1. An old saying has come down to us to the effect that democracies are undone not by ordinary people, but by men who stand out for their exceptional qualities. This is why some cities mistrust the most powerful of their citizens and curtail their opportunities for distinction. [2] For men who hold power year after year, the enslavement of their country seems no more than a small step to take, and it is hard for them to abstain from autocracy when their eminence has led them to entertain hopes of rulership. [3] After all, it is perfectly natural for men with great ambitions and limitless desires to want more. It was for these reasons, therefore, that the Athenians sent the foremost of their citizens into exile, by including among their statutes the process called ostracism.* This was not intended to punish a man for past crimes; it was a way of denying men who had the power to disregard the laws the ability to wrong the city. [4] In fact, they used to treat as a kind of oracular utterance those verses of Solon’s in which he predicted Peisistratus’ tyranny and included the following couplet:*
The city is being destroyed by great men, and the people,
All unwitting, succumb to the slavery of tyranny.
[5] Nowhere was this impulse towards autocracy more prevalent than in Sicily before the Romans gained possession of the island.* The cities there, duped by demagoguery, even went so far as to raise the weak to positions of such power that they became the masters of those they had duped. [6] The clearest case of this was when Agathocles became tyrant of Syracuse. This is a man who started with very meagre resources, and yet became the agent of the direst misfortunes for not just Syracuse, but all Sicily and Libya as well. [7] As a poor man, and one of no standing in society, he worked as a potter,* but later he gained so much power, and became so dreadfully thirsty for blood, that he enslaved the largest and fairest island in the world,* possessed, albeit briefly, a large chunk of Libya* and parts of Italy, and filled the Sicilian cities with violence and slaughter. [8] None of his predecessors as tyrants did anything this terrible,* and none of them used to act with such cruelty towards their subjects either. For example, Agathocles used to punish private citizens by wiping out their entire families, and his way of chastising cities was to slaughter every adult male. He would impose the punishment due to a few alleged wrongdoers on the general populace of a city, people who were entirely innocent; the entire populations of cities were condemned to death.
[9] But in fact Agathocles’ tyranny is not the only subject of this book, and I shall therefore forgo preliminary remarks about it. Instead, I shall continue with my sequential account of events, supplying, as a preliminary, only some indication of the period of time that is appropriate for this book. [10] In the previous eighteen books, I have, to the best of my ability, written up the histories of the known parts of the world from the earliest times until the year before Agathocles became tyrant, which was the 866th after the fall of Troy.* In this book, I shall start with the start of his reign and end with the battle at the Himeras river between Agathocles and the Carthaginians, covering seven years.*
2. In the year of the Archonship of Demogenes in Athens, the Romans appointed as their consuls Lucius Plautius and Manius Fulvius,* and Agathocles of Syracuse became tyrant of the city.
It will help to make the particular events I shall be narrating more comprehensible if I first briefly recapitulate the career of this dynast. [2] After having been exiled from his native city, Carcinus of Rhegium settled in Therma in Sicily, a city which was subject to the Carthaginians. He took up with a native woman, but after she became pregnant he began to be troubled every night by bad dreams. [3] This made him worried about what kind of a child he had fathered, and he instructed some Carthaginians who were setting sail for Delphi as sacred ambassadors* to ask the god about the child that was expected. The Carthaginians diligently carried out their instructions, and the oracle replied that the child that was born would be the cause of catastrophe for the Carthaginians and all Sicily. [4] The information alarmed Carcinus, and he exposed the child in a public place and posted men to make sure it died.* But several days later the child was still alive, and the men who had been given the job of watching over it began to get careless. [5] That, then, was when the mother came at night and sneaked the baby away. She did not take him back to her own house, because she was afraid of her husband’s reaction, but she left him with her brother, Heracleides, and named him Agathocles after her father.
[6] So the boy was brought up in Heracleides’ house. He became far better looking and physically stronger than was normal for his age, and when he was seven years old,* Carcinus, who had been invited by Heracleides to join him for a sacrifice, saw Agathocles playing with some other children of his own age, and expressed astonishment at how handsome and strong he was. The mother remarked that the child who had been exposed would be the same age, if he had lived, and Carcinus told her that he regretted what he had done and the tears poured from his eyes. [7] At that point, realizing that her husband was disposed to accept and approve of what she had done, she told him the whole truth. He was delighted, and he took back his son, but out of fear of the Carthaginians he moved his household to Syracuse. Since he was not well off, he arranged for young Agathocles to learn pottery.
[8] At this juncture, Timoleon of Corinth, who had recently defeated the Carthaginians at the Crimisus river,* offered Syracusan citizenship to all and sundry, and Carcinus had his name entered on the citizenship rolls along with that of Agathocles. Carcinus lived only a short while longer before dying. [9] The mother erected a marble statue of her son in a temple precinct as a dedication,* and a swarm of bees settled on it and made a comb of wax on its haunches. The professional interpreters were consulted about this portent, and they unanimously declared that at the prime of his life he would become very eminent—as, of course, he did.
3. A man called Damas, who was accounted one of the notables of Syracuse, became Agathocles’ lover, and in the early stages of their relationship it was thanks to him that Agathocles acquired a modest fortune, since he supplied all his needs with ample generosity. Then, some years later, Damas was appointed to the command of a war against Acragas, and when one of his chiliarchs died, he replaced him with Agathocles.* [2] Even before this campaign, Agathocles had been regarded with considerable awe because of the weight of his armour—he was accustomed to take part in military reviews wearing a suit of armour that was so heavy that everyone else found it too much of a burden—and after he had become chiliarch his fame increased by leaps and bounds, as someone who positively relished the dangers of battle and had a bold and fluent tongue when addressing the troops. And when Damas fell ill and died, Agathocles married his wife, who had inherited Damas’ entire estate, and so became accounted one of the wealthiest men in Syracuse.
[3] Some time later, the Bruttii had Croton under siege, and the Syracusans sent a strong force to help the Crotonians. One of the senior officers for this expedition was Antander, the brother of Agathocles, but the commanders-in-chief were Heracleides and Sosistratus*—scheming, murderous men, and perpetrators of horrors on a grand scale. I gave a thorough account of them in the previous book.* [4] Agathocles was serving as well, and since his calibre was recognized by the people, he had been given the rank of chiliarch. In the early stages of the campaign, he performed better than anyone else in fighting the barbarians, but even so he was denied the prize for valour by the envy of Sosistratus. [5] This hurt Agathocles badly, and in a speech to the popular assembly he accused Sosistratus of aspiring to tyranny. The Syracusans did not believe his allegations, but on his return from the Crotonian expedition Sosistratus and his friends did seize power in Syracuse.
4. Since Agathocles was not on good terms with Sosistratus, he and his supporters remained for a while in Italy. He tried to seize Croton, but was driven out of the city and escaped with a few friends to Tarentum. The Tarentines engaged him as a mercenary officer, but his involvement in a number of foolhardy enterprises led to his being suspected of plotting the overthrow of the government, [2] and he was discharged from their service as well. Next, he raised an army by collecting exiles from all over Italy, and went to help the people of Rhegium, who were under attack by Heracleides and Sosistratus. [3] Then, once the regime in Syracuse had been dissolved and Sosistratus and his friends were sent into exile,* Agathocles returned to the city.
Many eminent men were banished along with the leaders of the regime, on the grounds that they had been members of the oligarchy of the Six Hundred, which consisted of the foremost men in Syracuse, and war broke out between these exiles and the partisans of democracy. With the Carthaginians as allies of Sosistratus and the exiles, the fighting was relentless, and battle after battle took place between mighty armies. In the course of these battles Agathocles, whether or not he had been appointed to a command, gained a reputation as an effective and inventive tactician. Whatever the situation, he could always find some way of turning it to advantage.
One of these exploits of his is well worth recording. [4] It occurred at a time when the Syracusans were encamped near Gela. One night he slipped into the city with a thousand soldiers, but Sosistratus appeared with a large and disciplined force and forced them to flee, killing about three hundred in the process. [5] The remainder tried to escape, but found themselves in a confined space, where their annihilation seemed certain—but then, against the odds, Agathocles saved their lives. [6] No one had put up a more brilliant display of martial prowess than him; he had been wounded seven times and had lost so much blood that his strength was ebbing away. Nevertheless, with the enemy pressing hard, he ordered his trumpeters to go, some to the left and some to the right, and stand on the city walls and sound the signal for battle. [7] The order was promptly carried out, and because it was dark the Geloans who were attacking them were unable to see clearly and assumed that the rest of the Syracusan army had entered the city at these two points. They called off their pursuit, divided their forces in two, and raced off towards the sound of the trumpets to help defend their city. In the meantime, Agathocles and his men used the reprieve to return to their camp in complete safety. So that was how, on this occasion, Agathocles outwitted the enemy and, against the odds, saved the lives not only of his men, but of seven hundred auxiliaries as well.
5. Some time later,* when Acestoridas of Corinth had been elected General in Syracuse,* Agathocles was suspected of aspiring to tyranny, and he had to use his wits to escape with his life. Acestoridas was reluctant to do away with Agathocles openly, because he did not want to provoke civil unrest, so he ordered him to leave the city and sent men out at night to kill him on the road. [2] But Agathocles had guessed what Acestoridas was planning, and he selected from among his slaves the one who most closely resembled himself in height and general appearance. By giving this slave his own suit of armour, horse, and clothing, he tricked the men who had been sent to kill him. [3] As for himself, he dressed in rags and travelled across country. So the assassins, judging from the armour and other tokens that the slave was Agathocles, and prevented by the darkness from seeing clearly, did indeed commit murder—but they failed to carry out their mission.
[4] Next, the Syracusans took back the men who had been exiled along with Sosistratus and made peace with the Carthaginians. Agathocles, in exile, raised an army of his own in the interior. Once he had made himself an object of fear not only to his fellow citizens, but to the Carthaginians as well,* he let himself be persuaded to return to Syracuse. He was taken to the sanctuary of Demeter by the Syracusans, where he swore that he would do nothing to harm the democracy. [5] By pretending to be a champion of democracy, and by practising various forms of demagoguery on the masses, he got himself elected General and guardian of the peace, until such time as there was genuine concord among the inhabitants of the city. [6] For the clubs formed by like-minded people were divided into many factions, and every one of them had major differences of opinion with the others. But the most serious opposition to Agathocles came from the Council of the Six Hundred (which had governed the city during the oligarchy), because its membership consisted of the most eminent and wealthy men in Syracuse.
6. Agathocles was hungry for power, and he was well equipped to achieve his aim. As General, he had command of the army, but in addition the news that some rebels were mustering at Erbita,* in the interior, made it possible for him to enlist soldiers of his own choosing without arousing suspicion. [2] So, on the pretext of a campaign against Erbita, he enrolled in the army, from Morgantina and other cities of the interior, men who had earlier served with him against the Carthaginians. [3] Every one of these men was utterly loyal to Agathocles, since, thanks to him, they had done very well for themselves in the course of their campaigns. Moreover, they had always been hostile to the Six Hundred, the former oligarchs,† and were fundamentally opposed to the democracy because they hated having to take orders from the Syracusan people. There were about three thousand of these men, and their principles and their politics made them perfect instruments for the dissolution of the democracy. Agathocles also added to their number by selecting from the citizen body men who were poor and envious enough to be opposed to the ascendancy of the men of means.
[4] When he had everything ready, he ordered his soldiers to assemble at daybreak at the Timoleontium,* while he invited Peisarchus and Diocles to a meeting. These two were regarded as the political leaders of the Six Hundred, and Agathocles pretended that he wanted to discuss with them some matters of common interest. As soon as they arrived, however, with about forty of their friends, Agathocles had them arrested, on the pretext that they were plotting his death. He denounced them in an army assembly, claiming that the Six Hundred wanted to seize him because of his devotion to the common people, and deploring the way Fortune was treating him. [5] His men became incensed. They began to call on him to act immediately and summarily to punish those who had wronged him, and he ordered the trumpeters to sound the signal for battle. To his troops, his instructions were that they should kill the guilty and take for themselves the property of the Six Hundred and their sympathizers.
[6] So his men with one accord turned to plundering. The city descended into chaos and calamity stalked the streets, as members of the elite, unaware that they had been marked down for destruction, dashed out of their houses into the streets to find out what was causing the disturbance, and met death at the hands of Agathocles’ men. These men had been whipped up into a frenzy by a combination of greed and anger, and they set about killing men who, in their ignorance, appeared before them wearing no protective armour.
7. One after another, the streets were closed off by soldiers, and the massacre began both out in the open and in the houses. Many were killed even though they were not among those who were accused of anything, but just because they asked the reason for the killing. An armed mob had been let loose, and they were not inclined to distinguish friend from foe—or, rather, they regarded as an enemy anyone who seemed likely to enrich them.
[2] Everywhere in the city, then, the scene before a spectator’s eyes would have been one of violence, slaughter, and all kinds of criminal activity. There was no form of brutality that some of Agathocles’ men, who had long-standing grievances, did not employ against their enemies, now that they had the power to arrange everything for the gratification of their anger. Others imagined that slaughtering the rich was the way to remedy their own poverty and went out of their way to kill them. [3] While some broke down the courtyard doors of houses* or used ladders to climb on to the roofs, others fought those who had taken to the rooftops to defend themselves. Even supplicating the gods afforded no protection to those who had taken refuge in the temple precincts;* reverence for gods was overruled by men. [4] At a time of peace and within the borders of their own country, Greeks dared to use violence on Greeks, kin on kin. Nothing made them hesitate—no natural feeling of kinship, no sworn truce, no fear of the gods. The atrocities they committed would have provoked pity for the victims in anyone, even a confirmed enemy (assuming he was temperamentally not entirely given to excess), let alone a friend.
8. All the gates of the city were shut, and more than four thousand people were slain in a single day, whose only crime was to have been a cut above the others. Many turned to flight, but those who made for the gates were seized. Some jumped down from the walls and escaped to nearby cities, but others, too frightened to look before they leapt, landed badly. [2] In all, more than six thousand people were driven from the city. Most of them sought refuge in Acragas, where they were cared for as they deserved. [3] Agathocles and his men spent the day killing their fellow citizens, and so far from refraining from raping and violating women, they thought that defiling them in this way would constitute a suitable punishment for those of their menfolk who had escaped death. It was, after all, likely that the awareness that their wives had been violated and their daughters dishonoured would cause husbands and fathers more pain than death.
[4] I should keep my account free of the tragic effects that one commonly finds in the historians,* mainly out of respect for the victims, but also because none of my readers needs to hear details he can easily supply from his own understanding. [5] When men had no qualms, in the hours of daylight, about slaughtering their innocent victims in the streets and the agora, it hardly needs a writer to reveal what they got up to at night when they were on their own inside houses, and how they treated orphaned girls and women who had no one to help them and had fallen under the absolute power of their bitterest enemies.* [6] Two days later, then, by which time Agathocles was sated with the blood of his fellow citizens, he assembled the prisoners. He let Deinocrates live, in recognition of their former friendship, but the others were either killed, if they were unremittingly hostile to him, or sent into exile.
9. Next, he convened an assembly and gave a speech in which he denounced the Six Hundred and the oligarchic regime that they had earlier instituted. He claimed to have purged the city of men whose intention was to rule and to have given the people back their freedom in an untarnished form. Now that the struggle was over, he said, he wanted to live as an ordinary citizen with the same status as everyone else. [2] And with these words he tore off his military cloak, replaced it with a civilian himation,* and made as though to leave, having demonstrated that he was a man of the people. But in doing this he was merely assuming a democratic mask. Besides, he was well aware that the majority of those attending the assembly were implicated in his crimes, and would therefore never willingly choose anyone else as General. [3] And indeed, the men who had looted the homes of their hapless victims began loudly to beg him not to abandon them, but to accept supreme command.
At first, Agathocles kept quiet, but when the crowd became more insistent he agreed to accept the Generalship, but only if he held the office alone, [4] because he refused to be held legally accountable, he said, as a member of a board, for the illegal actions of others. The mob had no objection to his becoming sole ruler, and he was elected General Plenipotentiary. From then on, there was no doubt that he was the ruler of the city and that its administration was in his hands. [5] As for those Syracusans who were untainted by his crimes, some were too frightened to do anything except put up with the situation, and others, finding their strength less than that of the mob, did not dare to show their hostility when it would do no good. Many of those who were poor and in debt, however, welcomed the change, because in the assembly Agathocles kept promising to abolish debts and give land to the poor.*
[6] Now that he had got what he wanted, Agathocles called a halt to the killings and the punishments, and became a completely different kind of person.* He treated the masses with courtesy and made himself highly popular by improving a lot of people’s lives, by raising hopes of a better future in many others, and by never speaking harshly to everyone. [7] For all his great power, he did not behave like a typical tyrant: he did not adopt a diadem,* he did not surround himself with bodyguards, and he had no interest in making himself inaccessible. He managed the city’s finances, supervised the preparation of weaponry and artillery, and increased the strength of his war fleet by having extra ships built. He also gained the submission of most of the villages and towns in the interior of the island. That was how things stood in Sicily.
10. In Italy, the Romans were at war with the Samnites, as they had been for eight years.* In previous years they had fielded substantial armies, but this year, although they invaded Samnite territory, they achieved nothing important or worth recording. Nevertheless, they carried on attacking strongholds and ravaging farmland. [2] They pillaged all of Daunia in Apulia as well, and gained the submission of Canusium,* from where they took hostages. They also added two new tribes to the existing set, Falerna and Oufentina.*
[3] Meanwhile, the Crotonians made peace with the Bruttii, and elected two distinguished men, Paron and Menedemus, to take command of the war—now in its second year—against those of their citizens who had been exiled by the democracy because they had made common cause with Heracleides and Sosistratus. I gave the details in the previous book.* [4] The exiles recruited three hundred mercenaries, set out from Thurii, and tried to break into the city by night, but they were beaten back by the Crotonians and made camp on the borders between Croton and Bruttian territory. It was not long, however, before they were attacked by the Crotonian citizen militia, who greatly outnumbered them, and they were wiped out to a man in the battle.
Now that I have given an account of what was happening in Sicily and Italy, I shall move on to the rest of Europe. 11. In Macedon, Eurydice had become the effective head of state, and when she found out that Olympias was planning to return to Macedon,* she sent a courier to Cassander in the Peloponnese* with an urgent request for help, and set about making the most competent of the Macedonians personally loyal to herself by enticing them with gifts and promises of a brilliant future.
[2] Polyperchon, however, had the support of Aeacides of Epirus, and he raised an army and brought Olympias and Alexander’s son back to Macedon. When he heard that Eurydice was in Evia (a Macedonian town)* with her army, he took to the field against her, intending to settle the business with a single battle. The two armies formed up opposite each other, but the Macedonians, respectful of Olympias’ high rank and mindful of all the good Alexander had done them, deserted to Polyperchon’s side. [3] King Philip was captured straight away along with his retinue, and Eurydice was arrested as she was making her way to Amphipolis with one of her advisers, a man called Polycles.
[4] So the king and queen fell into Olympias’ hands and she gained the kingdom without a fight, but she made cruel use of her good fortune. The first thing she did was imprison both Eurydice and her husband Philip in particularly vile conditions: she walled them up in a tiny cell, leaving only a single narrow opening through which they were supplied with what they needed. [5] This abuse of the wretched prisoners went on for many days, but then the Macedonians began to feel sorry for Olympias’ victims and to think badly of her. She therefore arranged for Philip to be stabbed to death by some Thracians—he had been king for six years and four months—but to her mind Eurydice deserved a worse form of punishment, since she had been making her views known and crying out that the kingdom belonged to her rather than to Olympias. [6] She therefore sent her a sword, a noose, and some hemlock, and told her to use one of them, whichever she wanted, to kill herself. The former rank of her victim gave her not the slightest pause, nor was she moved to tears by the thought that all human lives are subject to Fortune—[7] and that is why, when it was her turn to fall, she died the kind of death that her savagery deserved. In fact, while the man who had brought the objects was still there, Eurydice prayed that the same gifts might come Olympias’ way. She prepared her husband’s body for burial, taking care of the wounds as well as she could under the circumstances, and then she hanged herself with her girdle. She shed no tears for her fate as she brought her life to an end, nor was she crushed by the weight of her misfortunes.*
[8] After killing Philip and Eurydice, Olympias did away with Nicanor, the brother of Cassander, and destroyed the tomb of Iollas, as a way, she said, of avenging Alexander’s death.* From among Cassander’s friends, she selected a hundred Macedonians of great distinction and slaughtered them all. [9] But glutting her anger with atrocities such as these soon made the Macedonians hate her for her savagery, and everyone remembered what Antipater had said. As though he were foretelling the future at the point of death,* he had warned them never to let a woman become the head of state. It was clear, then, given the way in which Macedonian affairs had been handled, that change was due.
12. In Asia, Eumenes wintered in Babylonia, along with the Macedonian Silver Shields and their commanding officer, Antigenes, at the Carian Villages, as they are called. While he was there, he sent embassies to Seleucus and Pithon, asking for their support in the kings’ cause—for them to join him in resisting Antigonus. [2] Pithon had been given the satrapy of Media, and Seleucus Babylonia, at the time of the second division of the satrapies at Triparadeisus.* Seleucus, however, said that, although he was ready to serve the kings, he would never agree to take orders from Eumenes, who had been condemned to death by the Macedonians in assembly.* And having formulated this policy, after thorough talks with his advisers, he sent an envoy off to Antigenes and the Silver Shields, calling on them to remove Eumenes from his command.
[3] The Macedonians ignored him, however, and after thanking them for their commitment to his cause, Eumenes marched off with his army and made camp by the Tigris river, three hundred stades from Babylon. His plan was to make his way to Susa, where he intended to send for the armies of the upper satrapies and draw on the royal treasury for his immediate expenses, [4] He had to cross over to the other side of the river, however, because the land to his rear had already been stripped by foraging, whereas the other side was untouched and had an ample supply of food for his men, [5] so he collected vessels from wherever he could find them. But then Seleucus and Pithon sailed down with two triremes and a large number of wherries,* the remainder of the boats that Alexander had built at Babylon.
13. After having come ashore at the landing, they renewed their attempt to persuade the Macedonians to remove Eumenes from his command, arguing that they should not prefer over themselves a man who was not a Macedonian and had indeed killed a great many Macedonians. [2] Antigenes was utterly unreceptive, however, and so Seleucus sailed off to an ancient canal, the opening of which had become blocked over the course of time, and breached it. The Macedonians’ camp was surrounded by water, and since the whole area around them had become a lake, there was a good chance that the entire army might be wiped out by the flood.*
[3] They stayed where they were without doing anything for the rest of the day, since they had no idea what to do, but the next day they appropriated the wherries—there were about three hundred of them—and got most of the army across the river. No one tried to stop them at the landing, because Seleucus had no infantry, and his cavalry were well outnumbered by their opposite numbers. [4] Eumenes was worried about the baggage, however, and after dark he had the Macedonians cross back over the river. With one of the locals directing the operation, he set about clearing a tract through which it would be easy to divert the canal and thus drain the surrounding land. [5] When Seleucus realized what he was up to, he sent heralds to arrange a truce, since he could do nothing to prevent Eumenes crossing and wanted him out of his satrapy as soon as possible. But he also lost no time in dispatching a courier to Antigonus in Mesopotamia, asking him to bring his army as soon as he could, before the satraps arrived with their armies.
