Ghost on the Throne - James S. Romm [160]
15 The hearse was built: The description is taken from Diodorus 18.26–27. Various points are unclear in both the Greek text of the description and its interpretation. The most consequential is at 18.27.2, where the change by a nineteenth-century editor of a single letter gives a description of a sculpted-gold olive wreath, rather than a picture of one done in gold on a purple cloth. Detailed discussion by Stewart, Faces of Power, pp. 215–21.
16 no doubt coordinated: No evidence directly suggests a conspiracy between Arrhidaeus and Ptolemy, but most scholars assume that one existed, if only because the body snatching would have been difficult without one. It bears noting also that Ptolemy later put forward Arrhidaeus for the vacant post of guardian of the kings (see Chapter 7, section 1). Aelian, in Historical Miscellanies (12.64), tells a wonderful but likely spurious story in which Ptolemy constructs a decoy body and coffin, then switches these for the real ones. Aspects of the hearse and its journey are discussed by Erskine (“Life After Death”) and Badian (“A King’s Notebooks”).
17 A legend was fabricated: The legend is found in a work dating from much later, the Alexander Romance (3.32), but its early provenance is assured by the fact that only under Ptolemy Soter did Alexander’s body reside in Memphis. Pausanias (1.7.1) informs us that Ptolemy II brought the body from Memphis to Alexandria, though many scholars believe that Ptolemy I must have moved the body himself when he changed royal residences.
18 fiercely devoted: An inference from the later willingness of the Shields to follow the orders of Polyperchon, guardian of the kings, even when these were contravened by four other generals (Chapter 9).
19 Perdiccas was enraged: Attested by information recovered from one of two pages of a manuscript of Arrian’s Events After Alexander that was broken up and overwritten, the so-called Vatican palimpsest (F 24.1 in the Roos edition of Arrian).
20 still residing in Sardis: Apparently, Perdiccas had made Cleopatra satrap of Lydia, demoting the former satrap, Menander, to the post of garrison commander. The extraordinary appointment of a woman as satrap is attested only by the Vatican palimpsest containing one leaf of Arrian’s Events After Alexander (F 25.2).
21 Eumenes almost got caught: The story was recovered from the Vatican palimpsest (F 25.3–8), and is otherwise unknown; even Polyaenus, a collector of such deceptions, fails to mention it in Stratagems of War.
22 Alcetas refused: Details of the diplomatic maneuvers that follow are taken primarily from Plutarch Eumenes 5–6.2.
23 a curious dream: Plutarch Eumenes 6.3–6. Information of this kind can only have come to Plutarch from the history written by Hieronymus of Cardia, a close companion and confidant of Eumenes’ throughout the post-Alexander years.
24 Muttering curses: An unusually piquant detail even for Plutarch, found at Eumenes 7.2.
25 an intense single combat: Plutarch’s description at Eumenes 7.4–7 and the closely matching one by Diodorus at 18.31 have here been accepted as authentic though doubted by some scholars as deriving from Hieronymus’ efforts to heroize Eumenes.
26 He may even have had: Plutarch says that Eumenes found Craterus still alive and conscious and mourned him while clasping his hand, but this seems too operatic to be credible. In the version of Diodorus, Craterus dies before Eumenes has engaged Neoptolemus. Nepos (Eumenes 4.4), relying on a different source from either of these, reports that Eumenes made a vain effort to save Craterus’ life.
27 Eumenes sent a Macedonian: The episode recounted here, described in a papyrus fragment of Arrian’s Events After Alexander (known by its catalog number, PSI 1284), has caused much debate among scholars. The coercion of an enemy phalanx might have occurred either after the battle against Neoptolemus or after that against Craterus and Neoptolemus, and the papyrus gives no clues as to which is its proper context. Cogent reasons have been advanced on either