CASSANDER.
B.C. 320-316
Antipater's difficulties--Trouble with Olympias and Eurydice.--Character
of Eurydice.--Her dictatorial and overbearing demeanor.--The convention
of Triparadeisus.--Violence of Eurydice.--Antipater's life in
danger.--Eurydice forced to submit.--Antipater is dangerously sick.--The
arrangements made by him.--Antipater's arrangements for the
succession.--Polysperchon.--Polysperchon invites Olympias to return
to Macedon.--Cassander plans a rebellion.--His pretended hunting
party.--Cassander explains his designs to his friends.--They agree
to join him.--Olympias is afraid to return to Macedon.--War between
Cassander and Polysperchon.--Curious incident.--Polysperchon's
mine.--Success of it.--The conflict.--Consternation produced by the
elephants.--Plan of defense against them.--The iron spikes.--Olympias
finally concludes to go to Macedon.--Eurydice's troops desert
her.--Olympias in her chariot.--Eurydice is captured.--She is sent to
a dungeon.--Death of Philip.--Eurydice's despair.--he cell.--Eurydice's
dreadful end.--Cassander's movements.--Olympias acts in the most
energetic manner.--The siege of Pydna.--Movement of Cassander.--The
carrying away of Pyrrhus.--Olympias resorts to a stratagem.--Olympias
in prison.--Her end.
Although Antipater, on his return to Macedon, came back loaded with
honors, and in the full and triumphant possession of power, his
situation was still not without its difficulties. He had for enemies,
in Macedon, two of the most violent and unmanageable women that ever
lived--Olympias and Eurydice--who quarreled with him incessantly, and
who hated each other even more than they hated him.
Olympias was at this time in Epirus. She remained there, because she
did not choose to put herself under Antipater's power by residing in
Macedon. She succeeded, however, by her maneuvers and intrigues, in
giving Antipater a great deal of trouble. Her ancient animosity
against him had been very much increased and aggravated by the failure
of her plan for marrying her daughter Cleopatra to Perdiccas, through
the advances which Antipater made in behalf of his daughter Nicaea; and
though Nicaea and Perdiccas were now dead, yet the transaction was an
offense which such a woman as Olympias never could forgive.
Eurydice was a still greater source of annoyance and embarrassment to
Antipater than Olympias herself. She was a woman of very masculine
turn of mind, and she had been brought up by her mother, Cynane, to
martial exercises, such as those to which young men in those days were
customarily trained. She could shoot arrows, and throw the javelin,
and ride on horseback at the head of a troop of armed men. As soon as
she was married to Philip she began at once to assume an air of
authority, thinking, apparently, that she herself, being the wife of
the king, was entitled to a much greater share of the regal authority
than the generals, who, as she considered them, were merely his tutors
and guardians, or, at most, only military agents, appointed to execute
his will. During the memorable expedition into Egypt, Perdiccas had
found it very difficult to exercise any control over her; and after
the death of Perdiccas, she assumed a more lofty and imperious tone
than ever. She quarreled incessantly with Pithon, the commander of the
army, on the return from Egypt; and she made the most resolute and
determined opposition to the appointment of Antipater as the custodian
of the persons of the kings.
The place where the consultation was held, at which this appointment
was made, was Triparadeisus,[F] in Syria. This was the place where the
expedition of Antipater, coming from Asia Minor, met the army of Egypt
on its return. As soon as the junction of the two armies was effected,
and the grand council was convened, Eurydice made the most violent
opposition to the proceedings. Antipater reproved her for evincing
such turbulence and insubordination of spirit. This made her more
angry than ever; and when at length Antipater was appointed to the
regency, she went out and made a formal harangue to the army, in which
she denounced Antipater in the severest terms, and loaded him with
criminations and reproaches, and endeavored to incite the soldiers to
a revolt. Antipater endeavored to defend himself against these
accusations by a calm reply; but the influence which Eurydice's
tempestuous eloquence exerted on the minds of the soldiery was too
much for him. A very serious riot ensued, which threatened to lead to
the most disastrous results. For a time Antipater's life was in most
imminent danger, and he was saved only by the interposition of some of
the other generals, who hazarded their own lives to rescue him from
the enraged soldiery.