[6] After crossing the Tigris and reaching Susiane, shortage of provisions forced Eumenes to divide his army into three, and they marched on in separate columns. There was no grain to be had at all, but the land was rich in crops such as rice, sesame, and dates, and Eumenes made sure that these were distributed to his men. [7] Even earlier,* he had sent the leading men of the upper satrapies the kings’ letters, which directed them to obey him in everything, and now he sent couriers, calling on them all to bring their armies and meet him in Susiane. Coincidentally, however, they had already mustered and united their forces for another purpose, which I must first explain.
14. Pithon had been made satrap of Media, but after he had become General of the Upper Satrapies,* he killed Philotas, the incumbent satrap of Parthyaea,* and replaced him with his own brother, Eudamus. [2] At this, all the other satraps joined forces, since they were afraid of the same kind of treatment, seeing that Pithon was restive and highly ambitious. They defeated him in a battle, inflicting heavy casualties on his men, and drove him out of Parthyaea. [3] At first, he withdrew to Media, but a short while later he went to Babylon, where he asked for Seleucus’ help and invited him to make common cause with him. [4] That, then, was why the governors of the upper satrapies had joined forces and Eumenes’ couriers found their armies ready and waiting.
The most distinguished of the leading men and the one who had officially been chosen as commander-in-chief was Peucestas. He had been one of Alexander’s Bodyguards, a promotion awarded him by the king for his courage.* [5] He had been satrap of Persis for a number of years and was well liked by the natives. We are told, in fact, that this is why he was the only Macedonian whom Alexander allowed to dress in the Persian style—because Alexander wanted the Persians to be content and thought he could use Peucestas to keep them utterly submissive. At the time in question, Peucestas had under his command ten thousand Persian archers and slingers, three thousand men of diverse origins armed in the Macedonian manner, six hundred Greek and Thracian cavalry, and more than four hundred Persian cavalry. [6] Polemon, the Macedonian who had been appointed the satrap of Carmania,* had 1,500 foot and seven hundred horse. Sibyrtius, the satrap of Arachosia, supplied a thousand foot and 610 horse, and Androbazus had been sent from Paropanisadae, Oxyartes’ satrapy, with 1,200 foot and four hundred horse. [7] Stasander, the satrap of Areia and Drangiane, had been joined by the Bactrian contingent and had 1,500 foot and a thousand horse. [8] And Eudamus came from India* with five hundred horse, three hundred foot, and 120 elephants. He had gained these elephants after Alexander’s death by assassinating King Porus. In all, then, the forces mustered by the satraps consisted of more than 18,700 foot and 4,600 horse.
15. When they reached Eumenes in Susiane, they convened a general assembly, in the course of which a fierce contest arose over who should be commander-in-chief. [2] Peucestas thought that he should have supreme command, not just because of the number of troops he was supplying, but also because of his seniority under Alexander. Antigenes; however, the general of the Macedonian Silver Shields, argued that the right to choose the commander should be granted to his Macedonians, since they had conquered Asia with Alexander and their calibre was such that they had never been beaten.
[3] Eumenes was afraid that if the commanders fell out with one another they would become easy prey for Antigonus, and his advice was that they should not choose a single leader, but that all the satraps and generals who had already been chosen by the army should meet every day in the royal tent and arrive at policy decisions by consensus. [4] His practice was to set up† a tent for the dead Alexander, with a throne in it,* at which the generals were accustomed to sacrifice and by which they met to discuss business that required their attention. Everyone indicated his approval of the suggestion as being in their best interests, and so every day Eumenes convened a council similar to that of a democratic city.
[5] Susa was their next destination. In their letters, the kings had made it clear that Eumenes was to be given as much money as he wanted, and the guardians of the treasury released enough for him to meet his commitments. He paid the Macedonians for six months and gave Eudamus, the man who had brought the elephants from India, two hundred talents. He claimed that the money was for the upkeep of the animals, but in fact this gift was a way of currying favour with the man, because, since it was the elephants’ job to strike terror, if Eudamus attached himself to one of the rival commanders, he would tip the scales decisively in that man’s favour. Each of the other satraps was responsible for the maintenance of the men he had brought from his country.
[6] So Eumenes was in Susiane, resting his troops. Antigonus, meanwhile, had wintered in Mesopotamia, and his original plan was to harry Eumenes before he became too strong. But when he heard that the Macedonians had been joined by the satraps and their armies, he checked his haste and let his men rest instead, while he recruited additional soldiers. It was clear to him that a large army and an unusual degree of forward planning were needed for this war.
16. Meanwhile, the generals who had been captured along with Alcetas’ army—Attalus, Polemon, Docimus, Antipater, and Philotas*—were being held in an especially secure fortress. The news that Antigonus was on his way to the upper satrapies, however, seemed to present them with a favourable opportunity, and they persuaded some of their keepers to release them. Then, in the middle of the night, they set upon their guards. They were only eight and the guard consisted of four hundred men, but campaigning with Alexander had honed their courage and skill. They seized Xenopeithes, the captain of the garrison, and threw him from the wall where the cliff was six hundred feet high. The rest they either killed or drove out of the fortress, and then they set fire to the buildings. [2] They were joined by about fifty men, who were waiting outside.
Since there was no shortage of grain and other supplies in the fortress, they debated whether they should stay and take advantage of the strength of the place while waiting for help to arrive from Eumenes, or escape as soon as possible and range around the countryside until the situation changed. [3] The discussion became quite heated, with Docimus arguing for departure and Attalus claiming to be in such poor health as a result of his time in prison that he would be unable to endure any hardship. But before they had settled their differences, soldiers from the nearby hill-forts formed themselves into a force of more than five hundred infantry and four hundred cavalry, and they were joined by some of the local inhabitants from various places, who numbered more than three thousand. These men selected a general from their own ranks and put the fortress under siege.
[4] Suddenly they were trapped inside again. Docimus, however, noticed that one of the ways down from the fortress had been left unguarded, and he sent a message to Stratonice, Antigonus’ wife, who was in the region. With her help, he and one other man escaped from the fortress, but he was considered untrustworthy and was handed over to her bodyguard.* The man who escaped with him, meanwhile, acted as a guide for the enemy; he led a sizeable force up to the fortress, and they occupied the top of one of the cliffs. [5] However, even though Attalus and his men were easily outnumbered, their prowess enabled them to put up a stiff resistance and keep fighting day after day. In fact, it was only after they had been under siege for a year and four months that they were overwhelmed and captured.
17. In the year of the Archonship of Democleides in Athens, the Romans appointed as their consuls Gaius Junius and Quintus Aemilius, and the 116th Olympic festival took place, with Deinomenes* of Laconia the victor in the stade race. In the course of this year:
[2] Antigonus left Mesopotamia and went to Babylonia, where he came to an agreement with Seleucus and Pithon for common action. Once he had received extra troops from them, he built a pontoon bridge across the Tigris, crossed his forces over, and set out against the enemy.* [3] When Eumenes heard the news, he ordered Xenophilus, who was responsible for the security of the Susa acropolis,* not to give Antigonus any money and not to parley with him either, and then he and his men set out for the Tigris.* The point where the river flows out of the mountains (which are inhabited by the Uxians, an independent people) is a day’s journey from Susa; the river is often three or even four stades wide, and in the middle of the stream its depth is about the height of an elephant. After the mountains, it flows for seven hundred stades and issues into the Red Sea;* there are plenty of saltwater fish in the river, and sea monsters as well, which are found especially at the time of the rising of the Dog Star.*
[4] With this river as his forward defence, Eumenes posted pickets all the way down the bank from its sources to the sea, and awaited the approach of the enemy. Guarding the river like this required a great many soldiers because of the distance involved, and so Eumenes and Antigenes asked Peucestas to send ten thousand bowmen from Persis. [5] At first, he failed to comply with their request, because he resented the fact that he had not obtained the supreme command, but later, after he had thought things through, he appreciated that the result, for him, of a victory for Antigonus would be the loss of his satrapy and possibly his life. [6] Out of self-interested concern, then, and because he thought that he was more likely to gain the supreme command if he had as many soldiers as possible, he brought up ten thousand bowmen, as requested.
Some Persians lived thirty days’ journey away, but even they received their orders on the very day they were sent out, because of their ingenious system of lookouts, which deserves a mention. [7] Persis is corrugated with many valleys, and there are a great many lofty observation points, one after another, on which the men with the loudest voices are posted. Since the places are separated by the distance a human voice can carry, those who received the order passed it on in the same way to others, who did the same again, until the message reached the limits of the satrapy.
18. While Eumenes and Peucestas were taking these measures, Antigonus continued to advance with his army and reached Susa, the royal capital. He appointed Seleucus satrap of the country, supplied him with troops, and ordered him to besiege the citadel, since Xenophilus, the treasurer, was refusing to obey his orders. Then he led his army off towards the enemy, along a road that was exposed to the blazing sun and was highly dangerous for foreign armies to take. Antigonus was forced to march by night and make camp by the river before sunrise. [2] Even so, he was unable to remain altogether unaffected by the hazards of the land, and despite his best efforts he lost many men to the extreme heat; it was, after all, the time of the rising of the Dog Star.
[3] When Antigonus reached the Coprates, he set about preparing to cross. The Coprates emerges from a mountainous region and joins the Pasitigris at a point which is eighty stades away from where Eumenes was encamped. The river is only about four plethra wide, but its current is swift, and boats or a bridge are needed to cross it. [4] Antigonus got hold of a few wherries and sent some of his men across in them, with the job of digging a trench and throwing up a palisade to accommodate the rest of the army.
However, when Eumenes heard from his scouts of Antigonus’ intentions, he marched across the Tigris bridge with four thousand foot and 1,300 horse, and fell on those of Antigonus’ men who had crossed the Coprates—more than three thousand foot and four hundred horse, and at least six thousand of the men who usually crossed in small groups to forage for food.* [5] Eumenes launched a surprise attack before they had a chance to form up, and most of them turned to flight straight away, but the Macedonians resisted, until Eumenes overwhelmed them with his superior power and numbers and forced them all to beat a hasty retreat to the river. [6] There was a general rush for the boats, but the number of men on board made them sink, while most of those who dared to try to swim across were carried away by the current and killed, although a few saved themselves in this way. [7] About four thousand non-swimmers chose captivity over drowning and were taken prisoner. Antigonus could see the scale of the losses he was incurring, but he lacked the boats to send help.
19. Since it seemed that there was no way he could get across the river, Antigonus left and made for the city of Badace, which lies on the river Eulaeus.* His route was open to the sun and the heat was so intense that losses were heavy and the army’s morale plummeted. [2] Nevertheless, after staying in Badace for a few days and letting his men recover from the ordeal they had been through, he decided that his best bet was to go to Ecbatana in Media, and to use that as a base from which to gain control of the upper satrapies.
There were two ways into Media, neither of them altogether straightforward. The road to Calon† was good, and was part of the Royal Road system,* but it was blazingly hot, and it was also long, since it took up to forty days to complete the journey. The road that went via Cossaean territory, on the other hand, was rough, narrow, and precipitous, and it also involved travelling through hostile territory where little was to be found in the way of supplies, but it was short and cool. [3] It was not easy for an army to take this route without having gained the consent of the barbarians who inhabit the mountains. They have been independent since ancient times,* and they live in caves on a diet of acorns, mushrooms, and the smoked flesh of wild animals.
[4] Antigonus considered it weak to gain the Cossaeans’ consent by diplomacy or bribery when he led such a strong army. He selected the best of the peltasts and divided them into two, with each division supported by archers, slingers, and other light infantry. He gave the command of one division to Nearchus, and ordered him to go on ahead and occupy the valleys and the hills, while he stationed the men of the other division all along the route. Then he advanced with the heavy infantry, and gave Pithon the command of the rear.
[5] The men who had been sent on ahead with Nearchus managed to seize a few peaks, but they found most of them, including the particularly important ones, already in enemy hands. They incurred heavy losses and barely made it through against the barbarians’ assaults. [6] As for Antigonus and his men, whenever they came to rough terrain they found themselves in desperate danger. The natives, who were on familiar ground, occupied the heights and set about rolling huge boulders, one after another, down on to his column, and they were also pouring arrows into the ranks of men who were unable to defend themselves or get out of the way of the missiles because of the ruggedness of the terrain. [7] The road was so precipitous and difficult to negotiate that the elephants, the cavalry, and even the heavy infantry found themselves both at risk and suffering from the fact that there was nothing they could do to help themselves. [8] In these dire straits, Antigonus regretted that he had not listened to Pithon when he recommended purchasing the right of passage. Nevertheless, after losing a lot of men and facing the prospect of annihilation, he eventually made it through, eight days later, to the civilized part of Media.
20. But the constant adversity and the extraordinary degree to which they had suffered turned the army against Antigonus, and they held him responsible for the three great setbacks with which they had been afflicted within the space of forty days.
Nevertheless, by treating the soldiers tactfully and making sure they had plenty of everything they needed, Antigonus managed to raise their spirits. [2] He dispatched Pithon to travel throughout Media and collect as many horsemen and war-horses as he could, and also large numbers of draught animals. [3] There is never any shortage of four-footed creatures in Media, so it was not difficult for Pithon to fulfil his mission, and he arrived back with two thousand horsemen, more than a thousand horses with their tack, and enough draught animals to furnish the whole army. He also brought five hundred talents from the royal treasury. Antigonus assigned the horsemen to regiments, gave the horses to men who had lost theirs, and restored himself to the army’s favour by distributing all the draught animals as gifts.
21. The news that the enemy was encamped in Media caused a dispute to arise among the satraps and generals in Eumenes’ camp. Eumenes, Antigenes (the commander of the Silver Shields), and all those who had come up from the coast held that they should go back there again, but those who had come down from the upper satrapies argued, out of concern for their territories, that they should stand by the inland provinces.* [2] The argument became increasingly heated, and since it was clear to Eumenes that, if the army split up, neither division would be able on its own to stand up to the enemy, he deferred to the wishes of the satraps who had come down from the upper satrapies. They therefore left the Pasitigris and went on to Persepolis, the royal capital of Persis, a journey of twenty-four days.
For the first stages of the journey, up to the so-called Ladder,* the road was sunken, it was stiflingly hot, and provisions were scarce, but the rest took place over high ground, with a wonderfully healthful atmosphere and plenty of fruits in season. [3] There were shady glens one after another, and parks with their varied stands, as well as naturally growing coppices of all kinds of trees, and streams of water, so that travellers thoroughly enjoyed the time they spent in places that were made to refresh them in the most delightful way. There was also a great deal of livestock of various kinds, and Peucestas arranged for the creatures to be delivered by the local inhabitants and distributed them in ample quantities to the troops, in order to win their allegiance. [4] The inhabitants of that land are the most warlike of the Persians, all of them being archers and slingers, and it is far more densely populated than the other satrapies.
22. When they reached Persepolis, the royal capital, Peucestas, the satrap of the province, performed a magnificent sacrifice to the gods, to Alexander, and to Philip. From almost the entirety of Persis he sent for sacrificial victims and ample quantities of everything else that was needed for festive merry-making, and he treated the army to a banquet. [2] He filled four concentric circles* with the couching† for the celebrants. The outer circle, with a circumference of ten stades, was occupied by the mercenaries and auxiliaries. The second circle, with a circumference of eight stades, contained the Macedonian Silver Shields and those members of the Companion Cavalry who had fought with Alexander. The circumference of the next circle was four stades, and the space was filled with reclining officers of the second rank, Friends, senior officers who had not been assigned posts, and the cavalry. The final circle had a circumference of two stades and the couches were occupied by the generals, the cavalry commanders, and the highest-ranking Persians. [3] In the middle of the circles were the altars for the gods, Alexander, and Philip. The couches were made from foliage and covered with tapestries and carpets of every description, since Persis has a bountiful supply of everything that contributes towards gracious and easy living. And the gaps between the concentric circles were large enough to ensure that the banqueters were not inconvenienced at all and that all the fare was ready to hand.
23. Everyone was being looked after to perfection and the assembled crowd applauded Peucestas’ zeal. It was clear that his popularity was increasing by leaps and bounds. Eumenes could see this too, and in his opinion it was because Peucestas wanted supreme command that he was behaving in this public-spirited way towards the masses. So Eumenes forged a letter, which he used not just to inspire his men with confidence for the coming battle, but also to reduce Peucestas’ authority and prestige by improving his own standing and making the rank-and-file soldiers believe that he had great prospects. [2] The gist of the letter was that Olympias had taken over responsibility for Alexander’s son; that Cassander had been killed and Olympias had also resumed control of the kingdom of Macedon; and that Polyperchon had entered Asia to deal with Antigonus, accompanied by the best regiments of the Royal Army and the elephants, and was already drawing near Cappadocia.* [3] The letter, written in Syrian,* allegedly came from Orontes,* who was the satrap of Armenia and a friend of Peucestas. The friendship between these two satraps afforded the letter credibility, and Eumenes ordered it to be taken around and shown not just to the commanders, but also to the troops, most of whom got to see it.
The entire army had a change of heart, and everyone’s thoughts turned to Eumenes and his prospects, because they supposed that, thanks to the support of the kings, he would also be able to advance anyone he wanted and punish anyone who got on the wrong side of him. [4] Wanting to intimidate those who were refusing to take orders from him or had their sights set on the generalship, after the banquet Eumenes brought charges against Sibyrtius, who was the satrap of Arachosia and a close friend of Peucestas. Without Sibyrtius’ knowledge, he sent some horsemen into Arachosia with orders to seize his baggage, and made things so hazardous for him that, if he had not managed to slip away out of the camp, he would have been condemned to death by the army assembly.*
24. Having cowed the others by this attack on Sibyrtius, and with his authority and prestige greatly enhanced, Eumenes changed tack and won Peucestas’ loyalty and his commitment to fight for the kings by treating him tactfully and promising him a splendid future. [2] As a hedge against betrayal by the other satraps and generals, he decided to take hostages from them, so to speak: he made out that he was short of money and asked each of them to lend the kings as much as he could spare. [3] From the leading men for whom this tactic seemed to him to be useful he received four hundred talents, and so men whom he had previously suspected of plotting against him or of intending to desert him became the most trustworthy protectors of his person and resolute fighters for his cause.
[4] While Eumenes was securing his future by outwitting these men like this, messengers arrived from Media with the news that Antigonus had broken camp and was on his way to Persis with his army. In response, Eumenes broke camp as well, since he had decided to meet the enemy and risk a decisive battle. [5] On the second day of the journey, however, he sacrificed to the gods and treated his men to a sumptuous feast. This may have made him popular with the troops, but in the course of the symposium he let himself be prevailed upon by those of the guests who were determined drinkers, and he fell ill. The march was delayed for several days, therefore, while he was incapacitated by his sickness. Morale in the ranks fell, because the enemy was expected to make contact with them before long and the most competent of their generals was laid low by illness. [6] Nevertheless, once the critical phase of the illness was past and he had somewhat recovered, he had the army advance under the leadership of Peucestas and Antigenes, while he was carried in a litter behind the rearguard, so that he would not be troubled by the noise and the crush.
25. When the armies were a day’s march away from each other, both sides sent out scouts, and once they had learnt the enemy’s numbers and intentions, they got ready for battle—but then they stood down without a fight. [2] What happened was that both armies formed up with a river and a gully in front of them as their forward defence, and the awkwardness of the terrain made it impossible for them to join battle. For four days, the armies, which were encamped at a distance of three stades from each other, spent the time skirmishing and foraging for food in the countryside, since all their supplies were low, but on the fifth day Antigonus sent a delegation to the satraps and the Macedonians, asking them to repudiate Eumenes and give their loyalty to him instead. [3] He guaranteed that the satraps would be allowed to keep their satrapies, and promised that everyone else would either receive a substantial amount of land or be sent back home laden with rewards and gifts, while those who chose to serve with him would be assigned to the appropriate units of his army.
[4] Not only did the Macedonians refuse to comply with Antigonus’ request, however, but they even threatened the lives of his emissaries. Eumenes came and thanked them, and told them a story—a traditional tale passed down from ancient times, but not inappropriate for the occasion. [5] In this fable a lion fell in love with a human girl and spoke to her father about marriage. The father said that he would gladly betroth his daughter to the lion, but that its claws and teeth had him worried. Suppose that, after the marriage, he lost his temper for some reason and treated his daughter with the ferocity of a wild beast. [6] The lion pulled out its claws and teeth, and when the father saw that it had lost everything that made it fearsome, he had no difficulty in beating it to death with a club. Eumenes said that Antigonus was doing much the same kind of thing—[7] that he would honour his promises until he had made the army his, and at that point would punish its leaders. The army was still applauding in agreement when he dismissed the assembly.
26. That night, however, some men arrived, deserters from Antigonus’ army, with the news that Antigonus had ordered his men to break camp at the second watch. After thinking it over, Eumenes correctly concluded that the enemy were going to withdraw to Gabene,* [2] which was three days’ march away, because its fields were unravaged and had plenty of grain and fodder, and in general because it was capable of supplying, more than adequately, the needs of large armies. [3] Moreover, these advantages were enhanced by the very geography of the place, with its rivers and steep-sided ravines.
Eumenes wanted to get there before the enemy, and he replicated Antigonus’ plan. He paid some of his mercenaries and sent them off as though they were deserters, having instructed them to say that he had decided to attack Antigonus’ camp that night.* Meanwhile, he sent the baggage on ahead and ordered his men to take as little time as possible over their evening meal and then to break camp. [4] All his orders were promptly carried out. When Antigonus heard from the ‘deserters’ that the enemy had decided to attack that night, he cancelled his departure and disposed his forces for the coming battle. [5] What with the confusion entailed by this, and his worrying about the future, he failed to notice that Eumenes had stolen a march on him and was making his way at speed towards Gabene.
Antigonus kept his men under arms for a while, until he found out from his scouts that the enemy had left and realized that he had been outmanoeuvred. He still kept to his original plan, however. [6] He ordered his troops to break camp and advanced at a rapid pace—almost as fast as a pursuit. But Eumenes had a start of two watches, and Antigonus knew that it would be hard for his whole army to catch up with a force that was so far ahead, and so he came up with the following plan. [7] He consigned the rest of the army to Pithon and ordered him to follow without undue haste, while he himself took the cavalry and rode hard after the enemy. By the time day was dawning, he had made contact with Eumenes’ rearguard as they were on their way down a line of ridges, and he took up a position on the ridges, where he could be seen by the enemy. [8] Eumenes was quite a way distant, but he could see the enemy cavalry, and since he supposed that the whole army was not far behind, he halted his troops and deployed them for the battle that he imagined was imminent.
