A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

186 PERDICCAS. PERDICCAS.
one of the most distinguished of the generals of Justin. xii. 15; it is remarkable that Arrian does
Alexander the Great. We are told that he was not even allude to this circumstance.)
descended from a royal house (Curt. x. 7. ~ 8) In the deliberations which followed the death of
probably that of the independent princes of Orestis, the king (B. c. 323), Perdiccas assumed a leading
and it appears that in consequence of his noble part. In the general council of the officers he was
birth he early held a distinguished place at the the first to propose that the crown should be recourt of Philip of Macedon. We find him men- served for the, child of which Roxana was then
tioned as one of the select officers who, under the pregnant, supposing it to prove a male: and it was
title of rwAtaroivthaaices, were immediately about immediately suggested by Aristonous that the rethe king's person at the time of his death; and he gency in the mean time should be confined to Perwas one of the first to avenge that crime upon the diccas. This proposal-with the modification put
assassin Pausanias. (Diod. xvi. 94.) It is pro- forward by Pithon, that Leonnatus should be assobable that he continued to hold the same honour- ciated with him in the supreme authority,-obtained
able post under the youthful Alexander, though he the concurrence of almost all the chief officers, supis not distinctly mentioned as doing so until a ported by the whole body of the Macedonian calater period (see Arr. Anab. iv. 21. ~ 7, v. 13. valry. But the infantry, at the head of whom
~ 1, vi. 11. ~ 3, 28. ~ 6); but besides this he had Meleager had placed himself [MELEAGER], refused
the separate command of one of the divisions of to acquiesce in this decision, and clamorously dethe phalanx, at the head of which we find him manded that Arrhidaeus, the bastard brother of
accompanying the young king in the campaign Alexander, should be at once proclaimed king.
against the Illyrians, and again at the siege of Matters soon came to an open rupture between
Thebes. On this last occasion he greatly distin- the two parties, and the cavalry, with most of the
guished himself, but was severely wounded, and leading men in the army, withdrew from Babylon,
narrowly escaped with his life. (Arr. ib. i. 6, 8; and encamped without the city. Perdiccas at first
Diod. xvii. 12.) During the earlier campaigns in remained behind, but an attempt made upon his
Asia we likewise find him commanding one of the life by his rival, which was frustrated only by his
divisions of the phalanx, which was composed of own intrepidity, soon compelled him to follow the
his own countrymen the Orestians, together with example of the seceders. The cavalry now threatthe neighbouring tribe of the Lyncestians. This ened to cut off the supplies, and reduce Babylon to
post he held in all the three great battles of the a state of famine; but after repeated embassies a
Granicus, Issus, and Arbela; in the last of which compromise was at length effected, by which it
he was again severely wounded: and his name is was agreed that Arrhidaeus should be declared
also mentioned with distinction at the sieges of king, reserving however to the son of Roxana a
Halicarnassus and of Tyre. (Arr. Anab. i. 14, 20, share of the sovereignty, as soon as he should be
21, ii. 8, iii. 11; Curt. iii. 9. ~ 7, iv. 3. ~ 1, 16. born, while Perdiccas, under the honorary title of
~ 32; Diod. xvii. 57, 61.) In the subsequent chiliarch of the E'TapoL, should hold the chief comoperations in Persia, Sogdiana, and India, his name mand under the new monarch, Meleager taking
occurs still more frequently; and he appears to rank immediately under him. (Curt. x. 6-8;
have borne a continually increasing share in the Justin. xiii. 2-4; Arrian. ap. Pilot. p. 69, a;
confidence and favour of Alexander. At this time Dexipp. ibid. p. 64, b.; Diod. xviii. 2.)
he was transferred from the infantry to the cavalry, But this arrangement, though sanctioned by a
where he commanded one of the hipparchies, or solemn treaty, was not destined to be of long duradivisions of the horseguards (&eaTpoL); but in ad- tion. Perdiccas took advantage of his new position
dition to this we find him repeatedly charged with to establish his influence over the feeble mind of
separate commands of importance, sometimes in the nominal king Arrhidaeus, while he lulled his
conjunction with Ptolemy, Craterus, or Hephaestion, rival Meleager into security by the profoundest
sometimes as sole general. He appears to have dissimulation, until his schemes were ripe for exeespecially distinguished himself in the battle against cution, and he was able to crush at one blow
Porus, and shortly after we find him commanding Meleager himself with all his leading partisans.
the whole left wing of the army in the action with [MELEAGER]. By this decisive stroke he freed
the Cathaeans. Again, in the attack of the chief himself from one of his most formidable adversaries,
city of the Malli it was Perdiccas who was ap- but at the same time he necessarily aroused the
pointed to conduct the assault on one side of the fears of all others who felt themselves to be either
fortress, while Alexander himself led that on the his rivals or his enemies. For a time, however, he
other. (Arr. Anab. iii. 18, iv. 16, 21, 22, 28, 30, thought himself secure in the possession of the
v. 12, 13, 22, vi. 6, 9, 15, Jnd. 18; Curt. vii. supreme power; the king was a mere puppet in
6. ~ 19, viii. 10. ~ 2, 14. ~~ 5, 15, ix. 1. ~ 19.) his hands, and the birth of Alexander, the exNor was he forgotten in the distribution of honours pected son of Roxana, appeared greatly to strengthen
at Susa, where he received a crown of gold for his his authority, while the partition of the several
services in common with the other Somatophylaces, satrapies or governments of Asia and Europe among
and the daughter of Atropates, the satrap of Media, the generals of Alexander, removed to a distance
in marriage. (Arr. vii. 4. ~ 7, 5. ~ 9.) In virtue and separated from one another all his more forof his office as Somatophylax, he was one of those midable competitors. An alarming revolt of the
in constant attendance upon the king's person Greek soldiers who had been settled in the prowhen not employed on other mnilitary services (see vinces of Upper Asia, was successfully put down
Curt. vi. 8. ~ 17, viii. 1. ~~ 45, 48), and thus was through the agency of Pithon, and the whole of
naturally one of the officers who were gathered those who had submitted were barbarously niasaround the bed of the dying Alexander, who is sacred by the express orders of the regent. (Diod.
said in his last moments to have taken the royal xviii. 7.)
signet ring from his finger and given it to Perdic- Perdiccas now deemed himself at leisure (B. c. 322)
cats. (Diod. xvii. 117, xviii. 2; Curt. x. 5. ~ 4; to undertake the reduction of Cappadocia, which