[Footnote F: See map.]
The excitement of this scene gradually subsided, and, as the generals
persisted in the arrangement which they had made, Eurydice found
herself forced to submit to it. She had, in fact, no real power in her
hands except that of making temporary mischief and disturbance; and,
as is usually the case with characters like hers, when she found that
those around her could not be driven from their ground by her
fractiousness and obstinacy, she submitted herself to the necessity of
the case, though in a moody and sullen manner. Such were the relations
which Antipater and Eurydice bore to each other on the return of
Antipater to Macedon.
The troubles, however, in his government, which Antipater might have
reasonably expected to arise from his connection with Olympias and
Eurydice, were destined to a very short continuance, so far as he
personally was concerned; for, not long after his return to Macedon,
he fell sick of a dangerous disease, under which it was soon evident
that the vital principle, at the advanced age to which he had
attained, must soon succumb. In fact, Antipater himself soon gave up
all hopes of recovery, and began at once to make arrangements for the
final surrender of his power.
It will be recollected that when Craterus came from Asia to Macedon,
about the time of Alexander's death, he brought with him a general
named Polysperchon, who, though nominally second in command, really
had charge of the army on the march, Craterus himself being at the
time an invalid. When, some time afterward, Antipater and Craterus set
out on their expedition to Asia, in the war against Perdiccas,
Polysperchon was left in charge of the kingdom of Macedon, to govern
it as regent until Antipater should return. Antipater had a son named
Cassander, who was a general in his army. Cassander naturally expected
that, during the absence of his father, the kingdom would be committed
to his charge. For some reason or other, however, Antipater had
preferred Polysperchon, and had intrusted the government to him.
Polysperchon had, of course, become acquainted with the duties of
government, and had acquired an extensive knowledge of Macedonian
affairs. He had governed well, too, and the people were accustomed to
his sway. Antipater concluded, therefore, that it would be better to
continue Polysperchon in power after his death, rather than to
displace Polysperchon for the sake of advancing his son Cassander. He
therefore made provision for giving to Cassander a very high command
in the army, but he gave Polysperchon the kingdom. This act, though
Cassander himself never forgave it, raised Antipater to a higher place
than ever in the estimation of mankind. They said that he did what no
monarch ever did before; in determining the great question of the
succession, he made the aggrandizement of his own family give place to
the welfare of the realm.
Antipater on his death-bed, among other councils which he gave to
Polysperchon, warned him very earnestly against the danger of yielding
to any woman whatever a share in the control of public affairs. Woman,
he said, was, from her very nature, the creature of impulse, and was
swayed in all her conduct by the emotions and passions of her heart.
She possessed none of the calm, considerate, and self-controlling
principles of wisdom and prudence, so essential for the proper
administration of the affairs of states and nations. These cautions,
as Antipater uttered them, were expressed in general terms, but they
were understood to refer to Olympias and Eurydice, whom it had always
been very difficult to control, and who, of course, when Antipater
should be removed from the scene, might be expected to come forward
with a spirit more obtrusive and unmanageable than ever.
These counsels, however, of the dying king seemed to have had very
little effect upon Polysperchon; for one of the first measures of his
government, after Antipater was dead, was to send to Epirus to invite
Olympias to return to Macedon. This measure was decided upon in a
grand council which Polysperchon convened to deliberate on the state
of public affairs as soon as the government came into his hands.
Polysperchon thought that he should greatly strengthen his
administration by enlisting Olympias on his side. She was held in
great veneration by all the people of Macedon; not on account of any
personal qualities which she possessed to entitle her to such regard,
but because she was the mother of Alexander. Polysperchon, therefore,
considered it very important to secure her influence, and the prestige
of her name in his favor. At the same time, while he thus sought to
propitiate Olympias, he neglected Cassander and all the other members
of Antipater's family. He considered them, doubtless, as rivals and
antagonists, whom he was to keep down by every means in his power.
