Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/199

PERDICCAS. had been neglected by Alexander, and continued in virtual independence under its satrap, Ariarathes. The campaign was quickly decided ; Ariarathes was defeated in two successive battles, taken pri- soner, and put to d(!ath by order of the regent, who handed over the government of Cappadocia to his friend and partisan Eunienes. From tlienee he marched into Pisidia, where he reduced the im- portant cities of Laranda and Isaura. Meanwhile the jealousies and apprehensions of his principal adversaries had been long secretly at work, to combine them into a league against his power. Ptolemy appears to have been from the first re- garded by the regent with especial suspicion and distrust, and Perdiccas was only waiting for a plau- sible pretext to dispossess him of his important government of Egypt. But the regent knew that Antipater also was scarcely less hostile to him, and had already entered into secret engagements with Ptolemy, from which he now sought to detach him by requesting his daughter Nicaea in marriage. Antipater could not refuse so splendid an offer, and immediately sent Nicaea to Perdiccas in Asia, But just about the same time the regent received overtures from Olympias, who offered him the hand of her daughter Cleopatra in return for his support against Antipater. He did not, however, deem the moment yet come for an open rupture with the latter, and consequently married Nicaea, but with the secret purpose of divorcing her and espousing Cleopatra in her stead at a subsequent period. From this time, if not before, it appears certain that he began to look forward to establish- ing himself eventually on the throne of Macedonia, and regarded the proposed alliance with Cleopatra merely as a stepping-stone to that object. (Arrian, ap. Phot p. 69, b. 70, a.; Diod. xviii. 14, 16, 22, 23 ; Justin, xiii. 6.) It was at this juncture that the daring enter- prise of Cynane [Cvnane] threatened to disconcert all the plans of Perdiccas ; and though he succeeded in frustrating her ambitious schemes, his cruelty in putting her to death excited such general dissatis- faction, that he found himself compelled, in order to appease the murmurs of tl.e soldiery, to give her daughter Eurydice in marriage to the king Arrhi- daeus. (Arr. ap. Phol. p. 70, a. b.) Shortly after, his attempt to bring Antigonus to trial for some alleged offences in the government of his satrapy, brought on the crisis which had been so long impending. That general made his escape to Macedonia, where he revealed to Antipater the full extent of the ambitious schemes of Perdiccas, and thus at once induced Antipater and Craterus to unite in a league with Ptolemy, and openly declare war against the regent. Thus assailed on all sides, Perdiccas determined to leave Eumenes in Asia Minor, to make head against their common enemies in that quarter, while he himself directed his efforts in the first instance against Ptolemy. In the spring of B.C. 321 accordingly, he set out on his march against Egypt, at the head of a for- midable army, and accompanied by the king Ar- rhidaeus, with his bride Eurydice, as well as by lloxana and her infiint son. He advanced without opposition as far as Pelusium, but found the banks of the Nile strongly fortified and guarded by Ptolemy, and was repulsed in repeated attempts to force the passage of the river ; in the last of which, near Memphis, he lost great numbers of men, by the depth and rapidit}' of the current. This disaster PERDICCAS. 187 caused the discontent among his troops which had been long gathering in secret, and had been exas- perated rather than repressed by the severity with which he had punished the first symptoms "of dis- affection, to break out into open mutiny ; the in- fantry of the phalanx were the first to declare themselves, but their example was soon followed by the cavalry, and a band of officers headed by Seleucus and Antigenes hastened to the tent of Perdiccas, and despatched him with many wounds. (Diod. xviii. 23, 25, 29, 33—36 ; Arrian, ap. Phot. p. 70, b. 71, a ; Justin, xiii. 6, 8 ; Plut. Eum. 5, 8 ; Com. Nep. Eum. 3, 5 ; Strab. xvii. p. 794.) We know little or nothing of the character of Perdiccas beyond what may be gathered from the part he took in the events above related, but in these he certainly appears in the darkest colours. His only redeeming qualities were his great per- sonal courage (see on this point an anecdote related by Ael. V. H. xii. 39), and his talents as a general. His selfish and grasping ambition was wholly unrelieved by any of the generosity and magnanimous spirit which had adorned that of Alexander. At once crafty and cruel, he arrayed against himself, by his dark and designing policy, all the other leaders in the Macedonian empire, while he alienated the minds of his soldiers and followers by the arrogance of his demeanour, as well as by unsparing and needless severity, and he ultimately fell a victim not to the arms of his ad- versaries, but to the general discontent which he had himself excited. 2. One of the generals who held a subordinate command under Eumenes in the war against An- tigonus, B.C. 321. He was preparing to desert to the enemy, when Eumenes became apprised of his project, and sent Phoenix against him, who surprised his camp in the night, took him prisoner, and brought him before Ilumenes, who caused him to be put to death. (Diod. xviii. 40.) [E.H.B.] PERDICCAS I. (nep5i/c;cas), was, according to Herodotus, the founder of the Macedonian mon- archy, though Justin, Diodorus, and the later chronographers, Dexippus and Eusebius, represent Caranus as the first king of Macedonia, and make Perdiccas only the fourth. [Caranus.] Thucy- dides, however, seems to' follow the same version of the history with Herodotus, since he reckons only eight kings before Archelaus. (Thuc. ii. 100. See also Clinton, F. ^T. vol. ii. p. 221 ; Miiller's Dorians, App. i. § 15.) According to Herodotus, Perdiccas and his two brothers, Gauanes and Ae- ropus, were Argives of the race of Temenus, who fled from their native country to Illyria, and from thence into the upper part of Macedonia, where they at first served the king of the country as herdsmen, but were afterwards dismissed from his service, and settled near Mount Bermius, from whence, he adds, they subdued the rest of Ma- cedonia (Herod, viii. 137, 138). It is clear, how- ever, that the dominions of Perdiccas and his immediate successors, comprised but a very small part of the country subsequently known under that name. (See Thuc. ii. 99.) According to Eu- sebius {ed. Arm. p. 152, 153), Perdiccas reigned forty-eight years, but this period is, doubtless, a purely fictitious one. He was succeeded by his son Argaeus. (Herod, viii. 139.) From a frag- ment of Diodorus {Eac. Vat. p. 4), it would appear that Perdiccas was regarded as the founder of Aegae