Panhellenism

[Paralus]

Eumenes followed the Argeads for decades as one of the royal friends. He held high offices since Philip's time [...] I wouldn't say that Eumenes was a true mercenary. His life, as is described by the ancients, makes me view him more as a true and loyal friend.

Eumenes is described as having been "secretary" to both Philip and Alexander. At the end of Alexander's campaign he is commanding cavalry. He seems to have been comfortably off as a "companion" to both kings as well as enjoying the access to power such offered him. That all came to a crashing end when Alexander died.

In the immediate wars that followed the conqueror's death Eumenes is depicted as a loyal servant of the Argaed line. He'd no choice if his access to power and privilege was to continue. Hence we find Eumenes in Perdiccas' camp as that marshal grasped control. Once again that all came crashing down when the grasping Perdiccas was killed. Worse, the Macedonians in the royal army (which included the Argyraspides) condemned Eumenes to death.

At his lowest ebb (after his release on condition of subordinating himself to the rebel Antigonus) Inspector Plod (Polyperchon) offers him the choice of returning to Macedon to share in the care of the kings or the position of "royal general" in Asia. Eumenes might well have chosen to restore himself to power and influence in the company of the kings in Macedon. Instead, he chose to deal himself back into the game for what were clearly higher rewards. Had he held his baggage at Gabiene he will likely have found himself, like Antigonus, acknowledged the "lord of Asia" by the Persians.

Eumenes is no starry-eyed supporter o the royal house. His motives were, in my view, far more complex.

I guess that he was indeed loyal to the Argaeds and was well loved by the Macedonian soldiery who knew him very well.

That is far too sweeping a statement. Whilst too much is made of his ethnicity in many quarters, the evidence of "love" for him from the Macedonian soldiery is conflicting. Yes, Macedonians defected to him (others - Craterus' fellows from the homeland one suspects - did not). And whilst those in his immediate entourage voted him a guard (hypaspists one imagines), this was in response to Eumenes' handing out of the royal purple to them and the death sentence imposed by the Macedonian soldiery of the royal army. An army Eumenes' forces were, ostensibly, a detachment of.

Finally there is the infamous bargaining away of Eumenes by his Macedonians. Whilst the inducement (a lifetime's booty, wives and family) explains much, the relationship was never one of unbridled "friendship".

On the Errington quote, he is here discussing the Hellenistic institution of the Friends. He is dead right. The Diadoch kingdoms all kept a large retinue of Friends. These were the functionaries of state. Diodorus' narrative of Antigonus' conniving at empire is replete with the activities of the One-Eyed's Friends. His most trusted Friend, Boeotus, died fulfilling his ultimate duty as a Friend: the defence of Demetrius, Antigonus' "appointed heir".