
56.Plutarch Apophthegm or Sayings of Kings and Commanders 179b. Antipater presided over the Pythian Games on behalf of Philip in the 430s B
CE; dicussion in Blackwell (1999) p 34.
57.For Polyperchon being entrusted with the defense of Macedonia in the absence of Craterus and Antipater see Justin 13.6.9 and Diodorus 18.25.4-5
58.Anson (1992) p 41 for detailed discussion of the title and its relative authority.
59.Arrian 7.12.4, Justin 12.12.8 for Polyperchon’s role under Craterus’ returning veterans. Diodorus 18.48.4 for his reputation and standing in Macedonia.
60.Following the observation on their respective abilities in Roisman-Worthington (2010) p 212. For Antipater’s skill at operating on limited resources, and Cassander’s after him, see Adams (1985).
61.Justin 14.5.2-4 for the alliance between Eurydice and Cassander.
62.Arrian Events After Alexander 1.22. Also discussed in Carney (1987) pp 497-498 referencing Adea’s warlike upbringing; and Carney (1988) pp 392-393 following Polyaenus 8.60. Musgrave-Prag-Neave-Lane Fox (2010) section 9.1.3 argues an undocumented wedding would have taken place in 337/6 BCE. Further discussion of Cynnane’s age in chapter titled The Return to Aegae.
63.Polyaenus 8.60 suggested the marriage ended ‘swiftly’ to illustrate her independent spirit.
64.Arrian 1.5.2-3. The Agrianians were from the Paeonian region of Thrace bordering the Macedonian northern frontier.
65.Polyaenus 8.60 for the crossing of the Strymon in the face of Antipater’s wishes. Musgrave-Prag-Neave-Lane Fox (2010) section 9.1.3 for arguments for Adea’s age.
66.Philip had supposedly pledged him to the daughter of Pixodarus, the Carian dynast, some years before; see Plutarch 10.5.1; Alexander’s intervention led to his exile.
67.Arrian Events After Alexander 1.22, Polyaenus 8.60.
68.Arrian Events After Alexander 1.23 suggested Perdiccas brought about the marriage but surely under duress; it was not by his design. See discussion in Anson (2004) p 111. Adea’s father was the son of King Perdiccas III (Philip II’s older brother) of the Argead line, and her mother was the daughter of Philip II by Audata-Eurydice, thus she was three-quarters Argead. Arrian Events after Alexander 1.22 for confirmation that Audata, Philip’s Illyrian wife, was renamed Eurydice. Philip’s mother had been named Eurydice too.
69.Quoting Bosworth (1993) p 425 for ‘Amazon and an idiot’ and Heckel (1978) p 157.
70.Arrian Events after Alexander 1.43-45 for the seventy elephants left with Antigonus and Antipater keeping the remainder; also Diodorus 19.23.2.
71.Justin 14.5 for Eurydice’s demands to Polyperchon and Antigonus though in Justin’s narrative this move appears to take place later; it makes more sense that Cassander had her draft the royal demands before he departed for Asia. Some commentary such as Heckel-Yardley-Wheatley (2011) footnotes to Justin 14.5 see this as being directed at Eumenes, providing Antigonus with authority to take over his royal army. But he had already achieved that before the siege at Nora. Rather than ‘deliver up the army’ the letter might have simply demanded Antigonus’ military backing for their regime. Justin appears to place Cassander’s alliance with Eurydice far later in events but it makes more sense that Cassander made the alliance before journeying to Antigonus at Celaenae. Diodorus made it clear that he was looking back to events in Europe having progressed them to a far more advanced stage in Asia in his text. So the timing is typically out of sync.
72.Diodorus 18.54.3-4 for Antigonus provisioning Cassander and Diodorus 18.54.3 for the pre-departure planning. Diodorus 18.68.1 for the size of Cassander’s new force.
73.For Cassander’s activity after the death of Antipater, Diodorus 18.49.1-2, Plutarch Eumenes 12.1, Plutarch Phocion 31.1 and 32.2. For the hostility between Cassander and Polyperchon, Plutarch Phocion 31.1. Diodorus 18.49.3 for the attempts to renew an alliance with Ptolemy. Diodorus 18.58.1-2 for Cassander’s expectations and the strength of his father’s oligarchs in Greece.
74.Diodorus 18.57.2 and 18.49.4 appear to suggest Polyperchon invited Olympias twice to Macedonia.
75.Diodorus 18.54.4 for Antigonus’ covert intentions, translation from the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1947.
76.Diodorus 18.49.4 and 18.55.1-2 for Polyperchon taking council before making policy decisions, and his appreciation of the gravity of what he had done.
77.Diodorus 18.55.2-4 and repeated at 18.57.1-2 and 18.64.3. Diodorus 18.69.4 for the consequences. Translations from the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1947.
78.For Demades’ execution see Diodorus 18.48.1-4 (no mention of Cassander here, just ‘men in charge of punishments’ and a ‘common prison’), Arrian Events After Alexander 1.14, Plutarch Phocion 30.8-9, Plutarch Demosthenes 31.4-6; Antipater was already ill and Cassander was, it appears, giving the orders.
79.Plutarch 34.2 for the declaration of Greek freedoms.
80.Anson (2014) p 134; Diodorus 19.61.1-3 for the contents of Antigonus’ proclamation.
81.For Polyperchon’s later hostility to, and warring with, Cassander, see Diodorus 19.11-36, 19.49-75, 19.50-19.64. Following the discussion and observations in Heckel (1992) p 194. The two war councils mentioned at Diodorus 18.49.4 and 18.55.1 focused on dealing with Cassander. Hostilities against Antigonus are not mentioned at either.
