Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Μ. Ασία ΙΔΡΥΜΑ ΜΕΙΖΟΝΟΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ
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Eumenes of Cardia

Συγγραφή : Panagopoulou Katerina (8/5/2002)
Μετάφραση : Nakas Ioannis

Για παραπομπή: Panagopoulou Katerina, "Eumenes of Cardia",
Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Μ. Ασία
URL: <http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=8160>

Ευμένης Καρδίας (5/7/2008 v.1) Eumenes of Cardia (11/7/2008 v.1) 
 

1. Biography

Although he was the only of the Successors who was not of noble descent, Eumenes came from an important family of Thracian Cardia, a city which then belonged to the dominion of Macedonia, and his father was apparently a friend of the Macedonian king Philip II (359-336 BC).1 Following the advice of the former he entered the Macedonian court at the age of eighteen and was appointed “secretary” to the king. He was later appointed by Alexander “chief secretary”, a position which he held until the death of the king.

After Alexander’s death, Eumenes sided with the royal family and became the basic proponent of the unity of the Macedonian state. In the Babylon settlement he sided with the general Perdiccas2 (Perdiccas, Aristonous, Alcetas, Attalus, Polemon, Seleucus, Medius, Dokimos, Philoxenus). Thanks to Perdiccas he was named satrap of Cappadocia, as a counterweight to the increasing power of Antigonus I Monophthalmos (One-Eyed).3 In 321/320 BC he was set in charge of the troops of Perdiccas in Cappadocia and Pisidia, in collaboration with the generals Neoptolemus and Alcetas, and he arranged the marriage of Perdiccas with Cleopatra. In 321 BC he defeated Craterus4. After, however, the assassination of Perdiccas in the same year he was isolated by the rest of the Successors and was sentenced to death at the conference of Triparadisus (321 BC). The First War of the Successors (320-319 BC) brought Eumenes against his former ally Neoptolemus at Nora in Cappadocia. The siege which began at Nora ended with the defeat and the capture of his troops, apart from 300 cavalry men, with whom Eumenes sought refuge to Antipater’s dominion.5 Then he withdrew from the Hellespont area. After ten days he faced Craterus and Neoptolemus near Cappadocia6 and recaptured Hellespontine Phrygia7 and Lydia.8 The dispute between Eumenes and Alcetas was eventually settled by Antigonus I Monophthalmos.9 During the Second War of the Successors (318-315 BC), Eumenes remained in Cappadocia gathering troops and supplies10 and sided with Polyperchon and Cleitus against Cassander, Antigonus, Ptolemy I and Lysimachus. The army Antigonus sent, led by Menander, to conquer Cappadocia and capture Eumenes arrived three days after the departure of Eumenes from the area.11

Eumenes with 2,000 infantry and 500 cavalry men reached Cilicia through the Taurus Mountain Range. There he was awaited by the Macedonian veterans, the ‘Silver-Shields’, under the generals Antigenes and Teutamus;12 he confronted them thanks to an alleged epiphany of Alexander in a dream, who offered to help them under the condition that they would set up a tent and a throne, offer a sacrifice in his honour and gather a council.13 In their councils Eumenes prevailed thanks to the letters of Polyperchon and Olympias. Using the royal treasure of Cyinda he raised a mercenary force of 10,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry soldiers, which were added to his troops and to the ‘Silver Shields’, despite Ptolemy’s attempt to interfere, after the conquest of Syria and Palestine.14 Soon, however, Eumenes moved to Susiana to seek food for his troops. The struggle between Antigonus and Eumenes was culminated at the battles of Paraetacene (317 BC) and Gabiene (January 316 BC), which forced the former to surrender to Antigonus, who executed him.

2. Evaluation

Eumenes not only served the Macedonian army as the “secretary” of Phillip II and later as the “chief secretary” of Alexander, but he also proved to have considerable military abilities during the era of the Successors (especially with his victories against Neoptolemus and Craterus in 321-320 BC). He remained faithful to the ideas of Alexander about a united empire in his entire life. The dissemination of these ideas was supported by his written work too: obviously the Ephemerides (Royal Diaries) aimed to promote Perdiccas. The “faith” of Eumenes towards the dynasty of the Argeades is tragically underlined by the fact that his own troops betrayed him at the battle of Gabiene.

In the ancient sources his greed is presented as a personality flaw. His biographer Plutarch characteristically records that when, in ca. 325 BC, Alexander asked his friends to contribute to the construction of a new fleet, Eumenes offered only 100 talents. Alexander ordered the slaves to set Eumenes’ tent on fire and it was revealed that he possessed 1,000 talents. This episode could nevertheless have been a detraction produced by his opponents.15 The fact is, however, that, despite his political skills, Eumenes’ military activity did not influence the formation of the Hellenistic states in the long term.

1. The information cited by the historian Duris that Eumenes’ father was a coachman, is most probably a slanderous invention of Eumenes’ opponents or of the author himself, Tουλουμάκος, I., «Οι πόλεμοι των Διαδόχων (306-280 π.Χ.)», in Χριστόπουλος, Γ. – Μπαστιάς, Ι. (ed.), Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους, τ. Δ' (Αθήνα 1973), pp. 282-321, esp. p. 321.

2. Also Aristonous, bodyguard of Alexander the Great, two leaders of the infantry guard, Alcetas, his brother Perdiccas and his brother-in-law Attalus, Attalus’ brother Polemon, Seleucus, Medius of Larisa, Philoxenus and Dokimos, who later became the satrap of central Phrygia and founded the city of Dokimeia, took Perdiccas’ side.

3. Plu., Eum. 3.2

4. Plu., Eum. 6.3-8.2

5. D. S. 18.29.4-6; Arr., An. 1.27; Plu., Eum. 5.2-3.

6. D. S. 18.37.1; Plu., Eum. 8.1.

7. Plu., Eum. 8.4.

8. Plu., Eum. 8.4; Arr, An. 1.40.

9. D. S. 18.39.7; Arr., Ta meta Alexandron 1.38.

10. D. S. 18.53.5-7; Plu., Eum. 12.3.

11. D. S. 18.59.1-2.

12. D. S. 18.59.1-3.

13. D. S. 18.60.1-18.62.3; Polyaen. 4.8.2; Plu., Eum. 13.2-4.

14. D. S. 18.43, 18.61 passim, App., Syr. 52.

15. Plut., Eum. 2.2-2.3.

     
 
 
 
 
 

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