[9] So the generals of both armies outwitted each other in this way. It was as though they were engaged in a preliminary contest of intelligence and were making it clear that, if victory came their way, it would be entirely their doing. [10] Be that as it may, this ploy of Antigonus’ enabled him to halt the enemy’s progress and bought him time for the rest of his army to catch up. When they arrived, he drew the entire army up for battle and marched his formidable forces down against the enemy. 27. Including the additional troops supplied by Pithon and Seleucus, he had in all more than 28,000 foot, 8,500 horse, and sixty-five elephants.*
The two generals deployed their troops differently, competing with each other to see which of them was the best tactician as well. [2] On his left wing, in contact with the rising ground of the foothills, Eumenes posted Eudamus, the man who had brought the elephants from India, with his personal guard of 150 heavy cavalry. Eudamus’ front was protected by two elite units of mounted lancers, each consisting of fifty men.† [3] Next, he posted the satrap Stasander, with 950 of his own cavalry, [4] and then Amphimachus, the satrap of Mesopotamia, who had six hundred cavalry under his command. Their neighbours were the six hundred horsemen from Arachosia who had formerly been led by Sibyrtius, but were now under the command of Cephalon, since Sibyrtius’ flight. [5] Next came five hundred horse from Paropanisadae and the same number of Thracians drawn from the military settlements of the upper satrapies.* On the flank of the whole wing, he stationed forty-five elephants slantwise, with a good number of archers and slingers in the spaces between the elephants.
[6] Once he had made these dispositions for securing the left wing, he arrayed the heavy infantry alongside it. The far left of the infantry phalanx was occupied by the mercenaries, of whom there were more than six thousand, and next to them came about five thousand infantrymen armed in the Macedonian manner, though they were of different races. 28. Next came the Macedonian Silver Shields, who numbered more than three thousand; they had never been beaten, and their prowess struck terror into every enemy they faced. Finally, there were more than three thousand Hypaspists, who, along with the Silver Shields, were commanded by Antigenes and Teutamus. [2] In front of the entire phalanx, Eumenes posted forty elephants, and filled the gaps between them with light infantry units.
[3] Next, he arranged his cavalry on the right wing. Immediately next to the phalanx were the Carmanians, led by Tlepolemus, their satrap. Then came the regiment known as the Companion Cavalry, nine hundred strong, and then the personal guard of Peucestas and Antigenes, which consisted of three hundred heavy cavalry amalgamated into a single unit. The far right of the wing was occupied by Eumenes’ personal guard, also three hundred in number, with his front protected by two squadrons of his Pages, each consisting of fifty horsemen; and beyond the wing, guarding its flank, were two hundred cavalry in a slanting formation, divided into four squadrons.* [4] In addition, he stationed three hundred horsemen, selected from all the cavalry regiments for their speed and strength, behind his personal guard. Along the front of the whole wing he posted forty elephants. In all, Eumenes’ army consisted of 35,000 foot, 6,100 horse, and 114 elephants.*
29. Looking down from a high place, Antigonus could see the enemy formation, and he made his own dispositions accordingly. Seeing that the enemy’s right wing had been strengthened by the elephants and the best of the cavalry, he stationed his lightest cavalry opposite them. They were to adopt an open order, avoid direct engagement, and wheel in and away from their opponents in order to neutralize this division of the enemy army, which was the one on which Eumenes was chiefly relying. [2] On this wing,† therefore, Antigonus posted the thousand horse-archers and lancers from Media and Parthyaea, who were perfect for a contest involving such harrying. Next to them, he placed the 2,200 Tarentines who had come up with him from the coast; they had been selected for their skill at catching an enemy unawares, and were staunchly loyal to him.* Then there were a thousand cavalry from Phrygia and Lydia, 1,500 of Pithon’s cavalry, the four hundred lancers under Lysanias, and finally the cavalry known as the ‘two-horsers’* and eight hundred Thracians from the military colonies of the upper satrapies. [3] These were the horsemen that made up Antigonus’ left wing, with Pithon in overall command.
As for the infantry, immediately next to the left wing were posted the mercenaries, of whom there were more than nine thousand, then three thousand Lycians and Pamphylians, then at least eight thousand men of different races armed in the Macedonian manner, and finally almost eight thousand Macedonians, who had been given to Antigonus by Antipater when he had been made custodian of the kingdom.*
[4] The first of the cavalry on the right wing, adjacent to the heavy infantry, were five hundred mercenaries of different races, then a thousand Thracians, five hundred auxiliaries, and next to them the thousand-strong regiment known as the Companion Cavalry. These men were under the command of Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, who was now about to fight alongside his father for the first time.* [5] At the outer end of the wing was the personal guard of three hundred cavalry, with whom Antigonus himself would fight. They were protected by three squadrons of Antigonus’ Pages, again numbering three hundred, who were posted alongside them† and were reinforced by a hundred Tarentines. [6] Slantwise, covering† the whole wing, Antigonus posted his thirty best elephants, and he filled the gaps between the elephants with selected light-armed units. The other elephants were mostly stationed in front of the heavy infantry, but there were also a few with the cavalry on the left wing.
[7] When he had formed his troops up in this order, Antigonus marched down against the enemy. He adopted an oblique front, in the sense that he pushed forward the right wing, on which he was chiefly relying, and held back the other, since he had decided that the one wing was to avoid battle while the other was to bear the brunt of the fighting.
30. When the armies were close to each other and the standard had been raised on both sides, the troops shouted out their battle-cries, first one side and then the other, several times each, and the trumpets sounded the signal for battle. Pithon’s cavalry units initiated the action. They were in open formation and their front was more or less unprotected, but they outnumbered their opponents and were more mobile, and they tried to make use of these advantages. [2] They judged it too hazardous to make a frontal attack on the elephants, but by riding around the enemy wing and taking it in the flank they began to wound the creatures with dense volleys of javelins and arrows. Thanks to their mobility they remained completely unscathed, but they injured the elephants a great deal, which were too heavy to give chase and could not retreat either when the occasion demanded it. [3] Seeing that his right wing was finding it hard to cope with the large number of horse-archers, Eumenes called up his lightest cavalry from Eudamus on the left wing [4] and led the entire unit out in column. He fell on the enemy with his light infantry and his lightest cavalry, and with the elephants backing him up he easily routed Pithon’s cavalry and pursued them as far as the foothills.
[5] Meanwhile, the infantry phalanxes had also been engaged for some time, but in the end, after heavy losses on both sides, Eumenes’ men won. They owed their success to the valour of the Macedonian Silver Shields. [6] Even though they were quite elderly,* the number of battles they had fought had honed their courage and their skills to an exceptional degree, until their sheer power overwhelmed everyone who confronted them. Hence, although at the time there were only three thousand of them, they had become the spearhead, so to speak, of the whole army.
[7] Antigonus’ left wing was in flight and his entire phalanx had been turned. He was aware of this, and he was being advised to pull back, while his division of the army was still intact, to the high ground where he could collect the survivors of the rout. He did not take this advice, however. Instead, by making clever use of the advantages afforded by the situation, he not only saved the lives of the fugitives, but also won the day. [8] What happened was that, as soon as Antigonus’ infantry turned to flight, Eumenes’ Silver Shields and the rest of his infantry forces set out in pursuit and followed them as far as the closest† foothills. [9] This opened a gap in the enemy’s formation, and Antigonus charged through it with some of his cavalry and attacked the flank of the troops stationed with Eudamus on the left wing. [10] Before long, because of the unexpectedness of the attack, he had put the enemy to flight and taken many lives. He then dispatched his lightest cavalry here and there, and used them to rally the fugitives and reorganize them in a line along the foothills. When Eumenes heard that his left wing had been turned, he had his trumpeters recall his men from the pursuit, because he needed to go and help Eudamus.
31. By then it was the time of night when lamps are lit, but even so, such was the determination to win that gripped not only the generals, but even the rank-and-file soldiers, that once they had rallied their fugitives, both sides set about marshalling their entire forces to renew the battle. [2] It was a clear night, with a full moon, and the armies were deploying with a distance of about four plethra between them, so the clattering of weapons and the whinnying of horses seemed to all the combatants to be very close by. But while they were still regrouping, at a point that was about thirty stades from the bodies of those who had fallen in the battle, the hour of midnight arrived, and both sides were so exhausted by their marching, their efforts on the battlefield, and lack of food, that they were forced to abandon the idea of renewing the battle and make camp instead.
[3] Eumenes wanted control of the collection of the dead, to put his victory beyond dispute,* so he endeavoured to go back to the battlefield, but when his men refused and loudly insisted on returning to their baggage, which was a good way off, he yielded to the majority. He had no choice in this, [4] because he was not in a position to censure the troops sharply when there were plenty of men who disputed his right to command, and this was obviously not the right time to punish disobedience in the ranks. Antigonus, however, was secure in his command and had no need to take account of the wishes of the majority, and he prevailed upon his men to make camp near the bodies. Since he had control of their burial, he declared himself the winner, on the ground that possession of the dead constituted victory in battle. [5] On Antigonus’ side about 3,700 infantry lost their lives in the battle, and fifty-four horsemen, while more than four thousand were injured, and on Eumenes’ side 540 infantry died—his cavalry was more or less unscathed, however—and more than nine hundred men were wounded.
32. After withdrawing from the battle, Antigonus could see that his men were disheartened and he decided, as a matter of urgency, to get as far away from the enemy as possible. Wanting the army to be unencumbered for the retreat, he sent the wounded men and the heaviest baggage on ahead to a nearby town, and as soon as it was light he buried his dead. He detained the herald who had come from the enemy camp to arrange for the collection of their dead,* and ordered his men to eat their main meal early. [2] In the evening, he sent Eumenes’ herald back, having granted permission for the dead to be collected the next day. Then, just as the first watch was beginning, he marched off with his entire army. By forcing the pace he managed to put a considerable distance between himself and the enemy, and ended up in a part of the country that had not been plundered, where his men could rest and recover. In fact, he went as far as Gamarga, a place in Media (Pithon’s satrapy), which was capable of supplying, more than adequately, everything a large army might need in the way of sustenance. [3] When Eumenes was informed by his scouts that Antigonus had left, he decided not to go after him, because his own men were also short of food and suffering greatly from battle fatigue, and instead he focused on disposing of the dead and made sure that they received a magnificent funeral.
A curious thing happened at this point, something that was quite different from the way things were done in Greece. 33. Ceteus, the commander of the Indian troops, died in the battle after putting on a dazzling display of valour, and he left two wives, who were with him in the camp, one of whom he had recently married, while the other had been his wife for a few years. Both the women were very fond of him. [2] Now, it is a long-standing custom in India that husbands and wives do not get married as a result of a decision taken by their parents, but by mutual agreement. In the past, this courtship took place when the people involved were rather young, and they often found that they had made the wrong choice and came to regret what they had done. Many wives allowed themselves to be seduced and out of moral weakness gave their love to other men. But since they could not leave the husbands they had originally chosen without bringing shame on themselves, they used to kill their husbands with poison. The land, it has to be said, furnished them with plenty of means for doing so, since it produced a wide variety of poisons, some of which caused death simply by being spread on food or drinking-cups.
[3] Eventually, this form of wickedness became so widespread that many men were being killed in this way. The women who committed the murders were punished, but this failed to deter the rest from their criminal ways. So they passed a law to the effect that wives were to be cremated along with their husbands, unless they were pregnant or had children, and that anyone who refused to obey the regulation should not only remain unmarried, but should also be regarded as unclean and be banned for life from attending sacrifices and other rites. [4] Once this law was in force, it brought about a complete and utter change in the women’s lawless behaviour. The dishonour they faced was so severe that they all preferred to endure death, and every wife therefore began not only to protect her husband, since his safety was hers too, but even to vie with the other wives as though she were competing for the greatest of honours.*
34. The occasion about which I am writing was a case in point. Although the law states that only one wife is cremated along with her husband, both of Ceteus’ wives turned up for his funeral, vying as keenly with each other for the right to die with him as one would over an award for valour in battle. [2] The generals took on the job of arbitrating the dispute, and the younger woman claimed that her rival was pregnant and was therefore ruled out, but the older woman argued that, in all justice, the one with more years should have more honour too, seeing that in all other matters older people are regarded as deserving far more respect and honour than their juniors.
[3] Anyway, with the help of experts in midwifery the generals determined that the older woman was indeed pregnant, so they chose the younger. When this happened, the woman against whom the decision had gone left in a flood of tears, shredding the diadem she wore on her head and tearing at her hair, just as if she had received news of a terrible disaster. But the other woman, made jubilant by her victory, withdrew to the pyre. Her hair bound with fillets by her maidservants, and clothed in finery as though for a wedding, she was escorted by her relatives, who were celebrating in song the excellence of her character.
[4] When she came near the pyre, she began stripping off her jewellery and giving it to her family and friends, so as to leave those who loved her with a memorial, as one might call it. Her jewellery consisted of a number of rings for her hands, set with colourful precious stones; a headband with a large number of golden stars alternating with precious stones; and a number of necklaces for her throat, which started small and became progressively larger row by row. [5] Finally, after embracing her family, she was helped on to the pyre by her brother and, with the crowd that had gathered for the spectacle looking on in admiration, she brought her life to an end with consummate bravery. [6] The entire army marched under arms three times around the pyre before it was lit, while she lay down next to her husband. As the flames rapidly spread, she let no cry of weakness escape her lips, and while some spectators were moved to pity, others found her deserving of the highest praise. Some of the Greeks, however, denounced the practice as cruel and inhuman.
[7] After he had seen to the burial of the dead, Eumenes left Paraetacene* and went to Gabene, which had not been plundered and was capable of supplying, more than adequately, everything an army might need. [8] Antigonus’ camp was a journey of twenty-five days away from his, if one travelled through civilized parts, but nine days if one crossed the uninhabited and waterless desert.* So Eumenes and Antigonus were wintering this far apart from each other in the places I have mentioned, allowing their men time to recover.
35. In Europe, Cassander was in the Peloponnese, where he had Tegea under siege,* but when he heard that Olympias had returned to Macedon and that Eurydice and King Philip had been killed—and when he heard how the tomb of his brother Iollas had been treated*—he came to terms with the Tegeans and marched on Macedon with his army. This disturbed his allies a great deal, because Polyperchon’s son Alexander was waiting with an army for an opportunity to attack the Peloponnesian cities.
[2] The Aetolians wanted to get on good terms with Olympias and Polyperchon,* so they occupied the narrows at Thermopylae and blocked Cassander’s passage. He decided against forcing his way through, given the difficulty of the terrain, and arranged instead for boats and scows to come from Euboea and Locris, and transported his forces to Thessaly by sea. [3] When he was informed that Polyperchon and his army were protecting Perrhaebia, he left it up to his general Callas to deal with that division of the enemy, and sent him on his way with an army, while Deinias, who was to occupy the passes into Macedon, went to confront the troops who had been sent into the field by Olympias and succeeded in gaining control of the passes before they did.
[4] The news that Cassander was close to Macedon with a large army prompted Olympias to appoint Aristonous her general, and she ordered him to deal with Cassander, [5] while she went to Pydna with her companions: Alexander’s son; the boy’s mother, Rhoxane; Thessalonice, the daughter of Philip, the son of Amyntas; Deidameia, who was the daughter of King Aeacides of Epirus and the sister of Pyrrhus, the man who later fought the Romans;* the daughters of Attalus; and also the relatives of other eminent friends of hers. This meant that although there were a great many people gathered around her, most of them were of no use in military terms; and in fact there was not enough food there for them either, if they were to face a protracted siege. [6] The risk she was running in all this was obvious, but she still decided to stay in Pydna, since she hoped that plenty of Greeks and Macedonians would come to her aid by sea. [7] She had with her some of the Ambraciot cavalry, most of the troops who were usually attached to the court, and also the remainder of Polyperchon’s elephants—the remainder, because the rest had been captured by Cassander during his previous invasion of Macedon.*
36. This time, he marched through the narrows of Perrhaebia and halted close to Pydna. He surrounded the city from sea to sea with a palisade, and from those who wanted to become his allies he requisitioned ships, all kinds of artillery, and siege engines, because his intention was to besiege Olympias by land and sea. [2] When he found out that Aeacides, the king of Epirus, was planning to come in force to help Olympias, he put Atarrhias in charge of an army and ordered him to go and meet the Epirotes. [3] Atarrhias smartly carried out his orders: he occupied the passes from Epirus and succeeded in neutralizing Aeacides.* In fact, most of the Epirotes had been pressed against their will into campaigning in Macedon and were making trouble in the camp. Aeacides was desperate to help Olympias,* and he discharged those who were disaffected and took with him only men who were willing to fight alongside him. But although he remained determined to fight, the number of men who stayed with him was too small and he was no match for the enemy.
[4] The Epirotes who left the expedition and returned to their country rebelled against the king in his absence; they officially condemned him to exile and entered into an alliance with Cassander. Nothing like this had ever happened before in Epirote history, ever since the reign of Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles;* up until then, sons had always succeeded to their fathers’ rule and had died while still occupying the throne. [5] Cassander accepted Epirus into his alliance, and sent Lyciscus there as both civil and military governor.* At this juncture, those Macedonians who had previously been undecided about whom to side with saw that Olympias’ position was hopeless and joined Cassander. The only chance Olympias had of receiving help lay with Polyperchon, but this hope too was unexpectedly extinguished. [6] When Callas, whom Cassander had dispatched with an army, drew near Polyperchon’s position in Perrhaebia, he made camp and set about bribing most of Polyperchon’s troops to defect, until only his most loyal men remained, and there were not many of them. So, in just a short time, Olympias’ hopes were crushed.
37. In Asia, Antigonus was wintering in Media, in Gadamela.* It was clear to him that he was outclassed by the enemy, so he wanted to take them by surprise and outmanoeuvre them. Now, Eumenes’ forces had scattered for their winter quarters, so much so that some divisions were six days’ journey away from others. [2] Antigonus therefore decided against taking the route that passed through civilized parts, because of its length and because it was easily visible to the enemy, and opted for the bold tactic of marching through the uninhabited and waterless desert. This would certainly be arduous, but it would best serve the kind of offensive he had in mind, not just because it would reduce the amount of time spent on the march, but also because it would not be difficult for him to remain unobserved by the enemy, and then he could take them by surprise, seeing that they had been stupid enough to disperse among separate villages and were taking few precautions.
[3] Once he had formulated this plan, he ordered his troops to be ready to break camp and to prepare ten days’ worth of food that would not require cooking. Then, after disseminating the rumour that he was about to set off for Armenia, he suddenly confounded everyone’s expectations by setting out through the desert, even though it was about the time of the winter solstice. [4] His instructions to his men as regards their encampments were that they could light cooking fires in the daytime, but they had to extinguish them completely after dark, so that people living in the hills could not spot them and inform the enemy of what was happening. [5] The point being that, although the desert was almost entirely level, it was surrounded by high hills from which the gleam of campfires would be easily visible at a considerable distance.
However, after the army had been on the march for five days, under very difficult conditions, the soldiers began to light fires in their camps at night as well as in the daytime, because of the cold and other pressing needs, [6] and this was indeed noticed by some of the inhabitants of the margins of the desert. They sent messengers on dromedaries to Eumenes and Peucestas, because these creatures can keep going for almost 1,500 stades.
38. When Peucestas found out that the enemy encampment had been observed halfway across the desert, he decided to withdraw to the furthest limits of the territory in which they were wintering. He was afraid of being caught by the enemy before all the contingents of the army had reunited from their various quarters. [2] When Eumenes saw how discouraged Peucestas was, he told him that there was no need for it. He could safely stay on the margins of the desert, he said, because he had found a way to delay Antigonus’ arrival for three or four days. If that happened, he pointed out, their own forces would be assembled with time to spare, and the enemy would be at their mercy, since they would be weary and their provisions would be utterly exhausted.
[3] Everyone expressed surprise at this unexpected promise. They asked what he was going to do to slow down the enemy’s advance, and Eumenes told all the commanders to gather their men and come with him, bringing a great many pots filled with fire. He chose a spot in the hills which faced the desert and was easily visible from all directions, and marked out an area with a perimeter of about seventy stades. He divided this space up into sectors, one for each of the officers who had come with him, and ordered them to light fires at night, at a distance of about twenty cubits from one another. During the first watch, they were to have the fires blaze up, as though men were still awake, and were tending the fires and cooking their evening meal. In the second watch, they were to let the fires die down a bit, and then in the third watch they were to leave just a very few burning, so that anyone watching from a distance would gain the impression that this was a genuine encampment.
[4] The soldiers carried out his orders, and the fires were noticed by some shepherds on the facing hills who were on good terms with Pithon, the satrap of Media. Since they supposed that there really was a camp there, they hurried down to the plain and told Antigonus and Pithon, who were taken aback. [5] They had not been expecting anything like this, and they halted the march while they talked over how they should respond to the information, seeing that it would be risky for men who were weary and utterly provisionless to join battle with an enemy who had already reunited his forces and had plenty of supplies. [6] The conclusion they came to was that someone had betrayed them—that the enemy had reassembled because they had been warned—and so they abandoned the idea of carrying on straight ahead. They turned right instead, and marched to unplundered† parts of the inhabited country, because their men needed to recover from their ordeal.
39. Having outwitted the enemy with this stratagem, Eumenes recalled from their various quarters the soldiers who were spending the winter dispersed among the villages. He erected a palisade and protected the encampment with a deep trench, and began to receive the allied troops as they turned up. He also stocked the camp with everything the army might need. [2] But after crossing the desert, Antigonus was told by the locals that, although all the rest of Eumenes’ army had assembled, the elephants’ departure from their winter quarters had been delayed—and they were not far from his position, all by themselves with no support.
Antigonus sent some of his cavalry against the elephants—two thousand Median lancers and two hundred Tarentines—and all his light infantry. [3] He was hoping that an attack on the creatures while they were isolated would make it easy for him to capture them and deprive the enemy of the strongest division of his army. But Eumenes guessed what was going to happen, and sent 1,500 of his best cavalry and three thousand light infantry to the aid of the elephants. [4] Antigonus’ troops got there first, however, and the commanders of the elephants formed a square and carried on, with their baggage safe in the middle, and in the rear the cavalry unit of four hundred or so men which was attached to them. [5] Antigonus’ men threw all their weight into their assault and attacked with extreme force. The cavalry was overwhelmed by their superior numbers, and turned to flight, but the men mounted on the elephants resisted and persevered for a while under a hail of fire from all directions, but were unable to inflict any harm on the enemy. [6] Just as they were beginning to give in, however, the troops sent by Eumenes appeared and snatched them from the jaws of danger.
A few days later, with the two armies encamped facing each other, forty stades apart, both sides drew up their forces for what they expected would be the decisive battle. 40. Antigonus distributed his cavalry between the wings. The command of the left wing he gave to Pithon and that of the right to his son Demetrius. As for himself, he decided to fight alongside his son. He stationed the infantry in the centre, deployed the elephants along the whole front, and filled the gaps between them with light infantry units. In all, his army consisted of 22,000 foot,* nine thousand horse (this included the extra troops raised in Media),* and sixty-five elephants.
