Eumenes of Kardia

AbstractEumenes (361–315BCE) was a Greek from the city of Kardia in the Thracian Chersonese (Gallipoli peninsula), who became royal secretary and head of the state chancellery first to Philip II of Macedon and subsequently to Alexander III, the Great. To the latter he also served as a close personal advisor, and after the Conqueror's death in 323 he was a major contender for power in the early years of the warfare that ushered in the Hellenistic Age. In his position of royal secretary, Eumenes joined Alexander in his invasion of the Persian Empire in 334. By the later stages of the Asian campaign, Eumenes had been advanced to the position of cavalry commander of one division of the elite Macedonian companion cavalry. After Alexander's death Eumenes became a satrap (governor) and the confidant of Perdikkas, the regent acting for Alexander's heirs. In the struggle for power that began in late 321, Eumenes commanded a sizable force and defeated two distinguished Macedonian commanders; but the regent's death during a campaign against Ptolemy, the satrap of Egypt, precipitaded Eumenes' betrayal by one of his own commanders and his subsequent defeat at the hands of the leading general of the victorious coalition, Antigonos I Monophthalmos (“the One‐Eyed”). Later Eumenes came to terms with Antigonos by becoming officially his subordinate. But in 318 he broke with him and, with the support of a new coalition of satraps and generals, he renewed his war against his former master. Both armies withdrew to the east. After two indecisive battles at Paraitakene and Gabiene in late‐316, Eumenes was betrayed by his own troops – to Antigonos, who had him executed early in 315.