It was growing dark by the time Eumenes arrived at the river. Another in a long series of command conclaves was held, and as usual opinions were divided. Eumenes wanted to fight again the following day. His infantry was undamaged and totally victorious; his cavalry and elephants had held up well despite desertion by Peucestas. The coalition’s chances looked good, easily better than those of Antigonus. The satraps, however, wanted to retreat to home turf, the upper satrapies, and repair their losses.

In previous strategy disputes the Silver Shields had backed Eumenes, but now they were distraught at the loss of their families and fortunes. Eumenes told them they had every chance of recovering these, and seizing more besides, if they would make just one more effort. But their disappointment in him, the sense that they had been seduced by a false Alexander, turned them scornful. They shouted that Eumenes had led them on with false promises, had troubled their lives with constant wars, had brought them into the East when they could have gone home, and finally had lost all they owned, dooming them to an impoverished and lonely old age. The bonds between Eumenes and the Silver Shields had finally given way.

The conclave broke up without choosing a course of action. As soon as it did, Teutamus, junior captain of the Shields, took action on his own. Long dubious about Eumenes, only barely prevented from selling him out once before, Teutamus now secretly contacted Antigonus One-eye looking for a deal. This time he did not consult his senior partner, Antigenes, who had talked him out of betrayal the last time. A trade-off was easily arranged, Eumenes for the baggage train, with Antigonus also promising amnesty and cash rewards. The bargain was struck, and Eumenes’ fate was sealed, that very night.

2. EUMENES AND ANTIGONUS (GABENE, WINTER, EARLY 316 B.C.)

It was no simple matter to arrest Eumenes. He had devoted followers, those whom he termed “companions” in imitation of Alexander, who might try to defend him. Word of Teutamus’ betrayal might have already leaked out—indeed there is some indication it had—and Eumenes might have an escape prepared. A group of Silver Shields surrounded Eumenes and distracted him with chatter, some complaining about their lost baggage, others telling him to be confident since he had clearly won the previous day’s engagement. When they had hedged him off from his supporters, they pounced, seizing his sword and binding his hands with cloth from his own garment. In a moment it was over. Peucestas and his ten thousand archers, who could have made trouble even for the Shields, saw which way the wind was blowing and declared allegiance to Antigonus. Other satraps did likewise.

Two days later, Antigonus’ officer Nicanor arrived to take possession of the prisoner. As he was being led out through the camp, Eumenes asked permission to address the Silver Shields, and this was granted. Eumenes, standing on high ground where he could be heard by all, holding out his bound hands, made his valedictory speech. He began as though to reproach his men but stopped himself; all he really wanted, he said, was their help. “By Zeus, who protects soldiers, and by the gods who enforce oaths—kill me yourselves,” he implored, according to the report of Plutarch. “Antigonus will not blame you … If you are reluctant to do it with your own hands, free up one of mine so that it can do the deed. If you don’t trust me with a sword, then throw me, bound as I am, under the elephants. If you do as I ask, I release you from all blame; I consider you to be the most reverent and most just of men in your treatment of your general.”

His pleas went unheard. The Shields yelled to the guards to lead Eumenes away, and as he passed by, they vented their scorn. “Don’t listen to his drivel,” they muttered. “Why should we care for the sufferings of a pest from the Chersonese, who vexes the Macedonians with endless wars—when we, the best of Alexander’s and Philip’s soldiers, are stripped of the rewards of our labors and forced to depend on handouts, while our wives are about to pass a third night in the beds of our enemies?” Their losses had filled them with hate, and Eumenes’ foreign origins, so often touted by Eumenes himself as a reason the Macedonians should trust him, was the focus of that hate. In the end, Eumenes remained an outsider, an alien who had connived his way into their power structure. He could be more easily demonized when branded a “pest from the Chersonese.”

The guards pushed Eumenes forward and prodded him toward Antigonus’ camp. A huge throng of onlookers went behind, so great a number that Antigonus, seeing them approach, called up a column of elephants and Median spearmen to disperse them. The two armies were still in a state of war, even if a negotiated stand-down was clearly in the offing. Then Eumenes was put in chains and thrust into a cell under close watch. Antigonus insisted on maximum security—“Guard him as you would a lion or an elephant”—fearful that the man of many wiles would somehow manage another escape. But after a few days he relented and ordered the chains removed. Eumenes’ personal servant was allowed to attend him in the cell and his friends to enter and offer comfort.

Antigonus himself did not visit Eumenes. He avoided laying eyes on his adversary after the arrest. Both Plutarch and Justin attribute this to “respect for former friendship,” which might mean either that he did not want to shame Eumenes or that he did not want his own compassion stirred up by a face-to-face encounter. For the truth was, now that he had Eumenes in his power, he was finding it hard to destroy him. Though his officers demanded immediate execution, several days went by while Antigonus remained undecided. Antigonus’ son, Demetrius, ever his father’s closest confidant, stepped forward to plead for Eumenes’ life, as did Nearchus of Crete. It seemed entirely possible Antigonus might grant amnesty as he had before, at the siege of Nora, and take Eumenes on as consigliere—an extremely talented one too, as Demetrius no doubt pointed out.

As the debate continued, Eumenes grew perplexed. He asked his keeper, a man named Onomarchus, why Antigonus did not either kill him or set him free. Onomarchus spitefully replied that if Eumenes was so impatient for death, he should have sought it on the battlefield. It was an undeserved reproach, as Eumenes hastened to point out. Whatever else he may have been in his long and morally complex career, he was no coward.

Antigonus turned the question of Eumenes’ fate over to his council of senior commanders. These men were adamant in their judgment: if Antigonus pardoned Eumenes, theywould no longer fight in his service. Even after receiving this ultimatum, Antigonus spent another week in indecision. His army grew seditious. The soldiers, fearing they might be cheated of vengeance, threatened mutiny.

Finally, after more than two weeks, Antigonus made his choice. Perhaps, as the sources represent, he felt compelled by the demands of his soldiers; more likely, he opted for what he thought safest, knowing that a dead Eumenes could never harm him and the message he would send with the execution might do considerable good. He sealed off Eumenes’ cell and began denying the prisoner food and water, claiming he did not have the heart to order a violent death. After several days, though, when it was time for the army to break camp and Eumenes had not succumbed, he sent a man to kill him by a silent, and merciful, strangulation.

Thus ended the strangest, longest-odds, least likely bid for power of all those mounted by Alexander’s generals. Through sheer talent Eumenes had risen through the ranks; despite his Greek origins, he had come desperately close to gaining supreme power. Few Macedonians liked him or trusted him, but those who did, including Perdiccas, Olympias, and Alexander the Great, had done so with all their hearts. In the end, even Antigonus One-eye seemed to revere him, granting him an honorable cremation and returning his ashes to his widow. It was just what Eumenes himself had done for Craterus, whose death he had indirectly caused five years earlier. Eumenes had kept Craterus’ ashes ever since, a burden as heavy as the Macedonian hatred they had brought him, and as his own death approached, he arranged for the ashes to be given to the widow Phila, now remarried to Demetrius, Antigonus’ son.