The "Fred thread": the Argead Macedonian Army

[Paralus]

Well, as to which text, you 'pays yer money and takes yer choice' - which is not say that the Loeb, which presumably follows the text/manuscript the translator thought more reliable, is wrong. Perhaps we can agree '3,000 Argyraspides, give or take a few....' :lol: :lol:

Matters are never quite that simple. Diodorus uses the combined terms on a number of occasions - usually to indicate smaller contingents.

A few lines later, the 'Hypaspists' are also said to be "more than 3,000"....do the texts differ on this figure also?

No. The reading is "ontas pleious trischiliôn". What is missing is the particle "men" used in relation to the Argyraspides. This is to denote some certainty: "certainly / truthfully / indeed <ou = not> more than 3,000".

We have only the one notice of 3,000 Macedonians wandering about unemployed and these were Antigonus’. As above, the history of the period is replete with Macedonians transferring their allegiance often.

.....plus the 2,000 infantry and 500 cavalry referred to above, who can hardly be 'raw recruits' for the reasons stated....

Diodrus is compressing his source: the departure from Nora and the revoking of the alliance and Eumenes' concurrent scarpering to Cilicia did not happen days apart. It only appears that way in the summarised text of Diodorus.

These 2,000 'volunteers' can really only realistically be part of the 'dispersed' army that have not gone over to Antigonus - and most probably those Macedonians loyal enough to Eumenes to provide him with a thousand strong bodyguard. This number also fits in well with the original 3,000 Macedonian infantry....

What is the source for Eumens having 3,000 Macedonian infantry in the army of Orcynii?

There is much more here - including the language used by Diodorus - and I will address it a little later as I need to get going....