The "Fred thread": the Argead Macedonian Army

[Paralus]

This is to misread the text. Rezpka (along with Hammond) too asserts this is an "assembly of the Makedones"

To paraphrase; "This is to misread Paullus Scipio" :lol: :lol:
I agree that it is a discussion taking place of the Commanders and Leading figures - even though Eumenes has been appointed Commander-in-Chief in Asia by Olympias and the Regents, the other leading 'Makedones' don't take kindly to serving under a mere Greek. Nevertheless, the matter will, in the normal course of events, be referred to an "Assembly of the Makedones" ......

The letters from the regent, Polyperchon, and Olympias had a strong effect upon the rank and file and the lower officers: loyalty to the Argead house was strong. That it was so for those that Curtius called the "principes" is a nonsense. These Macedonian grandees were out for anything they could get and none of this was ever to be put to any puported "assembly of the Makedones". Peucestas had bugger all of these (10,000+ Persians and "Asiatics", 3,000 "trained and armed in the Macedonian fashon", and cavalry) and thus had no constituency aside from those that made up his Macedonian somatophylakes. Why put his claims to an "assembly" he had precious little representation in? The other satraps had even less. It is patently clear that Eumenes had the "controlling" Macedonians and Antigenes - who supported Eumenes well enough to be burnt alive by Antigonus - agreed.

You make far too much of the puported notion of Eumenes' hypaspists "taking precedence" over the Argyraspides. Their reputation, as Diodorus makes utterly plain, was "the spearhead of the army". There existed many a hypaspist corps in these years and they cared little: they were the Argyraspides and others may be whomever they were called and wherever they were stationed. If there is anything clear in Diodours 18-19 it is that Antigenes supported Eumenes (and the royal house against the rebel Antigonus) and Eumenes' decisions in the field were paramount.

Edit (to save cluttering up the coming "paper"):

...there is Ptolemy's interference - he sends a letter addressed to "to the Silver Shields and to the other Macedonians with Eumenes..."( XVIII.62.4 and 63.1 and that these Macedonians are not merely officers is shown by 63.3 "At the reading of this letter the commanders and all the Macedonians found themselves in great perplexity..."

That is not correct. Ptolemy, at 18.62.1), only sends letters to the Silver Shields and to the commander(s) of the Cyinda garrisons:

[Ptolemy] kept sending to the commanders of the Silver Shields, exhorting them not to pay any attention to Eumenes, whom all the Macedonians had condemned to death. Likewise he sent to those who had been placed in command of the garrisons in Cyinda...

At 18.62.4 it is Antigonus who sends Philotas (the former satrap of Cilicia) into Cyinda to incite rebellion against Eumenes. As Eumenes is in Cyinda to draw money, plainly the Macedonian garrison is "with him" and Philiotas likely knows these men (as do the 30 "meddlesome Macedonians"). It is instructive that is is the Silver Shields who are the focus of attention ("...whom he [Antigonus] instructed to meet separately with Antigenes and Teutamus, the commanders of the Silver Shields, and through them to organize some plot against Eumenes"; "get in touch with their acquaintances and fellow citizens among the Silver Shields"; "sending to the commanders of the Silver Shields") and remain so throughout the campaign (examples in earlier posts). It is clear the Silver Shields are the bulk of any "Macedonians", certainly the most important, and that those Macedonians also present are far more likely to be those of the Cyinda garrisons: neither Ptolemy nor Antigonus wanted Eumenes to lay hands on the funds in that fortress.

...there were undoubtedly Macedonian troops other than the Argyraspides in Eumenes armies..... I hope there is no dispute as to this before Eumenes ends up in Nora?

I need to finish the paper... it addresses this in full.