Cassander, who was a man of a very bold, determined, and ambitious
spirit, remained quietly in Polysperchon's court for a little time,
watching attentively all that was done, and revolving silently in his
mind the question what course he himself should pursue. At length he
formed a small party of his friends to go away on a hunting excursion.
When he reached a safe distance from the court of Polysperchon, he
called his friends around him, and informed them that he had resolved
not to submit to the usurpation of Polysperchon, who, in assuming the
throne of Macedon, had seized what rightfully belonged, he said, to
him, Cassander, as his father's son and heir. He invited his friends
to join him in the enterprise of deposing Polysperchon, and assuming
the crown.
He urged this undertaking upon them with very specious arguments. It
was the only course of safety for them, as well as for him, since
they--that is, the friends to whom Cassander was making these
proposals--had all been friends of Antipater; and Olympias, whom
Polysperchon was about to take into his counsels, hated the very name
of Antipater, and would evince, undoubtedly, the most unrelenting
hostility to all whom she should consider as having been his friends.
He was confident, he said, that the Asiatic princes and generals would
espouse his cause. They had been warmly attached to Antipater, and
would not willingly see his son and rightful successor deprived of his
legitimate rights. Besides, Philip and Eurydice would join him. They
had every thing to fear from Olympias, and would, of course, oppose
the power of Polysperchon, now that he had determined to ally himself
to her.
The friends of Cassander very readily agreed to his proposal, and the
result proved the truth of his predictions. The Asiatic princes
furnished Cassander with very efficient aid in his attempt to depose
his rival. Olympias adhered to Polysperchon, while Eurydice favored
Cassander's cause. A terrible conflict ensued. It was waged for some
time in Greece, and in other countries more or less remote from
Macedon, the advantage in the combats being sometimes on one side and
sometimes on the other. It is not necessary to detail here the events
which occurred in the contest so long as the theatre of war was beyond
the frontiers of Macedon, for the parties with whom we are now
particularly dealing were not directly affected by the conflict until
it came nearer home.
It ought here to be stated that Olympias did not at first accept the
invitation to return to Macedon which Polysperchon sent to her. She
hesitated. She consulted with her friends, and they were not decided
in respect to the course which it would be best for her to pursue. She
had made a great many enemies in Macedon during her former residence
there, and she knew well that she would have a great deal to fear from
their hostility in case she should return, and thus put herself again,
as it were, into their power. Then, besides, it was quite uncertain
what course affairs in Macedon would finally take. Antipater had
bequeathed the kingdom to Polysperchon, it was true; but there might
be great doubt whether the people would acquiesce in this decision,
and allow the supreme power to remain quietly in Polysperchon's hands.
She concluded, therefore, to remain a short time where she was, till
she could see how the case would finally turn. She accordingly
continued to reside in Epirus, keeping up, however, a continual
correspondence with Polysperchon in respect to the measures of his
government, and watching the progress of the war between him and
Cassander in Greece, when that war broke out, with the utmost
solicitude and anxiety.
Cassander proved to be too strong for Polysperchon in Greece. He had
obtained large bodies of troops from his Asiatic allies, and he
maneuvered and managed these forces with so much bravery and skill,
that Polysperchon could not dislodge him from the country. A somewhat
curious incident occurred on one occasion during the campaign, which
illustrates the modes of warfare practiced in those days. It seems
that one of the cities of Peloponnesus, named Megalopolis, was on the
side of Cassander, and when Polysperchon sent them a summons to
surrender to him and acknowledge his authority, they withdrew all
their property and the whole of their population within the walls, and
bid him defiance. Polysperchon then advanced and laid siege to the
city.
After fully investing the city and commencing operations on various
sides, to occupy the attention of the garrison, he employed a corps of
sappers and miners in secretly undermining a portion of the wall. The
mode of procedure, in operations like this, was to dig a subterranean
passage leading to the foundations of the wall, and then, as fast as
these foundations were removed, to substitute props to support the
superincumbent mass until all was ready for the springing of the mine.