[2] When Eumenes found out that Antigonus had positioned himself on the right wing with his best cavalry, he drew up his forces in response, with his best men posted on the left wing. In fact, he posted most of the satraps there, with their accompanying elite cavalry units, and he himself intended to fight alongside them as well. On this wing there was also Mithridates, the son of Ariobarzanes; a descendant of one of the seven Persians who killed the Magus, Smerdis,* he had been trained from childhood onwards as a soldier and was a man of exceptional courage. [3] On the flank of the whole wing, he deployed his sixty best elephants slantwise, with the gaps between them occupied by light infantry units.
Immediately next to the left wing he posted the Hypaspists, then the Silver Shields, and finally the mercenaries and those of the remaining contingents which were armed in the Macedonian manner. In front of the infantry, he stationed elephants and an adequate force of light infantry. [4] On the right wing, he posted the weakest of his cavalry and elephants, with Philip in overall command. Philip’s orders were to avoid battle and to watch the other wing, to see how the battle there turned out. In all Eumenes had under his command at the time 36,700 foot, six thousand horse, and 114 elephants.
41. Shortly before the battle, Antigenes, the general of the Silver Shields, sent a Macedonian cavalryman to the enemy phalanx, with the job of delivering a shouted message when he was close enough. He rode up all alone to a point where his voice would carry to Antigonus’ Macedonian heavy infantry and called out: ‘You scum! Are you really going to fight your fathers, who conquered the world with Philip and Alexander? You will soon see that they are worthy of the kings and of their past battles.’ [2] The point was that, even though at this time the youngest of the Silver Shields were about sixty years old, and most of the rest were about seventy or, in a few cases, even older, their experience and strength were such that they were invincible. They had gained an extraordinary degree of skill and daring as a result of the constant battles they had fought. [3] The effect on Antigonus’ men of this declaration was to make them give voice to their disgust that they were being forced to fight men who were kin and their elders, while in Eumenes’ ranks cheers could be heard, and they called on him to lead them straight against the enemy. When Eumenes saw how determined they were, he raised the standard, which was the cue† for the trumpeters to sound the signal for battle and for the whole army to raise the battle-cry.
42. The first to engage were the elephants, and then the majority of the cavalry.* Now, the plain was very extensive, and was completely uncultivated because of the amount of salt that permeated it, and as a result so much dust was raised by the cavalry that no one could make out what was happening just a short distance away. [2] When Antigonus noticed this, he sent the Median cavalry and a good number of the Tarentines against the enemy’s baggage train, hoping—and he was not deceived—that the dust would keep them hidden and that the capture of the baggage would bring him an easy victory. [3] The detachment rode around the enemy wing and attacked the baggage train, which was about five stades away from the battlefield, without being noticed. They found it packed with non-combatants, but poorly defended, and it did not take them long to scatter those who offered resistance and capture all the rest.
[4] Meanwhile, Antigonus joined battle with his immediate opponents. His appearance at the head of a large body of horsemen panicked Peucestas, the satrap of Persis, and when he retreated out of the dust clouds with his cavalry he drew with him about 1,500 of the others as well. [5] Eumenes was left isolated at the outer end of the wing with only a few men, but he judged it disgraceful to yield to Fortune and flee. Preferring to die as a result of taking the noble decision to remain true to the trust placed in him by the kings, he made a push for Antigonus himself. [6] A hard-fought cavalry battle ensued, in which losses were heavy on both sides, because while Eumenes’ men had the advantage in terms of determination, they were outnumbered by their opponents.
There was also a battle going on between the elephants, and just then Eumenes’ premier elephant fell, after a fight with the strongest of Antigonus’ creatures. [7] Eumenes could see that everywhere his men were getting the worse of it, so he extracted the remainder of the cavalry from the fighting and went to the other wing, where he assumed command of the troops he had assigned to Philip, whose job had been to avoid battle. That was the outcome of the cavalry engagement.
43. As for the infantry, the Silver Shields adopted a compact formation and overwhelmed their immediate opponents, who either died on the battlefield or were forced to flee. The Silver Shields were unstoppable, and when they turned to engage the enemy phalanx as a whole, they were so superior in terms of skill and strength that not a single one of them lost his life, while they killed over five thousand and routed all the rest of the enemy infantry, despite the fact that they were greatly outnumbered.*
[2] Eumenes was informed about the capture of the baggage, but he also found out that Peucestas and his cavalry were still close at hand, so he tried to rally all the cavalry and renew the fight against Antigonus, in the hope that victory would enable him not just to save his own baggage, but to gain the enemy’s as well.* [3] But so far from obeying him, Peucestas retreated to an even more remote spot, and since at the same time it began to get dark, Eumenes had no choice but to bow to circumstances.
[4] Antigonus divided his cavalry into two. He took charge of one division and waited to respond to Eumenes’ next move, while he put Pithon in charge of the rest of the cavalry and ordered him to attack the Silver Shields, now that they were isolated and there was no chance of their receiving cavalry support. [5] Pithon promptly carried out his orders, but the Macedonians formed a square and retreated safely to the river,* where they began to denounce Peucestas as the one who was to blame for the defeat of the cavalry.
When Eumenes joined them as well, at about the time that lamps are lit, they met and tried to decide what to do. [6] The satraps argued that they should beat a hasty retreat to the upper satrapies, but Eumenes said that they should stay and continue the fight, since the enemy phalanx had been shattered and the cavalry forces of both sides were equally matched. [7] The Macedonians, however, were unhappy with both suggestions because of the capture of their baggage, which left their children and womenfolk, and others they could not live without,* in enemy hands. [8] The meeting therefore broke up for the time being without their having come up with a plan that met with everyone’s approval, and the Macedonians then entered into secret negotiations with Antigonus. They seized Eumenes and handed him over,* recovered their baggage, and, once they had received guarantees of safety, were enrolled in Antigonus’ army.* [9] Likewise, the satraps and most of the other officers and ordinary soldiers abandoned their general and thought only of their own safety.
44. So Eumenes and the entire enemy army suddenly fell into Antigonus’ hands. Antigenes, the commander of the Silver Shields, Antigonus arrested, placed in a pit, and burnt alive. Eudamus, who had brought the elephants from India, and Celbanus, and some others who had been unremittingly hostile to him, he executed. [2] Eumenes was put under guard while Antigonus tried to decide what to do with him. As a good general—and as one who would be in his debt—he wanted Eumenes on his side, but he had little faith in his promises because of his loyalty to Olympias and the kings. Earlier, in fact, even after he had spared his life at Nora in Phrygia,* Eumenes had still committed himself absolutely to fighting for the kings. Since Antigonus could also see that the Macedonians were not going to give up their desire to see Eumenes punished,* he put him to death. But because of their earlier friendship, after he had cremated the body he put the bones in a container and sent them to his family. [3] Among the wounded who were brought in as prisoners was the historian Hieronymus of Cardia, who in earlier years had always been held in high regard by Eumenes, and who after Eumenes’ death was treated well by Antigonus and won his trust.
[4] Antigonus took his whole army into Media, where he spent the winter in a village near Ecbatana, the royal capital of Media, while accommodating his men here and there throughout the whole satrapy, and especially in the district called Rhagae, which was named after a disaster that happened there in the past.* [5] There was nowhere in that part of the world that had more or more prosperous cities, but it experienced earthquakes of such violence that both the cities and all their inhabitants were obliterated, and the countryside was completely transformed, with new rivers and lakes replacing those that had been there before.
45. In this year the third inundation of the city of Rhodes took place, in which many of the inhabitants lost their lives. The first inundation caused little disruption to people, since the city had only recently been founded* and therefore had plenty of open spaces. [2] The second was more serious and more people lost their lives. The last one occurred at the beginning of spring, when suddenly a storm broke out, with torrential rain and hailstones of an unbelievable size. Some weighed as much as a mna or even more, and as a result many houses collapsed under their weight and quite a few people died. [3] The town was shaped like a theatre, which meant that most of the water that poured down the slopes ended up in the same place and the lowest-lying parts of the town immediately began to be flooded. The drains had been neglected, because the rainy season was supposed to be over, and the drainage slits in the walls had become blocked.
[4] The water rose at an alarming rate, and soon the whole area around the wholesale market and the temple of Dionysus was flooded. By the time the temple of Asclepius was threatened with inundation panic was rife and everyone began trying to find some way or another of saving their lives. [5] Some ran to the ships, others raced to the theatre, while a few, who had already been caught up in the disaster and had no other recourse, climbed up on to the tallest altars or statue bases. [6] The city was in danger of being wiped out along with its inhabitants, but then luck came to the rescue: a long stretch of the city wall collapsed, the accumulated water poured out through the breach into the sea, and life soon returned to normal for everyone. [7] It helped that the flood happened in daylight, because most of those who were threatened by it had time to escape from their homes to the higher parts of the city, and it also helped that the houses were made out of stone rather than brick, which meant that people who took refuge on rooftops remained safe and sound.* [8] All the same, it was a major disaster; more than five hundred people lost their lives, and many buildings either collapsed completely or were badly damaged. That was how close the city of Rhodes came to destruction.
46. When Antigonus, who was wintering in Media, heard that Pithon was winning over many of the soldiers in their winter quarters by making them promises and giving them gifts—in other words, that he was planning to rebel—he concealed his intentions and made out that he did not believe those who were bringing these charges against Pithon. He told them off in front of many witnesses for trying to break up their friendship, and had the rumour spread abroad that he was going to leave Pithon as General of the Upper Satrapies and give him an army that was large enough to protect them. [2] He even wrote to Pithon, asking him to come as soon as possible, so that they could meet face to face and make all the necessary arrangements, and then he could go down to the coast without further delay.
The point of this ploy was to keep Pithon from suspecting the truth, and to seduce him into his grasp by convincing him that he was going to be entrusted with the satrapies when Antigonus left. After all, it was hardly practicable to use force to arrest a man whose abilities had led to his advancement by Alexander, who was the current satrap of Media, and who had made himself popular with the whole army. [3] Pithon was spending the winter in the most remote part of Media, and he already had the assurances of a large number of men, whom he had bribed, that they would join his rebellion, but when his friends wrote to him about Antigonus’ plans and hinted at his great prospects for the future, he was deceived by vain expectations and went to Antigonus, who promptly arrested him. [4] Antigonus formally accused him, easily won a conviction from the members of his council, and put him to death straight away.
[5] After he had reunited the army, he entrusted the satrapy of Media to Orontobates the Mede, and appointed Hippostratus the military governor,* with an infantry force of three thousand mercenaries and five hundred horse.† [6] He next took the army to Ecbatana, where he withdrew five thousand talents of uncoined silver, and then he advanced into Persis, reaching the royal capital, which is called Persepolis, after a journey of about twenty days.
47. While Antigonus was still en route, Pithon’s friends and fellow conspirators, the most eminent of whom were Meleager and Menoetas, put together a force of about eight hundred cavalry from those of Eumenes’ and Pithon’s friends who were at large. [2] At first, they plundered the land of those Medes who had refused to join their rebellion, but then, when they found out that Hippostratus and Orontobates were in the habit of making a slipshod camp, they launched an attack on them one night. They came very close to making a success of the enterprise, but the enemy was too numerous for them and they withdrew again, after persuading some of the soldiers to join their rebellion. [3] Since the rebels were mobile and were all mounted, their raids were impossible to anticipate and caused turmoil throughout the countryside. Some time later, however, they were trapped in a gorge, and were either killed or captured. [4] A number of leading men lost their lives, refusing to surrender: Meleager, Ocranes the Mede, and several other notables. That was the outcome of the Median rebellion.
48. As soon as Antigonus reached Persis, he was acclaimed king by the Persians, as the acknowledged master of Asia, and he met with his Friends in council to discuss what to do with the satrapies.* He allowed Tlepolemus to keep Carmania, and he also retained Stasanor in Bactria, since it would take more than a letter to oust them, when they were popular with the locals and had large armies at their disposal. [2] He sent Evitus to Areia,* and when he died a short while later, he replaced him with Evagoras, a man of remarkable courage and intelligence. He allowed Oxyartes, the father of Rhoxane, to keep the satrapy of Paropanisadae, which had been his before, since it would take a lot of time and a strong army to evict him.
[3] He summoned Sibyrtius, who was a friend, from Arachosia, and not only permitted him to keep the satrapy, but also put him in charge of the chief trouble-makers among the Silver Shields. In theory, these men were for Sibyrtius to use in war, but in fact Antigonus was arranging for them to die, because he told Sibyrtius in private to send them out a few at a time on the kinds of missions that would get them killed. [4] It so happened that the men assigned to Sibyrtius included those who had betrayed Eumenes, so that they did not long escape punishment for their faithless treatment of their general. Iniquitous behaviour may profit rulers because they can get away with it, but for ordinary people, their subjects, it generally leads to disaster.
[5] Anyway, seeing Peucestas’ growing popularity among the Persians, Antigonus first removed him from office, and then, when Thespius, one of the most eminent men in Persis, bluntly declared that the Persians would tolerate no other leader, he killed Thespius and installed Asclepiodorus as satrap, with an adequate force of soldiers. He made empty promises to Peucestas and hinted that he might still have a glorious future, but when he left the country he took him with him.*
[6] While he was at the Pasitigris river, en route for Susa, he was met by Xenophilus, the man responsible for the Susa treasury, who had been ordered by Seleucus to place himself entirely at Antigonus’ disposal.* Antigonus made him welcome and pretended to value him as much as any of his friends, because he did not want Xenophilus to change his mind and shut him out again. [7] And when the Susa acropolis was surrendered to him, he found there the golden, vine-entwined tree* and a large number of other works of art, the combined weight of which was fifteen thousand talents. [8] Other gifts that had been given to the Persian kings, such as golden crowns, and the spoils of war together amounted to another large sum—five thousand talents, in fact—and, on top of these valuables in the Susa treasury, there was the same amount again in Media, which meant that, in all, he amassed twenty-five thousand talents. That was how things stood with Antigonus.
49. Now that I have covered events in Asia, I shall move on to Europe and continue my account from where I left off. Cassander had Olympias trapped in Macedon, in Pydna, and wintry weather was thwarting his assaults on the walls, but he had the city under siege. He threw up a palisade from sea to sea and blockaded the harbour, making it impossible for anyone who wanted to bring help to do so. [2] Before long, all supplies in the city had been exhausted, and then the besieged were reduced to such extreme hunger that they were completely undone. The situation became so grim that each soldier received as his rations for a month a mere five choenixes of grain,* they sawed wood to feed the elephants that were trapped inside the city,* and the draught animals and horses were slaughtered for food. [3] Over the course of the catastrophe that struck the city, while Olympias was still hoping to be rescued from outside, the elephants died of starvation, almost every horse-owner died who was not on active service and therefore was not receiving rations, and many ordinary soldiers met the same fate as well. [4] Some barbarians* found their natural needs too strong for their scruples; they began to collect the bodies of the dead and eat their flesh. The city was quickly becoming glutted with corpses, and although the commanders of the queen’s guard saw to the burial of some of them, they threw a lot over the city wall. The sight of these corpses was ghastly and the foul smell was unbearable, not just to women of royal blood who were used to gracious living, but even to soldiers who were accustomed to hardship.
50. As winter turned to spring and the famine became ever more acute, a large body of soldiers came and implored Olympias to let them go because of the lack of supplies. Since she had no rations at all for them and could not make the siege go away, she gave them permission to leave. [2] Everyone who deserted was taken in by Cassander. He treated them well and sent them back to their cities, in the hope that, when the Macedonians heard from these men how precarious Olympias’ position was, they would give up on her. [3] And his hunch about what would happen was right: those who had decided to try to relieve the town by military means changed their minds and went over to Cassander, and the only men in Macedon who remained loyal were Aristonous in Amphipolis and Monimus in Pella.
[4] When Olympias saw that most of her sympathizers had gone over to Cassander, and that those who remained were too weak to help her, she tried to have a quinquereme launched, with which to secure her own safety and that of her friends. [5] But a deserter informed on her, and when Cassander sailed up and captured the ship, Olympias realized that her position was hopeless, and sent envoys to Cassander to sue for peace. Although Cassander insisted on an unconditional surrender, she managed eventually to persuade him to make an exception in her case alone and guarantee that she would be allowed to live.
[6] Once Pydna was in his hands, Cassander dispatched troops to take over Pella and Amphipolis. [7] The news of what had happened to Olympias prompted Monimus, who held Pella, to surrender the city, but Aristonous initially decided to resist, since he had a large force of soldiers and had recently won a battle. A few days earlier he had fought Cassander’s general Cratevas; he had killed most of the enemy soldiers, and when Cratevas and two thousand others had taken refuge in Bedyndia in Bisaltia,* he had besieged the place and taken it, disarmed them, and let them go under a truce. [8] His military strength was not the only factor that made him confident: he was also unaware that Eumenes had died, and he was expecting Alexander and Polyperchon to come to his aid. And so he refused to surrender Amphipolis. But when Olympias wrote to him, asking him to trust her and ordering him to surrender, he could see that he had no choice but to obey; he handed over the city and received a guarantee that he would not be killed.
51. Cassander was aware of the respect that Aristonous enjoyed as a result of his advancement by Alexander,* and he felt he had to do away with anyone who was capable of leading a rebellion, so he used Cratevas’ relatives to kill the man. He also got the relatives of the people who had been killed by Olympias to prosecute her* before a general assembly of the Macedonians. [2] They duly did so, and even though Olympias was not present and there was no one to speak in her defence, the Macedonians condemned her to death. But Cassander sent some of his friends to her with the suggestion that she should slip quietly away, and promised to provide her with a ship and see that she got to Athens. [3] He was not acting out of concern for her safety; he wanted her to condemn herself to exile, so that, when she died during the voyage, this might seem to be a deserved punishment. He had to proceed carefully, not just because of her standing in Macedon, but also because of the fickleness of the Macedonians.
[4] Olympias refused to escape, however. In fact, she wanted a trial before the assembled Macedonians.* But Cassander was afraid that, if the Macedonians heard the queen’s defence speech and were reminded of all the good Alexander and Philip had done the country as a whole, they would change their minds, and he therefore sent two hundred of his most competent men to her, with orders to do away with her immediately. [5] They broke into the queen’s house, but when they confronted her, they were overawed by her high rank and they retraced their steps without having carried out their mission. But the relatives of the people she had killed, who wanted to curry favour with Cassander as well as avenge their dead, did murder the queen, and she died without uttering any weak or womanish plea. [6] So ended the life of Olympias, the most eminent woman of her time. She was the daughter of Neoptolemus, the King of Epirus; the sister of Alexander, who campaigned in Italy;* the wife of Philip, the most powerful ruler there had ever been in Europe; and the mother of Alexander, the scale and glory of whose achievements have never been rivalled.
52. Everything was going well for Cassander, and he began to entertain hopes of gaining the Macedonian throne. That was why he married Thessalonice, one of Philip’s daughters* and Alexander’s half-sister, because he wanted to present himself as a member of the royal family. [2] He also founded a city on Pallene, named Cassandreia after himself, by uniting as a single community all the towns of the peninsula, Potidaea, and a large number of nearby villages. There were quite a few surviving Olynthians, and he had them take up residence there as well.* [3] Since the borders of Cassandreia encompassed a large amount of good farmland, and since Cassander worked hard to see that the city flourished, it quickly made great progress and soon became the most important city in Macedon.
[4] Cassander had decided to kill Alexander’s son and the child’s mother, Rhoxane, to make sure that there was no natural successor to the throne,* but for the time being, since he wanted to see how people would react to the killing of Olympias, and also since he had no news of Antigonus, he moved Rhoxane and her son to the acropolis of Amphipolis, which he placed under the command of one of his most trusted friends, Glaucias, and imprisoned them there. He also deprived the boy of the pages who were being brought up with him in the customary manner,* and gave orders that he was no longer to be treated as royalty, but was to receive the kind of upbringing that was suitable for an ordinary member of the public. [5] Next, since he was already behaving like a king in administering the realm, he followed the traditional practice of Macedonian kings and buried at Aegeae Queen Eurydice and King Philip, and also Cynna, whom Alcetas had killed.* After holding funeral games in honour of the dead, he put together a select force of Macedonians for a campaign he had decided to conduct in the Peloponnese.
[6] Meanwhile, Polyperchon was under siege in Azorius in Perrhaebia. The news of Olympias’ death, however, made him give up on Macedon, and he made his way out of the city with a few companions and left Thessaly. He picked up Aeacides and his men as well and then withdrew to Aetolia. He was on good terms with the Aetolians,* and thought that this would be the safest place for him to wait for things to change.
53. Once Cassander had mustered a large enough force, he left Macedon with the intention of driving Alexander, Polyperchon’s son, from the Peloponnese.* Alexander was the last of Cassander’s opponents with an army, and he had occupied strategically located cities and strongpoints. Cassander marched through Thessaly safely, but he found the pass at Thermopylae guarded by Aetolians, and he struggled to force his way past them. [2] Once he was in Boeotia, he gathered the scattered Theban survivors and set about refounding Thebes.* He doubted he would ever have a better opportunity to re-establish a city of such renown, known not just for its achievements, but also because of all the legends in which it featured, and he expected this good deed of his to earn him undying glory.
[3] In fact, Thebes had experienced a great many major upheavals, since it had been depopulated a number of times, and a sketch of its history will not be out of place here. [4] Following the deluge that took place in the time of Deucalion, Cadmus founded a settlement on the Cadmea (named after him), and he was joined there by a people who are known either as the Sparti, because they had come together from various locations,* or as the Indigenous Thebans, because they had originally come from Thebes, but had been driven out and scattered by the deluge. [5] Anyway, these people, the inhabitants of Thebes at that time, were later defeated by the Encheleans and driven out of the city,* and this was the occasion when Cadmus too was expelled from the city and went to Illyris.
Later, Amphion and Zethus gained control of the place, and they began to develop the lower town; in the words of the poet: ‘They were the first to found the seven-gated city of Thebes.’* Then the inhabitants of Thebes were expelled for a second time when Polydorus, the son of Cadmus, returned, knowing that Amphion had been hurt too badly by what had happened to his children* to give him any trouble. [6] Then, when Polydorus’ descendants were the rulers of Thebes* (by which time the whole district was known as Boeotia, after Boeotus, a former king of Thebes, the son of Melanippe and Poseidon), the Thebans were expelled for a third time when the Epigoni from Argos took the city by siege. [7] The survivors of the expulsion escaped to Alalcomenae and Mount Tilphosium,* and returned to the city once the Argives had withdrawn.
Next, when the Thebans had left the city and gone to Asia for the Trojan War, those who stayed behind were expelled by the Pelasgians, as were all the other Boeotians as well. [8] This was far from the end of the misfortunes they suffered in subsequent years, but eventually, four generations later, they returned to Boeotia and re-established Thebes, in accordance with the oracle of the crows.* After that, the city lasted for almost eight hundred years, and the Thebans, who at first were the leaders of just their own people, were later in contention for hegemony of the Greeks, but then Alexander, the son of Philip, took the city by storm and razed it to the ground.