82.Diodorus 18.57.3-4, translation from the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1947; also see Plutarch Eumenes 13.1-3.
83.Diodorus 18.58.1-3, translation from the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1947. Reiretated in Plutarch Eumenes 12.1-3.
84.Diodorus 18.58.1 and Plutarch Eumenes 13.1 suggest Eumenes only received news of Polyperchon’s new mandate for him after his release from Nora; see full discussion in Anson (1977) p 253. Polyperchon had been second-in-command to Craterus from Opis to Cilicia.
85.Ptolemy had married Antipater’s daughter, Eurydice, and Lysimachus may have already concluded his marriage to Nicaea, Perdiccas’ widow (if they ever married) and another of the regent’s offspring. Antigonus’ son Demetrius had recently married Phila, Craterus’ widow and a further daughter of Antipater; Diodorus 19.59.3-6. Antipater’s daughters were of course Cassander’s sisters.
86.See Rozen (1967) pp 29-32 for the order of the letters and the possibility of a single edict and a regent’s covering letter. Nepos 6 for messengers and correspondence; also Diodorus 18.58.2-4, Plutarch Eumenes 13.1-2.
87.Diodorus 19.23.2, translation from the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1947. Also Polyaenus 4.8.3 for the later episode involving a faked letter from Pella. Discussion of the possibility that these were false letters in Roisman (2012) pp 179-180.
88.Quoting Roisman (2012) p 186.
89.Theopompus fragment 217 and Polyaenus 4.2.8: discussion in Gabriel (2010) p 198 and p 211. If Eumenes served Philip for seven years before his king’s assasination, he was potentially acting as secretary on campaign.
90.Nepos 6-7, translation by Rev. JS Watson, George Bell and Sons, London, 1886. This parallels the letter at Diodorus 18.58.2-4.
91.Diodorus 19.14.6 and 19.27.5 for the troops sent from Parapamisadae by Oxyartes. Curtius 9.8.9-10 referred to Oxyartes as praetor Bactrianorum. This in fact makes more sense than appointing him to a foreign province: Paropanisadae according to Arrian 6.15.3.
92.‘Tender’ quoting Heckel (2006) p 242. Metz Epitome 101-102, 100, 112, Romance 3.32.4-7, Arrian 7.27.3 for Roxane’s role at Alexander’s death. Metz Epitome 115 was clear that the son of Roxane ‘before all others’ was to be the king of Macedonia; restated in the Romance 3.32. Her stopping Alexander throwing himself in the Euphrates reinforced that notion.
93.Nepos 7.1, translation by Rev. JS Watson, George Bell and Sons, London, 1886; Diodorus 18.58.3-4.
94.Diodorus 18.62.2 for Olympias writing to the Silver Shields.
95.Diodorus 18.64-65 for Nicanor’s receipt of Olympias’ instructions and his response. Heckel (2007) for discussion of Nicanor’s identity. See chapter titled Sarissa Diplomacy: Macedonian Statecraft for more on Nicanor and Aristotle by G Grote, John Murray, 1880, footnotes 23-24 with Heckel (2007) for further arguments on his identity.
96.Plutarch Phocion 29-38 for the
chain of events; also Diodorus 18.65.6, Nepos Phocion 3 ff. For Nicanor’s execution by Cassander see Diodorus 18.75.1-1, Polyaenus 4.11.2.
97.Polyaenus 4.11.2 for the forged letter. Nicanor had been involved in coordinated action with Antigonus at the Hellespont, see below.
98.Nepos 6, Diodorus 18.58.2-4 for Eumenes’ advice to Olympias on her return to Macedonia.
99.Diodorus 19.11.6-7, Aelian 13.36 for the capture and execution (forced sucide) of Eurydice and King Philip III (Arrhidaeus). More on Holcias’ role below.
100.Nepos 6 for Olympias’ failure to heed Eumenes’ advice to wait until the situation was safer. Anson (2014) p 129 for the treasury sum. As Olympias and Polyperchon combined forces at the battle, he may have journeyed to Epirus after failures in the Peloponnese.
101.Aeacides supported Olympias’ return to Macedonia, Diodorus 19.11.2, Justin 14.5.9.
102.Diodorus 19.11.2 for the victory of Olympia and Polyperchon over Eurydice. Carney (2006) pp 79-80 for the chronology. A tympanum is a drum used in Dionysiac rites; Carney (2006) p 97.
103.Athenaeus 13.560f for Adea’s battle dress; Kechel (2006) p 229 sees this as a fabrication of Duris. Following the observation about Olympias’ activity in Anson (1992) p 40; examples of Olympias’ political activity are found in Diodorus 18.49.4, 18.57.2, 18.65.1, 19.11.8-9, 19.35.3-5, 19.50.1, 19.50.8. Athenaeus 13.560f following the observation in Carney (2006) p 74 for the ‘first war between women’.
104.Herodotus 5.53 for the three days from Ephesus to Sardis on the Royal Road.
105.Diodorus 18.62.3-4 for ‘rebel of the monarchy’ and Nepos 3.1-2 for the suggestion that Perdiccas granted him authority from Mount Taurus to the Hellespont.
106.See Roisman (2012) p 180 footnote 8 for discussion. Briant also believed the letters from Polyperchon were partially forged.
107.Diodorus 18.51.3 for the siege of Cyzicus and 18.52.4 for Arrhidaeus’ rescue mission. Justin 14.2.4 reported an unlikely story that Antipater sent aid to Eumenes at Nora; it is more likely Justin confused ‘Arrhidaeus’ for ‘Antipater’, or confused references to the old and new ‘regents’, believing Polyperchon (probably under instruction from Olympias) sent the aid.