When the excavations were completed, the props were suddenly pulled
away, and the wall would cave in, to the great astonishment of the
besieged, who, if the operation had been skillfully performed, knew
nothing of the danger until the final consummation of it opened
suddenly before their eyes a great breach in their defenses.
Polysperchon's mine was so successful, that three towers fell into it,
with all the wall connecting them. These towers came down with a
terrific crash, the materials of which they had been composed lying,
after the fall, half buried in the ground, a mass of ruins.
The garrison of the city immediately repaired in great numbers to the
spot, to prevent the ingress of the enemy; while, on the other hand, a
strong detachment of troops rushed forward from the camp of
Polysperchon to force their way through the breach into the city. A
very desperate conflict ensued, and while the men of the city were
thus engaged in keeping back the invaders, the women and children were
employed in throwing up a line of intrenchments further within, to
cover the opening which had been made in the wall. The people of the
city gained the victory in the combat. The storming party were driven
back, and the besieged were beginning to congratulate themselves on
their escape from the danger which had threatened them, when they were
suddenly terrified beyond measure by the tidings that the besiegers
were arranging a train of elephants to bring in through the breach.
Elephants were often used for war in those days in Asiatic countries,
but they had seldom appeared in Greece. Polysperchon, however, had a
number of them in the train of his army, and the soldiers of
Megalopolis were overwhelmed with consternation at the prospect of
being trampled under foot by these huge beasts, wholly ignorant as
they were of the means of contending against them.
It happened, however, that there was in the city of Megalopolis at
this time a soldier named Damides, who had served in former years
under Alexander the Great, in Asia. He went to the officers who had
command within the city and offered his aid. "Fear nothing," said he,
"but go on with your preparations of defense, and leave the elephants
to me. I will answer for them, if you will do as I say." The officers
agreed to follow his instructions. He immediately caused a great
number of sharp iron spikes to be made. These spikes he set firmly in
the ends of short stakes of wood, and then planted the stakes in the
ground all about the intrenchments and in the breach, in such a manner
that the spikes themselves, points upward, protruded from the ground.
The spikes were then concealed from view by covering the ground with
straw and other similar rubbish.
The consequence of this arrangement was, that when the elephants
advanced to enter the breach, they trod upon these spikes, and the
whole column of them was soon disabled and thrown into confusion. Some
of the elephants were wounded so severely that they fell where they
stood, and were unable to rise. Others, maddened with the pain which
they endured, turned back and trampled their own keepers under foot in
their attempts to escape from the scene. The breach, in short, soon
became so choked up with the bodies of beasts and men, that the
assailants were compelled to give up the contest and withdraw. A
short time afterward, Polysperchon raised the siege and abandoned the
city altogether.
In fact, the party of Cassander was in the end triumphant in Greece,
and Polysperchon determined to return to Macedon.
In the mean time, Olympias had determined to come to Macedon, and aid
Polysperchon in his contest with Cassander. She accordingly left
Epirus, and with a small body of troops, with which her brother
Alexander, who was then King of Epirus, furnished her, went on and
joined Polysperchon on his return. Eurydice was alarmed at this; for,
since she considered Olympias as her great political rival and enemy,
she knew very well that there could be no safety for her or her
husband if Olympias should obtain the ascendency in the court of
Polysperchon. She accordingly began to call upon those around her, in
the city where she was then residing, to arm themselves for her
defense. They did so, and a considerable force was thus collected.
Eurydice placed herself at the head of it. She sent messengers off to
Cassander, urging him to come immediately and join her. She also sent
an embassage to Polysperchon, commanding him, in the name of Philip
the king, to deliver up his army to Cassander. Of course this was only
a form, as she could not have expected that such a command would have
been obeyed; and, accordingly, after having sent off these orders, she
placed herself at the head of the troops that she had raised, and
marched out to meet Polysperchon on his return, intending, if he would
not submit, to give him battle.