54. Twenty years later, in a bid for glory, Cassander gained the agreement of the Boeotians and re-established the city for the Theban survivors. [2] Many Greek cities contributed to the refoundation, partly out of pity for the hapless Thebans and partly because of the city’s fame. Most of the wall, for instance, was rebuilt by the Athenians, and other cities played a part as well—cities from Sicily and Italy, not just from Greece—either by contributing as best they could to the building, or by sending money for the work that needed doing.* [3] That is how the Thebans got their city back.
Cassander then set out for the Peloponnese with his army, but he found that Alexander, the son of Polyperchon, had secured the isthmus. So he went to Megara instead, where he built flatboats, which he used to transport the elephants over to Epidaurus, while the rest of his forces made the crossing on ships. When he reached Argos, he forced the city to secede from Alexander’s alliance and side with him, [4] and then he won over all the towns of Messenia except for Ithome,* and entered into an agreement with the people of Hermione which gained him that city too. Alexander refused battle, however, so Cassander left two thousand men at the Gerania isthmus* under the command of Molyccus, and returned to Macedon.
55. At the beginning of the following year, Praxibulus became Archon in Athens, and in Rome Nautius Spurius and Marcus Popillius were elected consuls. In this year:
Antigonus decided to take all the money down to the coast personally, so he left a local man, Aspisas, as satrap of Susiane, while he equipped himself with carts and camels and set out with the army for Babylonia. [2] He reached Babylon twenty-two days later, and Seleucus, who was satrap there, honoured him with gifts fit for a king and feasted his entire army. [3] But when Antigonus demanded an accounting of his revenues, Seleucus refused, saying that he was not obliged to submit to an audit when the land concerned had been given to him by the Macedonians in recognition of the services he had undertaken during Alexander’s lifetime.* [4] Day by day, the quarrel became more acerbic, and Seleucus, bearing in mind what had happened to Pithon,* was terrified that Antigonus would find some pretext for doing away with him, since it looked as though he wanted to get rid of every man of worth who had the potential to take power.* [5] To be on the safe side, then, he fled, accompanied by only fifty horsemen, with the intention of making his way to Ptolemy in Egypt, because word had spread of Ptolemy’s goodness, and of the warm friendship he extended to all who turned to him for safety.
[6] Antigonus was delighted when he heard of Seleucus’ flight. It was not just that it freed him from the necessity of laying hands on a man who was a friend and who had actively cooperated with him; he was also pleased because Seleucus’ self-enforced exile delivered Babylonia to him without his having to fight or face danger for it. [7] But then the Chaldaeans paid him a visit and warned him of the consequences of letting Seleucus slip out of his grasp—that Seleucus would become the master of all Asia, and that Antigonus himself would lose his life in battle against him*—and Antigonus regretted what he had done. He sent men after Seleucus and they followed him for a while, but then came back empty-handed.
[8] Although Antigonus generally despised such prophetic warnings, this one disturbed him a great deal. What troubled him was the reputation the Chaldaeans had as men of real expertise whose observation of the heavenly bodies was particularly accurate. The Chaldaeans claim, in fact, to have been devoting themselves to these matters for thousands upon thousands of years. They are also supposed to have warned Alexander that he would die if he entered Babylon,* [9] and the outcome of the prophecy about Seleucus was the same as the one about Alexander: in both cases, the Chaldaeans’ assertions turned out to be true. I shall go into more detail about this when we come to the relevant period of time.*
56. Seleucus reached Egypt safely and met with nothing but kindness from Ptolemy. He bitterly denounced Antigonus, accusing him of having decided to expel every man of worth from his satrapy and of picking especially on those who had campaigned with Alexander. He cited as examples the killing of Pithon, the removal of Peucestas from Persis, and his own case. [2] None of these men had done any wrong; in fact, while they had been on good terms with Antigonus they had often served him well, and had been expecting their good services to be rewarded. He described the size of Antigonus’ army and the extent of his wealth, and suggested that his recent good fortune had made him presumptuous and had led him to hope that the entirety of the Macedonian empire might be his.
[3] These arguments convinced Ptolemy that he had better get ready for war, and Seleucus also sent some of his friends to Europe, to see if they could sway Cassander and Lysimachus with similar arguments to come out against Antigonus. [4] His emissaries swiftly carried out their orders, sowing the seeds of conflict and major warfare. Antigonus, however, who had guessed what course of action Seleucus was likely to take, sent envoys to Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Cassander, asking them not to jeopardize their good relations. And once he had appointed Pithon satrap of Babylonia—the Pithon who had come from India—he marched away from Babylon and made for Cilicia. [5] By the time he reached Mallus, Orion had already set and he divided his forces for the winter. He also took the money—ten thousand talents—from the treasury at Cyinda. Even without this money, he had a regular annual income of eleven thousand talents. That is what made him so formidable: not just the size of his army, but his great wealth as well.
57. While Antigonus was advancing into Upper Syria, he was met by the envoys sent by Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Cassander. Their demands, which they presented when they were brought before Antigonus’ council, were that Cappadocia and Lycia should be given to Cassander, Hellespontine Phrygia to Lysimachus, all Syria to Ptolemy,* and Babylonia to Seleucus, and that Antigonus should share with them the money he had gained after the battle with Eumenes, seeing that they too had played their parts in the war. If he failed to meet their demands, they said that they would unite and make war on him. [2] But Antigonus gave them a very harsh response, telling them to make ready for war, which meant that the envoys returned with their mission unfulfilled.
Next, then, Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Cassander entered into a formal alliance with one another, and set about mustering their forces and equipping themselves with armour, artillery, and everything else that they might need. [3] When Antigonus saw the strength of the coalition that had formed against him, and the stature of the men involved, he realized that the coming war would be a major one, and he began to invite peoples, cities, and dynasts to become his allies. [4] He sent Agesilaus to the Cypriot kings, Idomeneus and Moschion to Rhodes, and his nephew Ptolemaeus to Cappadocia with an army. He was to relieve Amisus, which was under siege, drive out all the troops who had been sent there by Cassander,* and finally go to the Hellespont and wait in case Cassander tried to sail over from Europe. [5] He sent Aristodemus of Miletus to the Peloponnese with a thousand talents and the job of entering into a treaty of friendship with Alexander and Polyperchon and raising a large enough force of mercenaries to make war on Cassander. And he established beacons and couriers throughout the length and breadth of as much of Asia as was his to command, which would enable the rapid execution of his orders.
58. Once Antigonus had attended to these matters, he set out for Phoenicia. He wanted to build a fleet, because at that time his enemies had large navies and control of the sea, while he had hardly any ships at all. In Phoenicia, he made camp at Tyre, and since he intended to besiege the city he sent for the kings of the Phoenician cities and the governors of Syria. [2] He prevailed upon the kings to help him with the ship-building, since Ptolemy was keeping all the ships of Phoenicia, along with their crews, in Egypt; and he ordered the governors swiftly to prepare four and a half million medimnoi of wheat <and . . . medimnoi of barley>,*† which was the amount the army consumed in a year. He took personal charge of the task of gathering lumberjacks, carpenters, and shipwrights from wherever they could be found, and saw to the transportation of timber from Mount Lebanon to the coast. [3] This mountain range stretches from Tripolis to Sidon via Byblus, and is covered with wonderfully beautiful cedar and cypress trees, which grow there to an amazing height. Eight thousand men were employed as lumberjacks and sawyers, and a thousand teams of oxen were used to transport the timber from the mountain.† [4] He established three shipyards in Phoenicia—at Tripolis, Byblus, and Sidon—and a fourth in Cilicia, the timber for which was brought from the Taurus mountains. [5] There was another one in Rhodes, where the democracy had agreed to build ships out of imported wood.
Now, Antigonus had established his camp by the sea, and while he was busy with all these preparations, Seleucus came from Egypt with a hundred ships, good sailers which were decked out as a royal fleet. He sailed contemptuously past the camp, sending morale plummeting among the men from the allied cities and everyone who had taken Antigonus’ side, [6] because there could be no doubt that, since the enemy controlled the sea, they would ravage the land of those who had been induced by their friendship with Antigonus to make common cause with their adversaries. But Antigonus told them not to worry, and assured them that he would take to the sea that very summer with five hundred ships.
59. At this juncture, Agesilaus, the man Antigonus had sent to Cyprus, arrived back with the news that Nicocreon and the most powerful of the other kings had made an alliance with Ptolemy,* but that the kings of Citium, Lapithus, Marion, and Cerynia had concluded a treaty of friendship with him. [2] Upon receipt of this news, Antigonus left three thousand soldiers under the command of Andronicus to press on with the siege of Tyre, while he marched off with the rest of the army and took Joppa and Gaza,* which had refused to submit to him. All the soldiers of Ptolemy’s that he captured were incorporated into units of his own army, and he installed garrisons in the cities to make sure that the inhabitants remained submissive. [3] Then he returned to the camp at Old Tyre* and continued his preparations for the siege.
This was also when Ariston, the man who had been entrusted by Eumenes with Craterus’ remains, passed them on for burial to Phila, Craterus’ former wife, who was now married to Demetrius, the son of Antigonus. [4] Phila seems to have been an exceptionally intelligent woman. If there was unrest in the army, for instance, she calmed the malcontents down by dealing judiciously with them on an individual basis; she used her own money to pay for the marriages of poor men’s sisters and daughters; and she often came to the rescue of people who were being falsely accused of crimes. [5] We even hear that her father, Antipater, who is widely held to have been one of the most astute rulers of the time, used to ask for Phila’s advice on critical matters while she was still a child. [6] But the woman’s character will be revealed more precisely at a later stage of my narrative, especially as her situation changed in the final crisis of Demetrius’ reign.* Anyway, that was how things stood with Antigonus and Phila, the wife of Demetrius.
60. Meanwhile, the generals Antigonus had sent out were carrying out their missions. Aristodemus sailed to Laconia, and once the Spartiates had given him leave to recruit soldiers, he raised a force of eight thousand men from the Peloponnese. He met with Alexander and Polyperchon, entered into a treaty of friendship with them in Antigonus’ name, appointed Polyperchon General of the Peloponnese, and prevailed upon Alexander to go and join Antigonus in Asia.
[2] The other general, Ptolemaeus, proceeded with his army into Cappadocia, where Cassander’s general, Asclepiodorus, had Amisus under siege. Ptolemaeus’ arrival freed the city from danger; he let Asclepiodorus and his men leave under a truce and recovered the satrapy for Antigonus. [3] His route took him next across Bithynia, where he found that the Bithynian king, Zibytes, had both Astacus and Chalcedon under siege. He forced him to abandon both sieges, and once he had brought these cities and Zibytes into the Antigonid alliance, and had been given hostages, he set off towards Ionia and Lydia, because Antigonus had ordered him by letter to go straight to the coast, where his help was needed since Seleucus was about to arrive there with a fleet. [4] By the time Ptolemaeus reached the coast, Seleucus had Erythrae under siege, but when he found out that the enemy army was in the vicinity, he sailed away without having achieved anything.
61. When Polyperchon’s son Alexander reached Tyre, Antigonus formally confirmed their friendship. He then convened a general assembly, consisting of both soldiers and visitors,* and indicted Cassander for his killing of Olympias and his treatment of Rhoxane and the king. [2] He also accused him of having forced Thessalonice to marry him against her will, of openly trying to appropriate the kingdom of Macedon, of having resettled the Olynthians, who were deadly enemies of Macedon, in a city named after himself, and of having refounded Thebes, even though it had been destroyed by the Macedonians.*
[3] The assembled masses made it clear that they shared his anger, and Antigonus introduced a motion that Cassander was to be regarded as an enemy of Macedon unless he destroyed the two cities, released the king and his mother, Rhoxane, from prison and restored them to the Macedonians, and in general submitted to Antigonus as the officially appointed general and legitimate custodian of the kingdom.* The Greeks, moreover, were to be free, ungarrisoned, and self-governing. Once the troops had voted in favour of these stipulations, Antigonus had couriers disseminate the decree far and wide. [4] His thinking was that the prospect of freedom would gain him the Greeks’ active support in the war, and also that if the generals and satraps of the upper satrapies, who suspected him of having decided to depose the kings who had succeeded Alexander, saw that he was going to war on their behalf, they would all have a change of heart and be prepared to take orders from him.
[5] Once he had finished with this, he gave Alexander five hundred talents and sent him back to the Peloponnese with great hopes for the future. Then he sent for the ships from Rhodes, fitted out the majority of the newly built ones as well, and had them sail for Tyre. As a result of his control of the sea, no food could be brought in to the city, and he maintained the siege for a year and three months. Eventually, the besieged were starved into submission. He allowed Ptolemy’s soldiers to leave with their property, and after negotiating the terms of the city’s surrender he installed a garrison to defend it.
62. Meanwhile, when Ptolemy heard about the decree that had been passed by Antigonus’ Macedonians on the freedom of the Greeks,* he drew up a similar decree of his own, because he wanted the Greeks to know that their independence was just as important to him as it was to Antigonus. [2] Both men could see that there was no little advantage in acquiring the goodwill of the Greeks, and they were competing with each other to see who could do them more good. Ptolemy also brought into his alliance Asander,* the satrap of Caria, who owed his strength to the number of cities in his domain.
[3] The Cypriot kings had already received three thousand soldiers from Ptolemy, and he now sent a formidable army, because he wanted to force the kings who were defying him to acknowledge his supremacy. [4] So he sent ten thousand soldiers under the command of Myrmidon of Athens and a hundred ships under Polycleitus, and gave overall command to his brother Menelaus. They sailed to Cyprus, where they found Seleucus with his fleet, and they met in council and considered what to do. [5] They decided that Polycleitus should sail to the Peloponnese with fifty ships and fight it out with Aristodemus, Alexander, and Polyperchon; that Myrmidon and the mercenaries were to go to Caria to help Asander,* who had been attacked by Antigonus’ general Ptolemaeus; and that Seleucus and Menelaus should remain on Cyprus with King Nicocreon and the rest of their allies, and make war on their opponents there. [6] Once their forces had been divided up along these lines, Seleucus set to work. He took Cerynia and Lapithus, gained the support of Stasioecus, the king of Marion, and forced the ruler of Amathous to give hostages. At Citium, however, diplomacy failed, and he subjected it to continuous assaults with all the men he had available.
[7] At this juncture, forty ships reached Antigonus from the Hellespont under the command of Themison, and Dioscourides also brought eighty ships from the Hellespont and Rhodes. [8] The first to be completed of the Phoenician-built ships had already been fitted out and were available to him, and they and the ships that had been captured at Tyre made a combined total of 120, so that the total number of seaworthy warships he assembled was 240. Among these, there were ninety quadriremes, ten quinqueremes, three niners, ten deceremes, and thirty were undecked galleys.* [9] Antigonus sent fifty ships, one division of the fleet, to the Peloponnese, and he put his nephew, Dioscourides, in charge of the rest and ordered him to cruise around, keeping their allies safe and trying to win over those of the islands which had not yet joined the alliance. That was how things stood with Antigonus.
63. Now that I have covered the affairs of Asia in this year, I shall return next to Europe and give an account of events there. Apollonides, the man appointed by Cassander as military governor of Argos, marched out one night into Arcadia and captured the town of Stymphalus. [2] But while he was away, the Argive faction that was hostile to Cassander sent for Alexander, Polyperchon’s son, and promised to surrender the city to him. Alexander was slow to respond, however, and Apollonides reached Argos before him. Finding about five hundred of his opponents in council in the town hall, he prevented them from leaving and burnt them alive. Most of the others he exiled, but a few were arrested and put to death.
[3] When Cassander learnt of Aristodemus’ mission to the Peloponnese and the number of mercenaries he had collected, his first move was to try to persuade Polyperchon to abandon Antigonus. His words fell on deaf ears, however, so he raised an army and marched through Thessaly into Boeotia, [4] where he helped the Thebans with the building of their walls, before continuing on into the Peloponnese. After taking Cenchreae* and ravaging Corinthian farmland, he captured two hill-forts by sheer force, but he allowed the men who had been placed in them by Alexander on garrison duty to leave under a truce. [5] Next, he attacked Orchomenus, where he was let into the city by the faction that was hostile to Alexander. He installed a guard to protect the town, and when Alexander’s friends took refuge in the sanctuary of Artemis, he gave their fellow citizens permission to do what they wanted with them. So the Orchomenians dragged the suppliants out of the sanctuary and killed them all, contrary to the common laws of the Greeks.
64. Cassander next went to Messenia, but finding the city* garrisoned by Polyperchon, he chose not to put it under siege for the time being and marched into Arcadia. Leaving Damis as governor of Megalopolis, he carried on into Argolis, where he celebrated the Nemean festival* and then returned to Macedon. [2] After he had left, Alexander and Aristodemus marched against the Peloponnesian cities in an attempt to expel the garrisons installed by Cassander and give the cities back their freedom. [3] When Cassander found out, he sent Prepelaus to Alexander, with the job of asking him to abandon Antigonus and make a formal alliance with Cassander instead. If Alexander complied, Cassander said that he would make him the military governor of the entire Peloponnese, with an army at his disposal, and would honour him as he deserved. [4] Seeing that he was being offered exactly what had motivated him to go to war with Cassander in the first place, Alexander entered into an alliance with him and was made General of the Peloponnese.
Meanwhile, Polycleitus, who had been sent by Seleucus from Cyprus, sailed into Cenchreae, [5] where he learnt that Alexander had changed sides. Since there was obviously no enemy force to fight there, he set sail for Pamphylia. From there, he sailed along the coast to Aphrodisias in Cilicia, but then he received the news that Theodotus, Antigonus’ admiral, was coming from Patara in Lycia with the Rhodian ships,* crewed by Carians, and that Perilaus was shadowing the fleet on land with his troops in order to keep it safe during the voyage. Polycleitus came up with a stratagem that was the undoing of both of these generals at once. [6] He disembarked his soldiers and concealed them in a suitable spot, one the enemy was bound to pass, while he put to sea with his entire fleet, hid behind a headland, and waited for the enemy to arrive.
The land army was the first to fall into the trap. Perilaus was taken prisoner, and the rest either died fighting or were captured. [7] Then, when the Rhodian ships came to help their comrades, Polycleitus suddenly sailed up with his fleet in battle order. He easily routed the enemy, who were thrown into confusion, and in the end he captured every single ship and a great many men too, including Theodotus himself, who was wounded and died a few days later. [8] After having achieved this great success at no risk to himself, Polycleitus sailed off to Cyprus and then Pelusium. Ptolemy commended him for his victory, showed by the size of his gifts how highly he thought of him, and gave him a more prominent position in court as the architect of a significant victory. When Antigonus sent envoys to treat for the prisoners, Ptolemy released Perilaus and a few others, and then he went to the town known as Ecregma* for a meeting with Antigonus. But Antigonus refused to agree to his demands, so he left again.
65. Now that I have covered the affairs of the European Greeks in Greece and Macedon, I shall next describe what was happening in the West. Agathocles, the ruler of Syracuse, had taken over a fortress belonging to the people of Messana, but he promised to surrender the position if they gave him thirty talents. [2] The Messanians duly gave him the money, but so far from keeping faith with those who had believed his promises, he even tried to take Messana itself. When he was told that a section of the wall had collapsed, he dispatched his cavalry overland from Syracuse, while he sailed up close to the city under cover of darkness with a fleet of hēmioliae.* [3] The Messanians learnt in advance about the scheme, however, and the attack failed, but Agathocles sailed to Mylae where the fort capitulated after a siege.*
He then returned to Syracuse, but at harvest time he marched once more against Messana. [4] He made camp near the city and assaulted it unceasingly, but he was unable to injure the enemy to any significant extent because many of the exiles from Syracuse had gathered in the city, and they put up a spirited resistance, not just to keep themselves safe, but also because of their hatred of the tyrant. [5] At this juncture envoys arrived from Carthage, who rebuked Agathocles on the grounds that his actions contravened the terms of their treaty and arranged peace for the Messanians. Once they had also forced the tyrant to restore the fortress, they sailed back to Libya. [6] Agathocles went to Abacaenum,* a town that was in his alliance, where he put to death over forty men whom he believed to be his political enemies.
[7] Meanwhile, the Romans, who were at war with the Samnites, assaulted and took Ferente, a town in Apulia,* and the people of Nuceria Alfaterna were persuaded by some of their number to break off their friendship with Rome and enter into an alliance with the Samnites.*
66. At the beginning of the following year, Nicodorus became Archon in Athens, and the consuls in Rome were Lucius Papirius, for the fourth time, and Quintus Publius, for the second time.* In this year:
[2] When Aristodemus, Antigonus’ general, found out about the defection of Alexander, the son of Polyperchon, he delivered a speech at the meeting of the Aetolian assembly,* in which he pleaded his case, and he obtained a majority vote in favour of siding with Antigonus. He then sailed across with his mercenaries from Aetolia to the Peloponnese, where he found Alexander and the Eleans besieging Cyllene.* His arrival was very opportune for the endangered Cyllenians, and he raised the siege. [3] He left men there to keep the stronghold safe and then marched into Achaea. He freed Patrae from the garrison Cassander had installed and took Aegium. He forced the garrison there to submit, and he wanted to give the Aegians back their freedom, as promised in the decree,* but circumstances prevented him from doing so, because his soldiers turned to looting, and many Aegians were killed and very many buildings were damaged beyond repair.
[4] Later, after Aristodemus had sailed across to Aetolia, the people of Dyme, which was garrisoned by Cassander’s men, built a wall across the city, cutting the acropolis off and separating it from the lower town. Calling on one another to espouse the cause of independence, they surrounded the acropolis and never slackened their assaults on it. [5] When Alexander found out, he went there in force, broke inside, and gained control of the city. He killed or imprisoned some Dymaeans, and sent a great many into exile. [6] After Alexander had left, the remaining Dymaeans did nothing for a while, not just because they were crushed by the magnitude of the disaster, but also because they had no allies. But after a while they asked Aristodemus’ mercenaries in Aegium for help, and attacked the garrison once again. The acropolis fell to them and they freed the city. They killed most of the garrison, and then they also put to death any of their fellow citizens who had been supporters of Alexander.
67. Meanwhile, as Alexander, the son of Polyperchon, was setting out with his army from Sicyon, he was killed by Alexion of Sicyon and some others, who were pretending to be his friends.* But his wife, Cratesipolis,* took over the reins of government, and she was able to keep the army together because she was exceptionally popular with the soldiers. This was due to her benefactions; she used to help men who were down on their luck and she often supported those who were short of money. [2] She also had a pragmatic intelligence and an unusual degree of daring for a woman. After her husband’s death, in fact, the Sicyonians did not expect any trouble from her and they assembled under arms in a bid for freedom, but she drew up her forces and defeated them. Many of her opponents died in the battle, and she also arrested and crucified about thirty others. Once she had a secure grip on the city, she governed Sicyon as the sole ruler, since she had a large force of soldiers who would brave any danger for her. That was how things stood in the Peloponnese.
