Philip II and Alexander the Great: Father and Son ... - Historia Antigua

B. Elitist Approach in Hieronymus
HIERONYMUS OF CARDIA 139
Hieronymus’ elitist perspective comes through clearly in our sources’
description of generals’ relationships with their troops. Plutarch’s
biography of Eumenes, describing Antigonus’ siege of Eumenes in
Nora in 319–18, provides one example. Since Hieronymus was
involved in the negotiations between these two generals as well as
with Antipater, he is most likely to have been Plutarch’s direct or
indirect source. 10
We are told that after Eumenes had fl ed to Nora, Antigonus went
there with the intention of putting him under siege, but offered fi rst
to meet him. After preliminary negotiations between the two, in
which the author lets Eumenes come out on top both morally and
rhetorically, Eumenes left his shelter to meet Antigonus at his camp.
Plutarch says that the two commanders embraced and greeted each
other like old, intimate friends. As the conference and the negotiations
went on, many Macedonians rushed to see what kind of a man
Eumenes was, because he was the most talked about leader in the
army since the death of the highly respected Macedonian general
Craterus, who had died in an earlier battle with Eumenes. Antigonus
was afraid that Eumenes would suffer some violence, and shouted at
the soldiers not to come closer, threw stones at them, and fi nally
embraced Eumenes and kept the crowd ( okhlos) away with his bodyguards,
until he could take him to a safer place. 11
Even if only the gist of the story comes from Hieronymus, it still
shows his elitist perspective. Clearly, the Macedonian troops were hostile
to Eumenes, who was outlawed in Egypt two years earlier and was
charged with responsibility for Craterus’ death and a Macedonian civil
war (Plut. Eum. 8.1–3; Arr. Succ. 1.30). In short, they did not yearn to
gaze upon and admire him, but to lynch him. Antigonus’ staunch
defense of Eumenes had likely less to do with his friendship with the
Cardian and more with the presence in Nora of Ptolemy, his nephew,
who had gone there before the negotiations to serve as a hostage and
ensure Eumenes’ safety (Plut. Eum. 10.5). All this is ignored in the episode
that centers instead on the noble and collegial manner in which the
generals conducted themselves. The Macedonian troops, on the other
hand, are relegated to the role of providing these leaders with an opportunity
to display their friendship, code of honor, and superior rank and
character. The author largely disregards the encamped soldiers’ feelings
or motives and emphasizes instead their mob behavior, which
obstructs and threatens the dealings of the generals.
Conversely, when the sources depict the troops positively, it
is mostly to show how they liked and appreciated their generals.