Her designs, however, were all frustrated in the end in a very
unexpected manner. For when the two armies approached each other, the
soldiers who were on Eurydice's side, instead of fighting in her cause
as she expected, failed her entirely at the time of trial. For when
they saw Olympias, whom they had long been accustomed almost to adore
as the wife of old King Philip, and the mother of Alexander, and who
was now advancing to meet them on her return to Macedon, splendidly
attended, and riding in her chariot, at the head of Polysperchon's
army, with the air and majesty of a queen, they were so overpowered
with the excitement of the spectacle, that they abandoned Eurydice in
a body, and went over, by common consent, to Polysperchon's side.
Of course Eurydice herself and her husband Philip, who was with her
at this time, fell into Polysperchon's hands as prisoners. Olympias
was almost beside herself with exultation and joy at having her hated
rival thus put into her power. She imprisoned Eurydice and her husband
in a dungeon, so small that there was scarcely room for them to turn
themselves in it; and while they were thus confined, the only
attention which the wretched prisoners received was to be fed, from
time to time, with coarse provisions, thrust in to them through a hole
in the wall. Having thus made Eurydice secure, Olympias proceeded to
wreak her vengeance on all the members of the family of Antipater whom
she could get within her power. Cassander, it is true, was beyond her
reach for the present; he was gradually advancing through Thessaly
into Macedonia, at the head of a powerful and victorious army. There
was another son of Antipater, however, named Nicanor, who was then in
Macedon. Him she seized and put to death, together with about a
hundred of his relatives and friends. In fact, so violent and insane
was her rage against the house of Antipater, that she opened a tomb
where the body of another of his sons had been interred, and caused
the remains to be brought out and thrown into the street. The people
around her began to remonstrate against such atrocities; but these
remonstrances, instead of moderating her rage, only excited it still
more. She sent to the dungeon where her prisoners, Philip and
Eurydice, were confined, and caused Philip to be stabbed to death with
daggers; and then, when this horrid scene was scarcely over, an
executioner came in to Eurydice with a dagger, a rope, and a cup of
poison, saying that Olympias sent them to her, that she might choose
herself by what she would die. Eurydice, on receiving this message,
replied, saying, "I pray Heaven that Olympias herself may one day have
the like alternative presented to her." She then proceeded to tear the
linen dress which she wore into bandages, and to bind up with these
bandages the wounds in the dead body of her husband. This dreadful
though useless duty being performed, she then, rejecting all three of
the means of self-destruction which Olympias had offered her,
strangled herself by tying tight about her neck a band which she
obtained from her own attire.
[Illustration: EURYDICE IN PRISON.]
Of course, the tidings of these proceedings were not long in reaching
Cassander. He was at this time in Greece, advancing, however, slowly
to the northward, toward Macedon. In coming from Greece into Thessaly,
his route lay through the celebrated Pass of Thermopylae. He found this
pass guarded by a large body of troops, which had been posted there to
oppose his passage. He immediately got together all the ships, boats,
galleys, and vessels of every kind which he could procure, and,
embarking his army on board of them, he sailed past the defile, and
landed in Thessaly. Thence he marched into Macedon.
While Cassander had thus been slowly approaching, Polysperchon and
Olympias had been very vigorously employed in making preparations to
receive him. Olympias, with Roxana and the young Alexander, who was
now about five years old, in her train, traveled to and fro among the
cities of Macedonia, summoning the people to arms, enlisting all who
would enter her service, and collecting money and military stores. She
also sent to Epirus, to AEacides the king, the father of Pyrrhus,
imploring him to come to her aid with all the force he could bring.
Polysperchon, too, though separate from Olympias, made every effort to
strengthen himself against his coming enemy. Things were in this state
when Cassander entered Macedon.
Cassander immediately divided his troops into two distinct bodies, and
sending one, under the command of an able general, to attack
Polysperchon, he himself went in pursuit of Olympias. Olympias
retreated before him, until at length she reached the city of Pydna, a
city situated in the southeastern part of Macedon, on the shore of the
AEgean Sea.[G] She knew that the force under her command was not
sufficient to enable her to offer her enemy battle, and she
accordingly went into the city, and fortified herself there.