[3] Seeing that the Aetolians had sided with Antigonus and were also engaged in a border war with the Acarnanians, Cassander decided that it would be best for him to form an alliance with the Acarnanians and weaken the Aetolians. He therefore set out from Macedon at the head of a large army and halted in Aetolia at the Campylus river.* [4] He convened a general assembly of the Acarnanians, and after running through their long history of border wars, he advised them to move from their small, unfortified villages into a few cities, because living as they did in dispersed villages made it impossible for them to come to one another’s help and made it difficult for them to mobilize when faced with an unexpected enemy attack. The Acarnanians thought he was right, and most of them started to live together in Stratus, which was their largest and most defensible town, but the Oeniadae and some others made Sauria their collective home, as the Derieis and others did Agrinium.* [5] Cassander left a fair-sized army in Acarnania under the command of Lyciscus, to reinforce the Acarnanians, while he went to Leucas and won the city over by diplomacy. [6] Then he went to the Adriatic coast, where Apollonia fell to him straight away. He advanced into Illyris, crossed the Hebrus river,* and fought a battle against the Illyrian king, Glaucias.* [7] Following his victory, he entered into a treaty with Glaucias, the terms of which forbade the Illyrian king from attacking any of Cassander’s allies. Then he gained Epidamnus, and after garrisoning the city he returned to Macedon.*
68. After Cassander left Aetolia, about three thousand Aetolians formed a war party, surrounded Agrinium with a palisade, and put it under siege. The inhabitants negotiated a deal with the Aetolians, whereby, on surrendering the city, they could leave under a guarantee of safety, and they duly left, counting on the compact to keep them safe. But, in violation of the agreement, the Aetolians hunted them down—men who thought they had nothing to fear—and slaughtered all but a few of them.
[2] When Cassander reached Macedon and heard about the war that was being made on all the cities of Caria which were allies of Ptolemy and Seleucus, he sent an army there. It was not just that he wished to help his allies, but he also wanted to involve Antigonus in situations that would distract him and make him too busy to cross over to Europe. [3] He also wrote to Demetrius of Phalerum and to Dionysius, the commander of the Munychia garrison, telling them to send twenty ships to Lemnos, and they immediately dispatched the ships with Aristotle in command. Once he had arrived on Lemnos, he asked Seleucus to bring a fleet, and set about persuading the Lemnians to defect from Antigonus’ alliance. When they refused, he ravaged their farmland, surrounded the city with a palisade, and put it under siege. [4] But later Seleucus sailed off to Cos, and when Dioscourides, Antigonus’ admiral, learnt of Seleucus’ departure, he swooped down on Lemnos, drove Aristotle off the island, and captured most of his ships along with their crews.
[5] Asander* and Prepelaus were the commanders of the expeditionary force dispatched to Caria by Cassander, and when they found out that Ptolemaeus, Antigonus’ general, had split his army up for the winter and was preoccupied by his father’s funeral,* they sent Eupolemus to lie in wait for the enemy at Caprima, in Caria.* The force they sent along with him consisted of eight thousand foot and two hundred horse. [6] At the same time, however, Ptolemaeus, who had been informed by some deserters of the enemy’s plan, rounded up 8,300 foot and six hundred horse from the troops who were wintering in the vicinity. [7] He fell on the enemy camp without warning at around midnight and caught them off guard and asleep; Eupolemus was taken prisoner and his men had no choice but to surrender. That was the outcome of the Asian offensive of Cassander’s generals.
69. It was clear that Cassander wanted Asia for himself, so Antigonus divided his forces, leaving his son Demetrius in Syria with the job of watching out for Ptolemy, whom Antigonus suspected of planning to march on Syria from Egypt. He left Demetrius with an infantry force consisting of ten thousand mercenaries, two thousand Macedonians, five hundred Lycians and Pamphylians, four hundred Persian bowmen and slingers, a cavalry force of five hundred, and more than forty elephants. He also assigned him four advisers to act as his right-hand men: Nearchus of Crete, Pithon, the son of Agenor (who had just arrived back from Babylon a few days earlier), Andronicus of Olynthus, and Philip. These were all senior men who had served with Alexander throughout his campaign—the point being that Demetrius was still young, since he was only twenty-two years old.
[2] The other division of the army Antigonus took himself. At first, however, he lost many men as he was trying to cross the Taurus, where he found deep snow. He turned back to Cilicia, therefore, and waited for another opportunity. He then crossed the Taurus mountains in relative safety, and when he reached Celaenae in Phrygia, he dismissed the army to its separate winter quarters. [3] He then sent to Phoenicia for his fleet, which was commanded by Medius. As Medius was on his way, he came across thirty-six ships from Pydna; he defeated them and captured the ships along with their crews.* That was how things stood in Greece and Asia.
70. In Sicily, the Syracusan exiles who were resident in Acragas urged the rulers of the city not to stand idly by while Agathocles seized control of the cities. It would be better, they argued, to go to war of their own free will before the tyrant got strong, rather than wait for his strength to increase and then be forced to fight against an enemy who outclassed them. [2] This seemed to be no more than the truth, and the Acragan assembly voted for war. They gained Gela and Messana as allies, and sent some of the exiles to Sparta, with the job of trying to find a general to bring back who was capable of taking charge of the war. [3] They did this because they suspected their own political leaders of inclining towards tyranny and thought (because they remembered the Generalship of Timoleon of Corinth) that a general from abroad would exercise supreme command without playing them false.
[4] When the envoys reached Laconia, they found that Acrotatus, the son of King Cleomenes, had provoked widespread resentment among the men of military age, and was therefore on the lookout for opportunities abroad. [5] What happened was that after the battle against Antipater* the Lacedaemonians had exempted the survivors of the defeat from dishonour, and Acrotatus alone had opposed the decree.* This of course irritated many of his fellow citizens, but especially those who were liable to the conventional penalty; a gang of them beat him up, and they were constantly trying to do him down. [6] He was wanting a foreign command, then, and was delighted at the proposal from Acragas.
He took his leave without the approval of the Ephors* and set sail with a few ships with the intention of making straight for Acragas, [7] but he was blown off course into the Adriatic and came to land within the territory of Apollonia. Finding the city under siege by Glaucias, the Illyrian king, he raised the siege by persuading the king to agree to a treaty with the Apollonians. [8] From there he sailed to Tarentum, where he called on the people to join him in liberating Syracuse and succeeded in getting them to vote to send help in the form of twenty ships. They were inclined to find his arguments plausible and compelling because of their kinship* and because of the prestige of his house.
71. Leaving the Tarentines busy with their preparations, Acrotatus sailed with his men to Acragas and assumed the office of General. At first, the common people were greatly encouraged and he led everyone to expect the imminent fall of the tyrant, [2] but as time went on he lost their favour; he achieved nothing worthy of either Sparta or his distinguished lineage, but on the contrary proved to be a man of blood and more savage than the tyrants. [3] Moreover, he abandoned the traditional lifestyle of his native city and indulged in pleasures with such lack of restraint that he seemed to be more Persian than Spartiate.
[4] After he had got through most of the city’s revenues by profligacy† and embezzlement, the last straw was when he invited Sosistratus to dinner and murdered him. Sosistratus was the most eminent of the exiles, a man who had often commanded armies, and Acrotatus killed him not because he thought him guilty of any crime, but just because he wanted to get rid of an effective man who was in a position to wait for an opportunity to attack those who abused the leadership with which they had been entrusted. [5] As soon as what he had done became public knowledge, the exiles began to mobilize against him and everyone else fell out of sympathy with him. The first thing they did was take away his Generalship and a short while later they tried to stone him to death. Terrified by the general mood in the city, Acrotatus fled one night and sailed surreptitiously across to Laconia.
[6] Once he had gone, the Tarentines recalled the fleet they had sent to Sicily, and the Acragans, Geloans, and Messanians* brought their war against Agathocles to an end, with Hamilcar of Carthage acting as the mediator between the two parties to the agreement. [7] The most important aspect of the treaty was as follows: of the Sicilian Greek cities, Heraclea,* Selinous, and Himera were to be subject to the Carthaginians, as they had been before, but all the others were to be self-governing under the hegemony of Syracuse.
72. Seeing that there were no hostile armies remaining in Sicily, Agathocles set about bringing the cities and villages under his sway, with no one to stop him. Before long, he had gained control of many places and confirmed his position as sole ruler, in the sense that he had equipped himself with a large number of allies, ample revenues, and a substantial army. [2] Not counting his allies and the Syracusans who were enrolled in the army, he had an infantry force of ten thousand picked mercenaries and 3,500 cavalry. He also stocked up on weapons and ordnance of all kinds, since it seemed certain that the Carthaginians would soon go to war against him; after all, they had censured Hamilcar over the treaty. That was the situation in Sicily at this time.
[3] In Italy, the Samnites were engaged in their long struggle with the Romans for supremacy. They took Plestice,* which had a Roman garrison, and persuaded the people of Sora to kill all the Romans in the town and enter into an alliance with themselves. [4] Next, while the Romans were besieging Saticula,* the Samnites suddenly appeared in force with the relief of the town as their objective. A fierce battle was fought in which many lives were lost on both sides, but eventually the Romans won. After the battle, they took the town and then marched unimpeded against the nearby towns and villages and set about gaining control of them.
[5] With the war now being fought in the vicinity of the Apulian towns,* the Samnites enrolled every man of military age and encamped near the enemy, hoping to fight the decisive battle. [6] When the Roman people were informed of this, their anxiety about the future was such that they sent a large army out into the field. Since in a crisis it was their custom to give one of their eminent citizens full powers to see to the war, they now appointed Quintus Fabius to this position and made Quintus Aulius his Master of Horse.* [7] Once these men had been given command of the armed forces, they fought a battle against the Samnites at a place called Laustolae,* in which they incurred severe losses. The entire Roman army turned to flight, and Aulius, overcome by shame at the rout, stood alone against the massed enemy—not that he expected to prevail, but he wanted to show that Rome was undefeated, at least in his person.
[8] By refusing to join his fellow citizens in their flight and disgrace, Aulius earned himself a glorious death, but the Romans, faced with the disheartening possibility that they might lose control of Apulia, sent a colony to Luceria, the chief city of the region. They used it as a base from which to wage war on the Samnites, and this turned out to have been an excellent provision as far as their survival was concerned, [9] because the city not only enabled the Romans to gain the upper hand in this particular war, but they have continued to use it as a base of operations against the nearby peoples for all the subsequent wars they have fought, right up until today.*
73. At the beginning of the following year, Theophrastus became Archon in Athens, and Marcus Publius and Gaius Sulpicius were elected consuls in Rome. In this year:
The people of Callatis, a town on the left coast of the Black Sea* which was garrisoned by Lysimachus, evicted the garrison and made a bid for independence. [2] They liberated Istria and the other nearby towns in the same way, and formed them into an alliance for the purpose of making war together against the dynast. They established friendly relations with their Thracian and Scythian neighbours, so that in the end they had a substantial coalition with the ability to stand up to powerful armies.
[3] When Lysimachus found out what they had done, he set out in force against the rebels. He marched through Thrace,* crossed the Haemus mountains, and halted near Odessus. He put the city under siege, and before long the terrified inhabitants surrendered the city to him on terms. [4] Once he had recovered Istria in much the same way, he marched against Callatis. But just then the Scythians and Thracians arrived with a sizeable army to help their allies, as they were obliged to by their agreement. [5] Lysimachus confronted them and engaged them straight away, which terrified the Thracians into changing sides, but he had to fight the Scythians. He won the battle, inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy, and harried the survivors out of the country. Then he surrounded Callatis and put the city under siege, since he was absolutely determined to punish them for having instigated the rebellion.
[6] While Lysimachus was occupied with this, some messengers arrived with the news that Antigonus had dispatched two forces to reinforce Callatis, one by land and one by sea. His general Lycon had brought a fleet into the Black Sea, and Pausanias, with a good number of men under his command, had encamped at the place called Hieron.* [7] The news thoroughly unsettled Lysimachus.* He left an adequate number of soldiers to continue the siege, but he hurried off with the strongest division of the army himself, with the intention of bringing the enemy to battle. [8] When he reached the pass through the Haemus mountains, however, he found that the Thracian king, Seuthes, who had sided with Antigonus, was guarding it with a large number of soldiers. [9] He engaged Seuthes in a battle that went on for quite a long time, but in the end he overcame the barbarians. The battle cost him a lot of men, but the cost to the enemy was enormous. [10] He also went to meet Pausanias and, finding that he had taken refuge on a hill, he assaulted it, killed Pausanias, and either ransomed the survivors or incorporated them into his own army. That was how things stood with Lysimachus.
74. After this setback, Antigonus sent Telesphorus* to the Peloponnese. He gave him fifty ships and an adequate number of soldiers, and his orders were to free the cities. He hoped that by doing this he would convince the Greeks that he really did care about their freedom, and at the same time it would of course harm† Cassander. [2] As soon as Telesphorus reached the Peloponnese, he marched against the cities that had been garrisoned by Alexander and freed them all except Sicyon and Corinth. He failed with these two because they were serving as Polyperchon’s headquarters,* and Polyperchon was keeping strong forces in them, since he had only these forces and the defensibility of the places to keep him safe.
[3] Meanwhile, no sooner had Philip arrived in Acarnania with his army—he had been sent by Cassander to take command of the war against the Aetolians*—than he immediately set out on a plundering raid in Aetolia, and then a little later, when he found out that Aeacides of Epirus had returned to his kingdom* and had raised a mighty army, he swiftly marched against him, because he wanted to fight him on his own, before he joined forces with the Aetolians. [4] He found the Epirotes ready for battle, and he engaged them straight away;* many lives were lost on the enemy side, and many prisoners were captured as well, among whom, as it happened, were about fifty of the men who had been responsible for the king’s return. Philip bound these men in chains and sent them to Cassander. [5] But Aeacides and his men regrouped after their flight and linked up with the Aetolians, so Philip advanced once more. He defeated them in battle and took many lives, including that of Aeacides, the king. [6] It had taken him only a few days to win significant victories, and many of the Aetolians became so disheartened that they abandoned their unfortified towns and fled with their children and womenfolk to the most inaccessible mountains. That was how events in Greece turned out.
75. In Asia, Asander, the governor of Caria, was suffering badly in the war and made peace with Antigonus. He was required to hand all his soldiers over to Antigonus and allow the Greek cities self-determination, but, as a close friend of Antigonus, he would retain his former satrapy as a gift. [2] As a hostage for his observance of these terms, Asander gave his brother Agathon—but then, a few days later, he felt that he had made a mistake in entering into this agreement. He stealthily removed his brother from custody, and he got in touch with Ptolemy and Seleucus, asking them to send help at the earliest possible opportunity.
[3] Antigonus was furious. He sent troops by both land and sea to free the cities, with Medius in command of the fleet and Docimus of the army. [4] When they reached Miletus, they called on the citizens to free themselves, and once they had besieged the garrison on the acropolis into submission, they gave the state back its freedom. [5] While they were going about this, Antigonus took Tralles and then moved on to Caunus. He summoned the fleet there to help him, and captured this city as well, except for the citadel. He put the citadel under siege and began to assault it continuously at the point where it could be approached and attacked. And Ptolemaeus, who had been sent against the town of Iasus with a good-sized army, compelled it to come over to Antigonus’ side. [6] And so these Carian cities became subject to Antigonus.
A few days later, ambassadors arrived from the Aetolians and the Boeotians and he entered into an alliance with them;* but negotiations with Cassander about peace in the Hellespont came to nothing, because they could find no common ground at all.* Cassander therefore abandoned the idea of coming to terms with Antigonus and decided to renew his involvement in the affairs of Greece. [7] He sailed with a fleet of thirty ships to Oreus and put the city under siege. He assaulted the city fiercely, and in fact it was about to fall to him when help arrived for the people of Oreus—Telesphorus from the Peloponnese with twenty ships and a thousand soldiers, and Medius from Asia with a hundred ships. [8] They found Cassander’s ships lying at anchor in the harbour and set fire to them. Four were destroyed, and they came close to destroying them all. Cassander’s men were getting the worst of it, but reinforcements arrived from Athens, and then Cassander sailed into the attack, expecting to make short work of the enemy. He joined battle, sank one of the enemy ships, and captured three others with their crews. So much for the events of Greece and the Black Sea.
76. In Italy, the Samnites advanced in force, ransacking all the Italian cities which were supporting the enemy, but the Roman consuls appeared with an army and endeavoured to help their threatened allies. [2] They freed the town of Cinna* from the danger threatening it as soon as they encamped there close to the enemy, and then a few days later the two armies fought a pitched battle. It was a ferocious business and casualties were heavy on both sides, but in the end the Romans overpowered the Samnites and prevailed; in fact, they took more than ten thousand lives, since they carried on the pursuit for a long time.*
[3] Before they heard about this battle, the Campanians, expecting the Romans to be preoccupied, rose up in revolt, but the Roman people immediately sent an adequate force against them under the command of the dictator Gaius Manius, who was accompanied, in the traditional fashion, by Manius Fulvius as his Master of Horse.* [4] They halted near Capua and at first the Campanians resolved to fight, but once they heard about the defeat of the Samnites, they made peace with the Romans, since they thought that the full force of the Roman armies would now be directed against them. They surrendered those who had been responsible for the uprising, but the men committed suicide without waiting for the outcome of the trial that had been proposed for them. The Campanian cities, however, were pardoned and reincorporated into the Roman alliance, as before.
77. At the beginning of the following year, Polemon became Archon in Athens, Lucius Papirius (for the fifth time) and Gaius Junius were the consuls in Rome, and in this year the 117th Olympic festival was celebrated, with Parmenion of Mytilene* the victor in the stade race. In this year:
[2] Antigonus sent his general Ptolemaeus to Greece to free the Greeks,* and sent with him 150 warships under the command of Medius, and a land army of five thousand foot and five hundred horse. [3] He also entered into an alliance with the Rhodians and received from them ten ships that they had fitted out for the war, to support the enterprise of freeing the Greeks. [4] Ptolemaeus took the entire fleet to Boeotia, landing at the harbour known as Bathys, and the Boeotian Confederacy gave him 2,200 foot and 1,300 horse. He also sent for the ships that were at Oreus, and once he had fortified Salganeus* he made it the collection point for the entire army. He was hoping to gain Chalcis, which was the only city on Euboea to have been garrisoned by the enemy, [5] but Cassander was so concerned about Chalcis that he abandoned the siege of Oreus, sailed to Chalcis, and concentrated his forces there.
When Antigonus heard that each of the land armies in Euboea was waiting for the other to make a move, he recalled Medius and the fleet to Asia, and immediately set out with his army for the Hellespont, forcing the pace of the march, as if he were planning to cross over and invade Macedon. Either Cassander could stay in Euboea, in which case Antigonus would find Macedon undefended, or he could defend his kingdom, in which case he would lose the Greek cities. [6] But Cassander realized what Antigonus was up to and, leaving Pleistarchus* in command of the Chalcis garrison, he marched off at full strength. He took Oropus and made an alliance with the Thebans, but then, after arranging a ceasefire with the other Boeotians and leaving Eupolemus in command of Greece, he returned to Macedon, with the possibility that the enemy might cross over into Europe weighing on his mind.
[7] When Antigonus reached the Propontis, he sent envoys to ask the people of Byzantium to join his alliance. But there were envoys there from Lysimachus as well, asking the Byzantines to do nothing to harm either his or Cassander’s interests, and the Byzantines decided to remain neutral and to stay on peaceful and friendly terms with both sides. Foiled in this attempt, and also because winter was drawing in, Antigonus distributed his men among the cities for the winter.
78. Meanwhile, the Corcyraeans, who had gone to help the people of Apollonia and Epidamnus, let Cassander’s soldiers leave under a truce. One of the two cities—Apollonia—they left free, but they turned Epidamnus over to Glaucias, the Illyrian king.
[2] Once Cassander had left for Macedon, Ptolemaeus, Antigonus’ general, cowed the soldiers who were garrisoning Chalcis into submission and received the surrender of the city. He left Chalcis ungarrisoned as a way of making it clear that Antigonus really did intend to free the Greeks, given that the city was of critical importance for anyone who wanted a base from which to wage a war for supremacy in Greece.* [3] Anyway, Ptolemaeus next took Oropus, which he turned over to the Boeotians, while making prisoners of Cassander’s troops. Then, after gaining Eretria and Carystus as allies, he invaded Attica, where Demetrius of Phalerum was the governor of Athens. [4] The Athenians had for a while secretly been sending messages to Antigonus, asking him to free the city, but now, encouraged by the fact that Ptolemaeus was close by, they forced Demetrius to make a truce and send heralds to Antigonus with a view to making an alliance.*
[5] After Attica,* Ptolemaeus went to Boeotia. He captured the Cadmea, expelled the garrison from Thebes, and gave the city back its freedom. Then he marched into Phocis, where he won over most of the cities and evicted Cassander’s garrisons wherever they were to be found. He also proceeded against Locris, and since the Opountians were on Cassander’s side he put Opous under siege and subjected it to continuous assaults.*
79. In the summer of this year, the people of Cyrene rose up in rebellion against Ptolemy. They blockaded the acropolis of the city in order to make short work of expelling the garrison, and when envoys arrived from Alexandria and called on them to put an end to their presumptuousness, they killed them and put even more energy into their siege of the acropolis. [2] In response, Ptolemy sent his general Agis there with a land army, and he also sent out a fleet to play a support role in the war, with Epaenetus as its admiral. [3] Agis conducted a forceful campaign against the rebels and took the city by storm. He sent the ringleaders of the rebellion in chains to Alexandria, and disarmed the rest of the population. Then, once he had ordered the city’s affairs as he thought best, he returned to Egypt.
[4] With Cyrene settled to his satisfaction, Ptolemy sailed over from Egypt to Cyprus to deal with the kings who had not yet submitted to him. He found that Pygmalion* was negotiating with Antigonus, so he had him killed; and he arrested Praxippus, the king of Lapithus, and <. . .>,† the ruler of Cerynia, whom he suspected of being hostile towards him. He also arrested Stasioecus, the ruler of Marion,*† and he demolished the town and moved the inhabitants to Paphos. [5] He had done what he came to do, and he appointed Nicocreon as the governor of Cyprus, giving him both the cities and the revenues of the kings who had been expelled.
[6] Ptolemy then sailed over with the army to Upper Syria, where he took and sacked Posideium and Potami Caron.* He sailed straight on to Cilicia, where he took Mallus and sold the captives as booty. He also ravaged the nearby farmland, and once his men had their fill of plunder, he returned to Cyprus. [7] He was deliberately courting the favour of his troops in this way, as a way of making them eagerly anticipate the battles that were to come.
80. Antigonus’ son, Demetrius, had remained all this time in Coele Syria, waiting to see if the Egyptian forces would come. But when he heard about the fall of the towns, he appointed Pithon to govern the region in his absence, giving him the elephants and the heavy units of the army, while he took the cavalry and the light units and advanced swiftly towards Cilicia in order to bring help to the embattled towns. [2] He arrived too late, however, and found that the enemy had already left, so he hurried back to his camp. He lost most of his horses in the course of the return journey, because in six days after leaving Mallus he covered twenty-four stages,* which was too punishing a pace for the camp-followers and horse-minders, not one of whom was able to keep up.
