VI. CHAP. VI. - Battles Antigonus usurps the Protectorship. His cruel Policy. - CHAP. FROM the death of Alexander to that of Eumenes, only eight years had elapsed; but that Antigonus narrow span is wonderfully magnified in fancy, usurps the protector- by the multiplicity of events, the variety of Asia. actors, and the importance of revolutions. The ship in Olymp. cxvi. 1. B. C. 316. protectoral sceptre, which had been feebly sustained by the old age of Antipater, which had trembled in the hands of Python and Aridæus, and which had just dropped from those of Polysperchon, was a two-edged and bloody sword when wielded by Perdiccas and by Antigonus, respectively the first, and last, who held it. When Polysperchon appointed Eumenes imperial commander in Asia, he promised to assist him, if necessary, with a great European army. But he was so little qualified to fulfil this promise, that he soon found his inability to defend Macedon VI. itself against the activity of Cassander. The CHAP. destruction of Eumenes, and the disgrace of Polysperchon, thus enabled Antigonus to avail himself of his obsolete commission from Antipater, of lieutenant to the protector in the East; with this, he immediately usurped the whole power of the protectorship itself', and abused it, as we shall see presently, with daring injustice and execrable cruelty. Having reinforced his army with the treach- Occupies erous deserters from Eumenes, he determined of Ragas in to quit the inhospitable mountains of Elymais, Media. and to winter in Media. In that noble province, he took up his quarters in a village near Ecbatana containing a royal palace, and distributed the greater part of his troops in the fertile district of Ragas above mentioned, a name probably derived from the oriental Raga 3, but Diodorus, 1. xix. s. 48. 2 Diodorus, xix. 44. At Kungawur, distant forty-five miles from Ecbatana on the way to Kermanshah, there are ruins of an edifice of great extent, and constructed with extraordinary solidity. The parts of the walls which remain are built of large hewn stones. Trunks of seven pillars are still standing, and fragments are scattered in every direction. The natives of the village say, that there were once four hundred of these pillars, and that the palace was originally built by the Gins, or Genii. Kinneir's Memoir, p. 129. The distance of Kungawur from Ecbatana, 19 schoeni, agrees exactly with that of the village of Koncobar, as given by Isidore of Charax. It was famous for a temple of Diana. In the road between Kungawur and Kermanshah, there is an overhanging rock, Besittoon, with carved figures and inscriptions, which, from a circumstance told of Semiramis in her march to Ecbatana, have been ascribed to that queen. Comp. Diodorus, xix. 110. Otter, i. c. 17. 3 Translated Rages, book of Tobit, c. i. v. 14. & c. iv, v. i. VI. CHAP. believed by the Greeks to denote the rending ♦ earthquake, which totally changed the aspect of the circumjacent country; levelling mountains, scooping out lakes, obstructing rivers, and producing new mountains, lakes, and rivers, in the stead of those which had vanished. This earthquake is said to have overwhelmed many cities, and two thousand villages. The labours of man were repaired; but the changes in the face of nature have been permanent, and not altogether useless, could we believe that the important defile, called the Caspian Gates, connecting that inland sea with the central provinces of Asia, was the salutary effect of this dreadful convulsion." Destruction of the pides. Immediately after his inglorious victory, AnArgyras tigonus had punished with death the intrepid fidelity of Antigenes. Other loyalists of less renown shared the same fate, particularly Eudamus, who commanded the detachment from India. While he thus punished his enemies, he determined also to disencumber himself of all suspicious friends. The Argyraspides, to whose treachery he was so deeply indebted, were artfully disembodied; and committed in divisions to Sibyrtius, governor of Arachosia, and other obscure satraps, with strict injunctions, that their courageous old age should be consumed by Payas, fissura, Strabo, l. xi. p. 783. 5 Пoλels σuxvas. Diodorus, l. xix. s. 46. and Strabo, l. i. p. 103. & ]. xi. p. 783. • See D'Hankerville, Origine des Arts de la Grece, v.ii. c. 2. VI. danger and labour, so that they might never CHA P. again collect into any formidable force. In this manner an important division of the veteran army of Alexander melted away in Asia, without obtaining its fond wish of revisiting the beloved shores of Greece and Macedon. 7 and death Antigonus had been joined by two generals Deception of the name of Python; one son to Crateas, of Python. the other to Agenor. The son of Agenor reinforced, as we have seen, his old friend Antigonus, at the same time that Eudamus, joint superintendant over Indian affairs, brought a considerable addition to the royal army. This Python continued thenceforward a stedfast adherent to Antigonus, and was one of his ablest officers. But Python, the son of Crateas, who had formerly shared the protectorship, and recently, as governor of Media, had aspired to empire in the East, was not of a temper to act tamely a second part. While Antigonus occupied the fertile country adjacent to Ragas, Python fixed his quarters at a distance near the southern extremity of Media; and availing himself of the resources of a country, in which he had many adherents, began to cabal against a master whose cruelty to others he had witnessed, and whose speedy vengeance he was himself destined 7 Polyænus, l. iv. c. 6. Voc. Antigon. Diodorus, l. xix. s. 48. Plutarch in Eumen. vers. finem. Diodorus observes, " that impious deeds, however useful to men in power, as subservient to their ambition, generally prove ruinous to the instruments by whom they are perpetrated." VI. CHAP. to experience. The crafty tyrant affected to disbelieve any unfavourable reports of so gallant an officer, and so meritorious a coadjutor. He industriously announced his intention of marching into Lower Asia, and rewarding the services of his friend with supreme command in the eastern provinces. This purpose was declared to Python himself, in a letter containing warm expressions of affection, and presenting to his lofty thoughts the most bewitching prospects. Caught in a snare into which the blindness of ambition only could have fallen, Python hastened to join the standard of Antigonus, and to meet his fate. In one short day, he was accused, condemned, and executed. His rich satrapy was bestowed on Orontabates, a Mede, controuled, however, by the Macedonian Hippastratus, commanding three thousand five hundred of his warlike countrymen. Having made this arrangement for governing the finest province of the empire, Antigonus proceeded to Ecbatana, the capital of Media, drew five thousand talents from the treasury in its citadel, and prepared for a laborious march of twentyfive days to Pasagarda, the imperial district of Persia. Antigonus's march to Susa through Persis Peucestes, the satrap of that country, had no sooner learned the defection of the Argyraspides after Eumenes's last battle, than he surrendered himself to Antigonus with ten thousand Diodorus, 1. xix. s. 46. |