Cassander advanced immediately to the place, and, finding the city
too strongly fortified to be carried by assault, he surrounded it with
his army, and invested it closely both by land and sea.
[Footnote G: See map.]
The city was not well provided for a siege, and the people within very
soon began to suffer for want of provisions. Olympias, however, urged
them to hold out, representing to them that she had sent to Epirus for
assistance, and that AEacides, the king, was already on his way, with a
large force, to succor her. This was very true; but, unfortunately for
Olympias, Cassander was aware of this fact as well as she, and,
instead of waiting for the troops of AEacides to come and attack him,
he had sent a large armed force to the confines between Epirus and
Macedon, to intercept these expected allies in the passes of the
mountains. This movement was successful. The army of AEacides found,
when they reached the frontier, that the passages leading into
Macedonia were all blocked up by the troops of the enemy. They made
some ineffectual attempts to break through; and then the leading
officers of the army, who had never been really willing to embark in
the war, revolted against AEacides, and returned home. And as, in the
case of deeds of violence and revolution, it is always safest to go
through and finish the work when it is once begun, they deposed
AEacides entirely, and raised the other branch of the royal family to
the throne in his stead. It was on this occasion that the infant
Pyrrhus was seized and carried away by his friends, to save his life,
as mentioned in the opening paragraphs of this history. The
particulars of this revolution, and of the flight of Pyrrhus, will be
given more fully in the next chapter. It is sufficient here to say,
that the attempt of AEacides to come to the rescue of Olympias in her
peril wholly failed, and there was nothing now left but the wall of
the city to defend her from her terrible foe.
In the mean time, the distress in the city for want of food had become
horrible. Olympias herself, with Roxana and the boy, and the other
ladies of the court, lived on the flesh of horses. The soldiers
devoured the bodies of their comrades as they were slain upon the
wall. They fed the elephants, it was said, on saw-dust. The soldiers
and the people of the city, who found this state of things
intolerable, deserted continually to Cassander, letting themselves
down by stealth in the night from the wall. Still Olympias would not
surrender; there was one more hope remaining for her. She contrived
to dispatch a messenger to Polysperchon with a letter, asking him to
send a galley round into the harbor at a certain time in the night, in
order that she might get on board of it, and thus escape. Cassander
intercepted this messenger. After reading the letter, he returned it
to the messenger again, and directed him to go on and deliver it. The
messenger did so, and Polysperchon sent the galley. Cassander, of
course, watched for it, and seized it himself when it came. The last
hope of the unhappy Olympias was thus extinguished, and she opened the
gates and gave herself up to Cassander. The whole country immediately
afterward fell into Cassander's hands.
The friends of the family of Antipater were now clamorous in their
demands that Olympias should be brought to punishment for having so
atrociously murdered the sons and relatives of Antipater while she was
in power. Olympias professed herself willing to be tried, and appealed
to the Macedonian senate to be her judges. She relied on the
ascendency which she had so long exercised over the minds of the
Macedonians, and did not believe that they would condemn her.
Cassander himself feared that they would not; and although he was
unwilling to murder her while she was a defenseless prisoner in his
hands, he determined that she should die. He recommended to her
secretly not to take the hazard of a trial, but to make her escape and
go to Athens, and offered to give her an opportunity to do so. He
intended, it was said, if she made the attempt, to intercept and slay
her on the way as a fugitive from justice. She refused to accede to
this proposal, suspecting, perhaps, Cassander's treachery in making
it. Cassander then sent a band of two hundred soldiers to put her to
death.
These soldiers, when they came into the prison, were so impressed by
the presence of the queen, to whom, in former years, they had been
accustomed to look up with so much awe, that they shrank back from
their duty, and for a time it seemed that no one would strike the
blow. At length, however, some among the number, who were relatives of
those that Olympias had murdered, succeeding in nerving their arms
with the resolution of revenge, fell upon her and killed her with
their swords.
As for Roxana and the boy, Cassander kept them close prisoners for
many years; and finally, feeling more and more that his possession of
the throne of Alexander was constantly endangered by the existence of
a son of Alexander, caused them to be assassinated too.