[3] Since the expedition had turned out satisfactorily for Ptolemy, he returned to Egypt, but a short while later, with Seleucus urging him on because of his loathing for Antigonus, he decided to attack Coele Syria and confront Demetrius. [4] He therefore rounded up his soldiers from wherever they were based and left Alexandria for Pelusium. His army consisted of eighteen thousand foot and four thousand horse. There were Macedonians and mercenaries in the army, but there were also a great many Egyptians, some of who were responsible for transporting the artillery and the rest of the equipment, while others were armed and equipped for battle. [5] After leaving Pelusium, he crossed the desert and camped near the enemy in Syria, at Old Gaza. Demetrius, who had also ordered his troops to leave their winter quarters and join him at Old Gaza, had been waiting for the enemy to approach.
81. Demetrius’ Friends advised him not to fight a pitched battle against a general of such calibre and superior numbers, but Demetrius refused to listen and his confidence was high as he made his preparations, even though he was very young and was about to fight such an important battle without his father. [2] He convened an assembly of his men under arms and stood on a dais, anxious and flustered, but the crowd called on him with one voice not to worry, and before the herald had given the command to quieten the din they all fell silent. [3] He had not long been in command, and so his conduct as a general and as a statesman had not yet attracted criticism of the sort that tends to be brought against men who have held command for a long time, when all the many reasons for dissatisfaction come together at a particular moment as a single grievance. For the common people never like it when things stay the same, and every group that is not dominant finds change attractive.
By now his father was elderly,* so along with the expectation that Demetrius would succeed to the kingdom came not only generalship, but also the goodwill of the masses. [4] Moreover, he was exceptionally handsome and tall,* and when dressed in royal armour he looked very distinguished and imposing, which led the masses to expect great things of him. And he was also blessed with a certain gentleness, suitable for a young king, which won him universal devotion. The upshot was that even the non-combatants flocked to hear him address the assembly, because they shared in the general anxiety about his youth and about the outcome of the impending battle. [5] After all, not only was he intending to fight against superior numbers, but it would have been hard to find generals greater than the two he was going up against, Ptolemy and Seleucus. They had fought alongside Alexander in all his wars, had often led armies on their own, and had so far never been defeated. [6] Anyway, Demetrius found the right words with which to address the assembled troops—that is, he promised that valour would be rewarded and said that he would leave all the spoils for them—and then he drew up his forces for battle.
82. On his left wing, where he himself was going to be stationed for the battle, he first placed the two hundred picked cavalrymen who formed his guard; they included all his Friends and especially Pithon, who had fought with Alexander, and whom Antigonus had made joint general with Demetrius and his colleague in supreme command. [2] He stationed three cavalry squadrons in front of this guard, and the same number on the flank, and he also placed three squadrons of Tarentines in a detached position beyond the wing. In other words, his person was protected by five hundred mounted lancers and a hundred Tarentines.* [3] The next position was taken by the Companion Cavalry, as they were called, of whom there were eight hundred, and then by at least 1,500 cavalrymen from various parts of the world. In front of the entire wing he posted thirty elephants and filled the gaps between them with light infantry—a thousand javelineers and bowmen, and five hundred Persian slingers.
[4] That was the arrangement of the left wing, with which he was planning to decide the battle. Next to the left wing he placed the infantry phalanx, which consisted of eleven thousand men: two thousand Macedonians, a thousand Lycians and Pamphylians, and eight thousand mercenaries. On the right wing, he posted the remaining cavalry, numbering 1,500 and commanded by Andronicus. His orders to Andronicus were that he was to maintain an oblique line and avoid battle while waiting to see the outcome of the action initiated by himself. The remaining thirteen elephants he posted in front of the infantry phalanx, and they were joined by an adequate number of light troops in the gaps between them.
So that was how Demetrius disposed his forces. 83. Ptolemy’s and Seleucus’ original dispositions made their left wing strong, because they were unaware of Demetrius’ tactics. But when they learnt the facts from their scouts, they quickly redeployed their forces so that the right wing was strong and included the best troops, who would confront Demetrius and his men on the left wing. On this wing, they stationed their three thousand best cavalry, and they had also decided to fight there themselves. [2] In front of this position they stationed men who carried a palisade clad in iron and bound with chains; this had been made to baffle the charge of the enemy elephants, because when it was stretched out it became easy to stop the creatures moving forward.* [3] In front of this wing, they too posted light infantry units, whose job was to ply the elephants and their riders with a relentless hail of javelins and arrows. Once they had made the right wing strong in this way, they skilfully deployed the rest of their forces and then advanced towards the enemy with a great cry.
Their opponents also advanced, and the first clash came between the cavalry squadrons which had been posted out in front at the outer ends of the wings. Demetrius had much the better of this engagement, [4] but a short while later Ptolemy and Seleucus outflanked Demetrius’ wing and launched a more effective attack with their squadrons in column formation, and such was the determination of both sides that a fierce battle took place. [5] In the first charge, in fact, when the combatants were wielding spears, nearly all the spears were broken and many men were wounded. When they wheeled around for the second charge, they hastened to join battle with their swords, and many men died on both sides in the fighting. By risking their lives out in front of the entire formation, the generals themselves inspired the men under their command to face danger without flinching, and on both sides the horsemen, every one of whom had been selected for his skill, vied with one another, since the generals, fighting alongside them, were witnesses of their courage.
84. The cavalry were evenly matched and the engagement went on for a long time. Then the elephants, urged into combat by their mahouts, advanced in a terrifying array, expecting to sweep all before them. But after they had advanced a certain distance, they encountered the iron-clad palisade and a barrage of missiles from the massed javelineers and archers, who began to wound the elephants and their riders. [2] As the mahouts drove the creatures forward with their goads, some of them were impaled on the ingenious palisade and, driven mad by their wounds and the damaging hail of missiles, they began to cause chaos. [3] When these creatures advance over smooth, soft ground, their power overwhelms all opposition, but on uneven, rough terrain their strength is completely negated by the tenderness of their feet. [4] That is why on this occasion Ptolemy negated their strength by installing the palisade, the effects of which he had cleverly foreseen. In the end, after the majority of the mahouts had been shot down, all the elephants were captured. [5] When this happened, most of Demetrius’ cavalry turned to terrified flight, leaving Demetrius with only a few men. Although he implored each of them to stand with him and not desert him, no one listened, and he had no choice but to retreat along with them.
[6] As far as Gaza, most of the cavalrymen who were with him maintained discipline and remained in formation, which deterred their pursuers, who were out of order, from attacking. The plain was broad and the terrain soft, which made it easier for those who wanted to retreat in good order to do so. [7] They were accompanied also by some of the infantry, who had chosen to desert and save themselves by travelling light, without their armour.* But as Demetrius was passing Gaza at sunset, some of his cavalry broke off and entered the city, because they wanted to fetch their baggage. [8] That meant that the gates were opened and a large number of draught animals were crowded together there, and since everyone was trying to be the first to lead his own animals out, the situation at the gates became so confused that when Ptolemy came up no one was able to close them against him. The enemy got inside the defences, then, and the city fell to Ptolemy.
85. That was the outcome of the battle. Demetrius reached Azotus around the middle of the night, after a journey of 270 stades. From there, he sent a herald to request permission to collect his dead, since he was extremely anxious to honour the dead with proper funerals. [2] Most of his Friends had fallen, of whom the most eminent were Pithon, who shared the command on equal terms with Demetrius, and Boeotus, who had lived for a long time with Demetrius’ father Antigonus and had been privy to all state secrets. [3] More than five hundred men* fell in the course of the battle, most of whom were cavalrymen of distinction, and more than eight thousand were captured.
Ptolemy and Seleucus granted permission for the dead to be collected, and sent back to Demetrius, without demanding ransom money, the royal baggage they had captured and those of the prisoners who were habitués of Antigonus’ court, because, they said, they had nothing to do with the reasons why they were at odds with Antigonus. Their grievances were that, even though he and they had fought together, first against Perdiccas and later against Eumenes, he had not given his friends their share of the spear-won land, and that, even though there was a pact of friendship in existence between him and Seleucus, he had still deprived Seleucus of his satrapy, Babylonia, without the slightest justification.
[4] Ptolemy sent the prisoners to Egypt, ordering them to be distributed among the nomes,* and gave all of his men who had died in the battle a magnificent funeral. Then he advanced against the Phoenician cities with his army, and either besieged them into submission or won them over by diplomacy. [5] Demetrius’ army was now below strength and he sent a courier to his father with an urgent request for reinforcements. He made his way to Tripolis in Phoenicia, and sent for the troops he had stationed in Cilicia and also all those who were guarding either cities or hill-forts that were a long way from the enemy.
86. In the course of taking control of the open countryside, Ptolemy first gained Sidon and then encamped near Tyre. He called on Andronicus, the garrison commander, to surrender the city, and promised to reward him with both money and great prestige. [2] Andronicus replied, however, that there was no way in which he would betray the trust placed in him by Antigonus and Demetrius, and he cast coarse insults at Ptolemy. Later, when his troops mutinied and he was expelled from Tyre, Andronicus fell into Ptolemy’s hands and expected to be punished for the insults as well as for having refused to surrender Tyre, but Ptolemy bore him no grudge; on the contrary, he gave him gifts and kept him by his side, making him one of his Friends and raising him high in honour. [3] For Ptolemy was exceptionally fair and forgiving, and generous to a fault. In fact, this was a very important factor in the growth of his power, in that he made many men desire his friendship.* [4] Take Seleucus, for example: when he was thrown out of Babylonia, Ptolemy had no hesitation in taking him in, and shared his prosperity with him just as much as with his other friends. [5] And at the time in question as well, when Seleucus asked him for soldiers for an expedition to Babylon, he was happy to comply, and he also promised to do everything he could to help him until he regained his former satrapy. That was how things stood in Asia.
87. In Europe, Telesphorus, the commander of Antigonus’ fleet, was based at Corinth. When he saw that Ptolemaeus was being preferred to him and was being entrusted with overall responsibility for Greece, it seemed to him that Antigonus was treating him unjustly. He sold all the ships he had, enlisted those of his soldiers who were willing to join his enterprise, and set about consolidating his position as an independent agent. Pretending that there was no change in his good relations with Antigonus, [2] he went to Elis, where he fortified the acropolis and reduced the population to slavery.* He also plundered the sanctuary at Olympia,* and when he had collected more than fifty talents of silver he began to hire mercenaries. [3] So, out of jealousy of Ptolemaeus’ advancement, Telesphorus betrayed the friendship of Antigonus.
When Ptolemaeus, the general Antigonus had made responsible for Greece, heard that Telesphorus had defected and seized Elis—and also that he had helped himself to the sacrosanct valuables of Olympia—he marched to the Peloponnese at the head of an army. When he reached Elis, he demolished the new acropolis fortifications, gave the Eleans back their freedom, and returned the god’s property.* Telesphorus had garrisoned Cyllene, but Ptolemaeus persuaded him to turn it over to him and gave it back to the Eleans.*
88. Meanwhile, on the death of their king, Aeacides,* the Epirotes gave the kingship to Alcetas, who had been banished from the kingdom by his father Arymbas.* Alcetas was hostile to Cassander, [2] and so Lyciscus, Cassander’s governor of Acarnania, took an army into Epirus, hoping that it would be easy for him to remove Alcetas from his throne while the kingdom was still in turmoil. [3] When he encamped near Cassope, Alcetas sent his sons Alexander and Teucer around the Epirote communities, ordering them to raise as many soldiers as possible, while he took to the field with all the men he had at his disposal. He drew close to the enemy and waited for his sons to arrive. [4] But when Lyciscus bore down on him with far superior numbers, the terrified Epirotes surrendered to the enemy, and Alcetas, abandoned by his troops, fled for safety to Eurymenae, a town in Epirus.*
[5] While he was under siege there, Alexander arrived with reinforcements for his father and a fierce battle took place, with heavy losses. A number of high-ranking men died, including the general, Micythus, and Lysander of Athens, Cassander’s governor of Leucas. [6] But then Deinias arrived with reinforcements for the defeated army and a second battle was fought, which Alexander and Teucer lost. They fled with their father to a stronghold, while Lyciscus took Eurymenae, plundered it, and razed it to the ground.
89. Just then Cassander arrived. He had heard about the defeat his men had suffered, but he was unaware of the subsequent victory, and so he hurried into Epirus to aid Lyciscus. When he found that Lyciscus had won, he made peace with Alcetas and entered into a pact of friendship with him, and then he marched with a division of his army to the Adriatic coast in order to besiege Apollonia, which had thrown out his garrison and gone over to the Illyrians.* [2] The Apollonians were not intimidated, however; they called up reinforcements from their other allies and drew up their forces in front of the city walls. The ensuing battle was closely fought and went on for a long time, but in the end the Apollonians, who had superior numbers, turned their opponents. Cassander lost a lot of men. Since his army was below strength and seeing that winter was on its way, he returned to Macedon. [3] After he left, the Leucadians, with the help of the Corcyraeans, expelled Cassander’s garrison. The Epirotes endured Alcetas’ kingship for a while, but his treatment of the common people was excessively harsh, and in the end they murdered not just him, but two of his sons as well, Esioneus and Nisus, who were just children.
90. In Asia, after the defeat of Demetrius in Syria, at the battle of Gaza, Seleucus was given some men by Ptolemy—no more than eight hundred infantrymen and about two hundred cavalrymen—and set out for Babylon. So positive were his expectations that, even if he had had no soldiers at all, he would have taken his friends and slaves and travelled up into the interior with them. He reckoned that the Babylonians would readily side with him because of the goodwill they already held for him, and that, by taking his forces far off, Antigonus had presented him with a perfect opportunity to accomplish his goal. [2] But although he himself was all eagerness, the friends who accompanied him felt extremely discouraged. They could see how few soldiers they were accompanied by and they knew that the adversaries against whom they were advancing had large armies at their ready disposal, abundant supplies, and a great many allies.
[3] When Seleucus saw how frightened they were, he encouraged them by explaining that, when faced with adversity, men who had campaigned with Alexander and had been promoted by him because of their abilities should not rely entirely on military power and financial resources to realize their ambitions, but on experience and intelligence, without which even Alexander would never have achieved his great and universally admired successes. He also argued that they should trust in the predictions of the gods, who had indicated that the outcome of the expedition would match his aspirations. [4] When he had consulted the oracle at Branchidae the god had addressed him as ‘King Seleucus’,* and Alexander had appeared to him in a dream and given him an unambiguous sign of the supremacy that lay in his future, which he was bound to gain in the fullness of time. [5] And he added that nothing fine or admirable is achieved in this life without toil and danger. But he also courted the favour of the soldiers who were with him: he treated them unfailingly as equals, and this earned him the respect of all his men and made them willing to endure the risks that would attend the bold venture.
91. On he marched, and when he reached Mesopotamia, a combination of persuasion and pressure enabled him to get the Macedonians who had been settled in Carrhae* to join his expedition. When he entered Babylonia, most of the inhabitants came to meet him, declared their loyalty, and promised to help him whatever he chose to do. [2] He had been the satrap of Babylonia for four years, and had always treated everyone well, so that he had gained the loyalty of the people and had ensured well in advance that there were men there who would support him if he was ever granted the opportunity to try to recover his leadership. [3] He was joined also by Polyarchus, the superintendent of an administrative district of Babylonia, who brought more than a thousand soldiers with him.
When those who remained loyal to Antigonus realized that there was no way they could check the popular impulse, they retreated for safety to the acropolis, the garrison of which was commanded by Diphilus. [4] Seleucus besieged the citadel and, once he had taken it, released from captivity the friends and pages of his who had been in custody there; they had been imprisoned by Antigonus after Seleucus had left Babylon for Egypt. [5] When he had done this, he enlisted more troops and collected horses, which were given to those who were competent riders. By treating everyone well and raising their hopes, he kept those who joined him in this hazardous venture ready and willing to face any situation that might arise in the future. So Seleucus was in the process of recovering Babylonia by these means.*
92. When Nicanor, the governor of Media, raised an army of more than ten thousand foot and about seven thousand horse from Media, Persis, and the neighbouring territories, Seleucus lost no time in setting out to confront him. [2] He had in all somewhat over three thousand foot and four hundred horse. He crossed the Tigris, and when he was informed that it would take the enemy no more than a few days to get there, he concealed his men in the nearby marshes, intending to make a surprise attack. [3] When Nicanor reached the Tigris and found no trace of the enemy, he made camp by one of the staging posts on the Royal Road,* supposing that they had made themselves scarce. Nicanor’s men were therefore careless and slipshod in their posting of pickets, and during the night Seleucus attacked. The unexpectedness of the attack sowed confusion and terror in Nicanor’s camp, [4] not least because when the Persians became involved in the fighting, both their satrap, Evagrus,* and some of their senior officers were killed.
At this, most of the ordinary soldiers went over to Seleucus, not just because they were frightened and their lives were in danger, but also because they had been finding Antigonus’ behaviour offensive. [5] Nicanor was left with only a few men, and since he thought there was a good possibility that he might be betrayed to the enemy, he fled with his friends through the desert. Seleucus now had a powerful army, and his generous treatment of everyone soon gained him Susiane, Media, and some of the neighbouring territories.* He wrote to Ptolemy and his other friends about the measures he had taken, since he now had the stature of a king and glory that was worthy of supreme power.
93. Meanwhile, Ptolemy had stayed in Coele Syria after his defeat of Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, in a major battle.* When he heard that Demetrius had returned from Cilicia and was encamped in Upper Syria, he chose one of his Friends, a Macedonian called Cilles, [2] gave him an adequate army, and ordered him either to chase Demetrius out of Syria altogether, or to confine him there and crush him. But while Cilles was still en route, Demetrius’ spies told him that the camp he had established at Myous* was carelessly defended. Demetrius left his baggage train behind and took only mobile troops with him. He marched at speed through the night and fell on the enemy unexpectedly at around the dawn watch; the army surrendered without a fight and the general was taken alive.
Demetrius felt that a victory of this magnitude cancelled out his earlier defeat, [3] but all the same he was sure that Ptolemy would proceed against him at full strength, so when he made camp he used the marshes and swamps as his forward defences. He also wrote to his father about his victory, and asked him either to send him an army as soon as possible or to come to Syria himself. [4] Antigonus happened to be in Phrygia, at Celaenae, and when he received the letter he was extremely pleased because his son, despite his youth, seemed to have redressed the situation on his own and to have shown himself worthy of kingship. He set out with his army from Phrygia, and a few days after crossing the Taurus he joined Demetrius.
[5] When Ptolemy learnt of Antigonus’ arrival, he convened a meeting of his officers and Friends, with the agenda of deciding whether it was better for him to stay where he was and fight the decisive battle in Syria, or return to Egypt and fight there, as earlier he had fought Perdiccas.* [6] The unanimous advice he received was that he should not take on an army that considerably outnumbered his and had a great many elephants, and that was led, besides, by a general who had never been beaten. It would be far easier to fight in Egypt, they said, where they had abundant supplies and could rely on the natural defences of the region.* [7] So Ptolemy decided to leave Syria. He destroyed the most important of the towns he had captured—Ake in Phoenician Syria, and Joppa, Samaria, and Gaza in Syria—and then he returned to Egypt with his army and all the valuables that could be driven or carried away.
94. Having recovered all Syria and Phoenicia without striking a blow, Antigonus’ next project was a campaign against the land of the Arabs known as the Nabataeans,* who he had decided were hostile to his interests. He delegated the job to one of his Friends, Athenaeus, and gave him a force consisting of four thousand light infantry and six hundred cavalry who were capable of moving at speed. His orders to Athenaeus were that he was to attack the barbarians without warning and take their livestock for himself.
[2] It will be useful, for the sake of those of my readers who are unfamiliar with the Nabataeans, for me to give an account of the customs of this Arabian people—customs which are thought to enable them to preserve their freedom. They live in the open countryside, claiming as their homeland a wilderness that has no rivers or springs plentiful enough to provide an enemy army with water. [3] It is their way to sow no grain, cultivate no fruit- or crop-bearing plants, drink no wine, and build no houses. If anyone is found contravening these rules, the penalty is death. [4] These practices are based on the belief that people who possess such things are dependent on them, and that makes them vulnerable to being compelled by powerful men to do their bidding. They do raise camels and sheep, however, pasturing them in the desert. This is common practice among the Arabian peoples, but the Nabataeans are far wealthier than the rest, even though there are scarcely more than ten thousand of them. [5] The reason is that quite a few of them regularly bring down to the coast frankincense, myrrh, and other precious aromatics, which they procure from people who bring them from Arabia Felix, as it is called.*
[6] They are exceptionally attached to their freedom, and when an enemy approaches in strength, they retreat into the desert. The desert serves as their defences, because, being waterless, it is inaccessible to others, but the Nabataeans have built stucco-lined tanks underground, so that they are the only ones for whom the desert is safe. [7] The ground consists partly of clay† and partly of soft rock, so the holes they dig are large; they make the mouths of the holes very small indeed, but by constantly increasing the width as they dig deeper, they eventually end up with a space with sides a plethron in length. [8] After filling these tanks with rain water, they close the mouths and make them level with the rest of the terrain, leaving markers which are known to them but unrecognizable by others. [9] They also let their sheep drink only once every three days, so that when they flee into the desert the creatures will not require regular access to water.
Their diet consists of meat, milk, and edible wild plants; [10] pepper grows there, for instance, and the trees produce plenty of so-called wild honey,* which they drink mixed with water. There are also other Arabian peoples, some of whom even work the land; they live among the tribute-paying peoples of the empire, and have the same customs as the Syrians, except the custom of living in houses. 95. So much for the practices of these Arabs.
When it is time for their general assembly (which is traditionally attended by all the local inhabitants, some of whom come to sell goods, others to buy what they need), before going there they leave their property, along with the elderly, the children, and the womenfolk, at a certain rock.* [2] This place has superb natural strength, despite being unwalled, and the nearest inhabited place is two days’ journey away. Athenaeus waited until it was time for the assembly and then set out to attack the rock with his troops equipped for mobility. It took him three days and three nights to complete the journey of 2,200 stades* from the province of Idumaea, and the Arabs had no idea that he was coming. He seized the rock in the middle of the night [3] and, wasting no time, killed or made prisoners of the people he found there, leaving behind only a few wounded. He packed up most of the frankincense and myrrh, and also about five hundred talents of silver. He stayed there for no longer than one watch,† and then hurried back the way he had come, since he expected that the barbarians would come after him. After marching for two hundred stades, he and his men made camp; they were tired and they posted their pickets in a slipshod manner, since they did not think that the enemy would be able to set out for two or three days.
[4] But people who had seen the army brought news of it to the Arabs, and they immediately regrouped, cancelled the assembly, and marched to the rock. The wounded men there told them what had happened, and they hurried after the Greeks. [5] In their camp, Athenaeus and his men were not expecting any trouble, and while they were deep in exhausted sleep some of the prisoners escaped and told the Nabataeans about the situation in the enemy camp. The Nabataeans—there were at least eight thousand of them—attacked at about the third watch. They slaughtered most of the Greeks where they lay, still in their beds, and those who woke up and ran for their weapons were massacred. In the end, all the infantrymen were killed, but about fifty cavalrymen escaped, though most of them were wounded.
[6] So that is how, thanks to his own indiscretion, Athenaeus came to fail after initial success. In fact, success is invariably followed by carelessness and negligence, [7] and that is why some people rightly hold that it is easier to endure disaster wisely than it is to keep one’s wits about one at a time of great success. Disaster leaves one no choice but to be cautious, out of fear of what might happen next, but success encourages men to be totally careless, because they have already met with good fortune.
96. After having manfully punished the enemy, the Nabataeans returned to the rock with the property they had recovered. They wrote to Antigonus—the letter was written in Syrian*—denouncing Athenaeus and justifying themselves. [2] When Antigonus wrote back to them, he endorsed their claim that they had been justified in defending themselves, and he placed the blame on Athenaeus, claiming that the attack on the Nabataeans went beyond the orders he had received. This was a way of disguising his intentions and duping the barbarians into relaxing their vigilance, so that they would not be expecting his attack when it came and he would make a success of the enterprise. After all, trickery was really the only feasible way to get the better of men who had adopted a nomadic way of life and had the desert as an inaccessible refuge.
[3] The Arabs were delighted at having apparently been released from great fear, but they did not altogether trust Antigonus’ words, and, since they were uncertain what the future might hold, they posted lookouts on the hills, which afforded a fine, long-distance view of the passes into Arabia, and once they had got themselves properly organized they waited to see what would happen. [4] Antigonus treated the barbarians as friends for a while, until he thought he had them thoroughly fooled and was being presented with the opportunity to go against them. Then he selected from the entire army four thousand infantrymen, who were lightly armed and physically capable of speed, and more than four thousand horsemen, and ordered them to carry several days’ worth of food that would not need cooking. He gave the command to his son, Demetrius, and sent him out at the first watch, to do his best to punish the Arabs.
Demetrius marched for three days without using roads to avoid being spotted by the barbarians, 97. but their lookouts saw that a hostile force had invaded and informed the Nabataeans by means of their system of beacons. Reckoning that it would not take long for the Greeks to get there, the barbarians stored their belongings in the rock and posted a guard of sufficient strength, given that there was only a single, man-made way up to it;* they also divided their flocks and drove them here and there into the desert. [2] When Demetrius reached the rock and found that the booty was missing, he made repeated assaults on the stronghold, but the men inside resisted well. In fact, the height of their position gave them a clear advantage, and on this first day Demetrius fought on until evening and then had the trumpeter recall his men.
[3] The next day, as he approached the rock, one of the barbarians called out to him. ‘King Demetrius,’ he said, ‘why are you making war on us? What is it you want? What is driving you to this? We live in the desert, in a part of the world that has no water, grain, or wine—in other words, that has none of the things which, in your world, count as the necessities of life. [4] It is our unequivocal desire to avoid enslavement that has led us to take refuge in a land that lacks everything that is valued by others, and to choose to live just like wild beasts, remote from civilization, doing no harm at all to the rest of you. We ask you and your father, then, to cease your aggression against us. We ask you to accept gifts from us, withdraw your men, and henceforth regard the Nabataeans as friends. [5] However much you want to, you cannot stay here long, since you lack water and all other provisions, nor will the application of force make us change our way of life, though you might gain a few prisoners to turn into unhappy slaves suffering under an alien culture.’
[6] After listening to this appeal, Demetrius pulled his men back and told the Arabs to send him an embassy to negotiate terms. They sent their most senior men, who, making use of much the same line of argument, persuaded Demetrius to accept as gifts the most valuable things they had to give, and to make peace with them.
98. Once he had been given hostages and the promised gifts, Demetrius left the rock. After a march of three hundred stades, he halted close to the Asphalt Lake,* which I should describe before moving on. It lies in the middle of the satrapy of Idumaea,* and is approximately five hundred stades long and about sixty wide. Its water is very bitter and extremely foul-smelling, which means that it is unable to support fish or any other familiar kind of aquatic animal, and although great rivers with exceptionally sweet waters flow into it, it overwhelms them with its foul smell. Every year, a mass of solid asphalt erupts up to the surface in the middle of the lake. It varies in length from more than three plethra down to a little less than one plethron, and the barbarians who live near by have special terms for it: they call the larger mass a ‘bull’ and the smaller one a ‘calf’. Since the asphalt floats, that part of the lake looks from a distance like an island. There are signs twenty days before the event that an eruption is going to take place: the stench of asphalt spreads for many stades all around the lake, accompanied by a vile exhalation, and everything in the district that is made of silver, gold, or bronze loses its characteristic colouring,* though it comes back again once the eruption of the asphalt has completely finished. Since the whole region thereabouts is torrid and foul-smelling, the inhabitants are physically sickly and do not live for very long. But the land—or as much of it as is intersected by serviceable rivers or by springs with enough water for irrigation—is good for growing palm trees. And there is a valley in the district where the plant called balsam grows, which is a good source of income because this is the only place in the world where it grows and doctors find it extremely effective as a medicine.
99. Once the asphalt has erupted, the people who live on either shore of the lake treat it as plunder, because they are enemies of each other. They have a peculiar way of collecting it, without boats. What they do is make large bundles of reeds and throw them into the lake. Three men, but no more, sit on one of these bundles; two of them row, using blades that are attached to the bundles, and the third man carries a bow to ward off adversaries from the opposite shore or anyone who dares to offer violence. [2] When they are close to the asphalt, they jump on to it with axes, cut off chunks as if it were soft stone, load them on to the bundle of reeds, and then row back. If the bundle breaks apart and someone falls into the water who is unable to swim, he does not sink, as he would in other bodies of water, but stays afloat just as a swimmer would.* [3] For it is a characteristic of this liquid that it supports any heavy body that has the properties of growth and breathing. Only solid bodies sink, and I suppose this is because they are almost as dense as silver, gold, lead, and so on; but even these sink much more slowly than they do when they are cast into other bodies of water. The barbarians who make a living in this way take the asphalt to Egypt and sell it for the embalming of the dead, because it is only if asphalt is blended with the other aromatics that the preservation of the corpse can be permanent.*
100. On Demetrius’ return, he gave his father a detailed report about what he had done, and Antigonus told him off for coming to terms with the Nabataeans. He said that by leaving them unpunished Demetrius had made the barbarians far bolder; they would assume that they had been pardoned not because he had been moved by a sense of justice, but because he had been unable to defeat them. However, he commended Demetrius for his survey of the lake and for having apparently discovered a new source of income for the kingdom. He made the historian Hieronymus responsible for this; [2] he was to get some boats ready, collect all the asphalt, and take it to a certain place.
The outcome, however, was not at all what Antigonus had hoped. The Arabs formed a war party of about six thousand men, sailed on their bundled-reed rafts against the men in the boats, and shot down almost all of them. [3] After that, Antigonus gave up on this source of income, not just because of the setback he had suffered, but also because he had more important matters on his mind. A courier had recently arrived with a letter from Nicanor, the governor of Media and the upper satrapies, telling of Seleucus’ journey back to Babylon and the defeats he had suffered at Seleucus’ hands. [4] Worried about the upper satrapies, Antigonus dispatched his son, Demetrius, with an infantry force of five thousand Macedonians and ten thousand mercenaries, and four thousand horse. His orders were to march inland to Babylon, recover the satrapy, and return promptly to the coast.*
[5] Demetrius set out from Damascus in Syria and rapidly put his father’s orders into effect. When Patrocles, Seleucus’ military commander of Babylon, found out that Demetrius was in Mesopotamia, he did not dare to wait for his arrival, because he had only a few men. He ordered the civilian population to evacuate the city—some of them were to cross the Euphrates and take refuge in the desert, while others were to cross the Tigris into Susiane and make their way to Euteles on the Red Sea*— [6] while he and the few men he had, using river-beds and canals as cover, moved around the satrapy, keeping an eye on the enemy,* but also keeping Seleucus in Media up to date about what was happening and asking him to send reinforcements as soon as he could.
[7] When Demetrius reached Babylon and found the city abandoned, he set about assaulting the citadels. The first of them fell to him and he gave his men permission to plunder it, but after besieging the other one for a few days, by which time it was clear that it would be a lengthy process, he left one of his Friends, Archelaus, to persevere with the siege with a force of five thousand foot and a thousand horse, while he set out for the coast with the rest of the army because he would soon be due back as ordered.*
101. Meanwhile, in Italy the war between the Romans and the Samnites continued; farmland was raided, towns were assaulted, armies were constantly out in the field. There was no let-up, and fighting of every kind and description occurred as the two most warlike peoples of Italy struggled for supremacy. [2] At one point, the Roman consuls were encamped with a division of the army within sight of the enemy camp, waiting for a suitable opportunity for battle and protecting the allied towns. [3] The rest of the army was with Quintus Fabius, who had been appointed dictator, and he took Fregellae* and made prisoners of the foremost opponents of Rome, who numbered more than two hundred. He marched them off to Rome and took them into the Forum for public execution in the traditional manner; they were flogged and then beheaded. A short while later he invaded enemy territory and took Calatia and the citadel of Nola.* He sold most of the spoils, and divided up the farmland into allotments for his soldiers. Since matters were progressing satisfactorily, the Roman people sent a colony to the island known as Pontia.*
102. In Sicily, Agathocles had reconciled his differences with the Siceliots, apart from the Messanians, and the Syracusan exiles gathered in Messana, since this was the only city that remained hostile to the dynast. [2] Agathocles wanted to break up this coalition and he sent his general Pasiphilus to Messana at the head of an army, with instructions, privately delivered,* as to what he should do. [3] Pasiphilus’ arrival in Messanian territory came like a bolt out of the blue, and he took a lot of prisoners and captured a great deal of booty. Then he asked the Messanians to actively seek his friendship and not to be forced to negotiate terms along with his bitterest enemies. [4] The prospect of a bloodless resolution to the war inspired the Messanians to expel the Syracusan exiles, and they welcomed Agathocles when he came with an army.
[5] At first, Agathocles treated them well and persuaded them to take back the exiles he had with him in his camp, who had been officially banished from Messana. [6] Later, however, he rounded up from Tauromenium and Messana those who had formerly been opposed to his rule—about six hundred men in total—and slaughtered them all. [7] He was intending to go to war against the Carthaginians and he wanted to clear all opposition out of Sicily first. The Messanians had already driven out of the city the mercenaries who were most loyal to them and were capable of protecting them from the tyrant, and now those of their citizens who were hostile to Agathocles had been killed and they had been forced to take back men who had been officially convicted of criminal activity. When they saw how things stood, they regretted what they had done, but they had no choice but to put up with the situation, since the great power wielded by their masters cowed them into submission.
[8] Agathocles began by marching against Acragas, which he planned to annex, but when a Carthaginian fleet of sixty ships sailed in he abandoned the project. Instead, he invaded territory that was subject to the Carthaginians. He plundered the farmland, and the hill-forts either fell to his assault or came to terms with him.
103. Meanwhile, Deinocrates, the leader of the Syracusan exiles, got in touch with the Carthaginians and asked them to send help before Agathocles made himself master of all Sicily. [2] Having taken in the exiles who had been banished from Messana, Deinocrates had a strong army, and he now sent one of his associates, Nymphodorus, with a division of his forces to Centuripae. [3] The town had been garrisoned by Agathocles, but some of its citizens had promised to surrender it, provided the people were allowed political independence afterwards. So one night Nymphodorus broke into the town, but when the commanders of the garrison realized what was going on, they killed both Nymphodorus himself and his companions as they were forcing their way inside the walls.
[4] Agathocles availed himself of this opportunity. He brought charges against the people of Centuripae and put to death all the alleged ringleaders of the sedition. While the dynast was occupied with this, fifty Carthaginian ships sailed into the Great Harbour of Syracuse, but all they were able to do was sink two freighters from Athens that they found there† and cut off the hands of the crews.* [5] It was widely held that this was a savage way to have treated people who had done them not the slightest harm, and it did not take long for the gods to indicate their displeasure: immediately on leaving Syracuse, some of the ships became separated from the rest of the Carthaginian fleet off Bruttium; they were captured by Agathocles’ generals, and the Phoenicians* who were taken prisoner suffered the same fate that they had inflicted on their prisoners.
104. The exiles who were with Deinocrates had at their disposal more than three thousand infantry and at least two thousand horse, and they accepted an invitation from the citizens of Galeria to occupy the town. They drove out Agathocles’ garrison, but remained outside the town themselves. [2] Agathocles swiftly sent Pasiphilus and Demophilus against them with five thousand soldiers, and they joined battle with the exiles, who were led by Deinocrates and Philonides, each in command of one of the wings. Both sides fought with such determination that the outcome hung in the balance for quite a while, but when Philonides fell, one of the two generals, and his division of the army turned to flight, Deinocrates too was forced to retreat. Pasiphilus inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy as they fled. With Galeria recovered, he killed those who were responsible for the uprising.
[3] When Agathocles found out that the Carthaginians had occupied the hill called Ecnomus in the territory of Gela, he decided to commit his entire army to do battle with them. He took to the field, and when he was near their position, flushed with his earlier victory he challenged them to battle. [4] The barbarians refused the challenge, and Agathocles took this to mean that the open countryside was now his, gained by default. He returned to Syracuse, where he embellished the most important of the temples with the spoils of war.
These were the events that took place in this year, as far as I have been able to discover.
105. In the year of the Archonship of Simonides in Athens, the Romans appointed as their consuls Marcus Valerius and Publius Decius. In this year:
Cassander, Ptolemy, and Lysimachus brought the war with Antigonus to an end and concluded a treaty with him.* The treaty specified that Cassander was to be the General of Europe until Alexander, Rhoxane’s son, should come of age; that Lysimachus should be master of Thrace and Ptolemy of Egypt and the neighbouring cities in Libya and Arabia;* that Antigonus should have supremacy in all Asia; and that the Greeks should be autonomous.* But they failed to abide by this agreement; instead, each of them came up with plausible pretexts for trying to increase his own power.
[2] Cassander could see that Rhoxane’s son, Alexander, was growing towards maturity, and he was aware that there were people in Macedon who were disseminating the idea that the boy should be released from custody and his father’s kingdom should be turned over to him. Fearful for purely personal reasons, Cassander ordered Glaucias, who was responsible for the boy’s custody, to murder Rhoxane and the king, hide their bodies, and to keep the matter completely secret.* [3] Glaucias carried out his orders—and Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Antigonus were freed from the threat they had been expecting the king to pose in the future. [4] Since there was no longer anyone to inherit the empire, from then on anyone who ruled peoples or cities could entertain hopes of kingship and the territory under his sway was in effect a kingdom, won by the spear.
That was how things stood in Asia, Europe, Greece, and Macedon.* [5] In Italy, the Romans marched against Pollitium, a town belonging to the Marrucini,* with a strong force of combined foot and horse. They also sent out some of their citizens as colonists to settle the place known as Interamna.*
106. In Sicily, Agathocles was growing in strength day by day and increasing the size of his forces. When the Carthaginians found out that the dynast was annexing the cities in the island and that his forces outnumbered theirs, they decided to put more effort into the war. [2] In a very short time, they had fitted out† 130 triremes, and as general they chose one of their most distinguished men, Hamilcar. They gave him an army consisting of two thousand citizen soldiers (among whom were many eminent men), ten thousand from Libya, a thousand mercenaries and two hundred chariot-riders* from Etruria, and a thousand Balearic slingers. They also gave him plenty of money and made sure that he had all that he might need in the way of ordnance, grain, and other military necessaries. [3] The whole fleet set sail from Carthage, but a storm suddenly struck when they were out at sea. Sixty triremes were sunk and two hundred grain-carriers destroyed. The rest of the fleet barely managed to make it safely to Sicily against the storms they encountered. [4] Many leading Carthaginians lost their lives, and the city instituted a period of public mourning for them; the walls were covered in black sackcloth, which is the Carthaginian custom when great misfortune strikes the city.
[5] Hamilcar, the general, reassembled the survivors of the storm, enrolled mercenaries, and recruited the pick of his Sicilian allies. He also took over command of the forces that were already on the island and, once he had taken care of everything that needed to be done for the war, he mustered his army in the open countryside. It consisted of about forty thousand infantry and not far short of five thousand cavalry. Since it had not taken him long to redress the disaster at sea, and since he was widely held to be a skilled general, he dispelled the gloom that had taken hold of his men’s minds and gave his enemies plenty of cause for anxiety.
107. It was clear to Agathocles that the Carthaginian forces were superior to his, and he assumed that many of the fortresses would go over to the Phoenicians, along with all the towns and cities that bore him a grudge. [2] He was particularly uncertain about the Geloans when he found out that the entire enemy army was in their territory. His fleet also suffered a considerable setback at this time when twenty ships were captured at the strait* by the Carthaginians along with their crews. [3] Nevertheless, he decided to secure Gela with a garrison, but he did not dare to introduce a force openly, in case it gave the Geloans the excuse they had been looking for to thwart him, and he lost the city and the important resources it gave him. [4] He therefore sent his men off a few at a time, as if they had some business to attend to, until the citizens were far outnumbered by his soldiers.
When Agathocles himself arrived a short while later, he accused the Geloans of treachery and desertion, either because they really were planning some such move, or because he had believed the lies of the exiles, or perhaps because he wanted to enrich himself with their wealth. In any case, he had more than four thousand Geloans killed and confiscated their property. He also ordered all the remaining Geloans to bring out their coined money and their uncoined gold and silver bullion, and warned that disobedience would be punished. [5] Everyone rushed fearfully to carry out this order of his, and as a result he collected a very large sum of money and made all his subjects petrified of him. He was thought to have treated the Geloans with undue savagery, and after he had dumped the bodies of those he had killed in the trenches outside the city walls and had left an adequate garrison in the city, he marched off and halted within sight of the enemy.
108. The Carthaginians were occupying the hill Ecnomus, which is said to have been one of Phalaris’ strongholds; in fact, it is said to have been where the tyrant had the infamous bronze bull made, a contraption which was an instrument of punishment by torture when a fire was lit underneath it. Hence the place was called Ecnomus because of his heinous treatment of his unfortunate victims.* [2] Opposite them, Agathocles had occupied another of Phalaris’ strongholds, which was called Phalarium after him. A river ran between the two camps, and both sides had made it their forward defence against the enemy. There was an old rumour flying around to the effect that a large number of men were destined to die in battle in that spot, and since it was unclear to which of the two sides this disaster would occur, both camps were filled with superstitious dread and neither of them was looking forward to combat.
[3] For quite a while, then, neither army dared to cross the river in a massed formation, and it took an unusual event to bring about a full-scale battle. Libyan incursions into his territory provoked Agathocles to respond in kind, and on one occasion, when the Greeks were driving away some livestock and draught animals that they had stolen from the Carthaginians, troops issued from the Carthaginian camp and gave chase. [4] Agathocles guessed what was going to happen, and he placed a force of men, picked for their valour, in ambush beside the river. As the Carthaginians crossed the river in pursuit of the rustlers, these men suddenly sprang from concealment into the attack, and since the enemy were out of order they easily turned them.
[5] With the barbarians being cut down and running for their camp, Agathocles felt that this was an opportune moment for battle and he led his entire army against the enemy position. The attack took the Carthaginians by surprise and before long Agathocles had filled up a section of the trench, torn down the palisade, and forced his way into the camp. [6] The Carthaginians, who had been thrown into a panic by the unexpected attack and had no time to form up, confronted the enemy and fought just as they were. A ferocious battle took place between the two sides at the trench and soon the whole area was strewn with corpses, because on the one side Carthaginians of the highest rank* rushed up to help when they saw that the camp was being taken, and on the other side Agathocles, encouraged by the advantage he had gained and thinking that he could conclude the entire war with a single battle, piled the pressure on the barbarians.
109. Seeing that his men were being overpowered and that more and more Greeks were pouring into the camp, Hamilcar brought up the slingers from the Balearic Islands. There were at least a thousand of them, [2] and they kept up such a relentless barrage of large stones that many of the attackers were injured or even killed, and very many of them had their protective armour shattered. These Balearic slingers normally employ stones a mna in weight, and they make a major contribution towards victory in battle, since in their part of the world they practise constantly with the sling from childhood onwards. [3] So the barbarians drove the Greeks from the camp and got the better of them.
But Agathocles returned to the attack at other points, and the camp was actually on the point of falling when ships arrived fortuitously from Libya, bringing reinforcements for the Carthaginians. [4] With fresh confidence, the men from the camp fought the Greeks from the front, while the newly arrived reinforcements covered all the other angles. These unexpected blows swiftly reversed the course of the battle, and the Greeks fled either to the Himeras river or back to their camp. The retreat went on for forty stades, and since almost all of this was level terrain the barbarian cavalry, five thousand strong, harried them all the way. The intervening space therefore became filled with corpses, and the river also played a major part in the destruction of the Greeks in the sense that, since it was the season of the Dog Star* and the pursuit was taking place in the middle of the day, many of the fugitives became parched by the heat and the effort of running and drank to excess, even though it was salt water.* As a result, as many men were found dead beside the river without a scratch on their bodies as were killed in the course of the pursuit. About five hundred of the barbarians lost their lives in this battle, and at least seven thousand Greeks.
110. It was a complete disaster for Agathocles. He rallied the survivors of the rout, burnt his camp, and retreated to Gela. He had spread the word around that he intended to leave before long for Syracuse, and when three hundred Libyan horsemen encountered some of his soldiers in the countryside, they were told that Agathocles had left for Syracuse. So the Libyans entered Gela as friends, but this turned out to be a false assumption and they were massacred.
[2] Agathocles shut himself up in Gela, not because he could not get through safely to Syracuse, but because he wanted to tempt the Carthaginians into besieging Gela, so that the Syracusans would be able to harvest their crops, as the season demanded, in complete safety. [3] Hamilcar did think at first about besieging Gela, but when he found out that there were troops in the city to defend it and that Agathocles was very well off for supplies, he gave up the idea. Instead, he did the rounds of the fortresses and towns, gaining their allegiance and treating everyone with kindness in an attempt to win the loyalty of the Siceliots. In fact, Camarina, Leontini, Catane, and Tauromenium sent embassies straight away and went over to the Carthaginians, [4] and a few days later Messana, Abacaenum, and many other towns raced one another to see who could be the first to transfer their allegiance to Hamilcar.* This shows how powerful the mood was, generated by their loathing for the tyrant, that swept over the common people after the defeat.
[5] Agathocles led the remnants of his army back to Syracuse, repaired the ruined stretches of the defensive wall, and brought the grain in from the fields. His plan was to leave a strong enough guard to protect the city, while he took the bulk of the army over to Libya and made the mainland the theatre of war instead of the island. But, in keeping with the plan announced at the beginning of this book, I shall make Agathocles’ invasion of Libya the starting point for the next book.