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The First Diadoch War saw the first open
fighting between the former generals of Alexander the Great. In the aftermath
of his death, an attempt had been made to organise his empire (settlement of
Babylon, 323). This had seen Perdiccas, his clossest
associate at the time of his death, appointed regent for Alexander’s
incapable brother and infant son,
Craterus appointed
guardian of the monarch, a largely honorary role and Antipater left in command
in Macedonia.
Apparently less important were the appointments to the satrapies, effectively
the governors of provinces in the Empire. Ptolemy was given Egypt, Antigonus
One-Eye large parts of Asia Minor and
Eumenes was given
Cappadocia and Paphlagonia, two areas that still needed to be conquered.
Alexander’s successors can be seen as falling into two main camps –
those who wanted to preserve the empire intact, and those who wanted to take
control of individual parts of the empire in their own right. The first group
was further divided into those who were loyal to Alexander’s family,
amongst them Antipater and Eumenes, and those who wanted power for themselves,
most prominently Perdiccas and Antigonus.
The First Diadoch War was triggered by the ambitions of Perdiccas. After the
settlement of Babylon, Perdiccas, who still had command of a sizable Macedonian
army, had helped Eumenes conquer Cappadocia and Paphlagonia. He had done this
without the help of Antigonus, who as a neighbouring satrap should have offered
his assistance. In the aftermath of his victorious campaign in Cappadocia,
Perdiccas summoned Antigonus to explain his absence and to provide accounts for
his provinces. Alarmed, Antigonus fled to Macedonia to join Antipater.
One of the most distinctive features of the Hellenistic age was the rise in the
importance of dynastic politics. The personal lives of the successors soon came
to play a critical role in their political lives. This tendency can be seen
very clearly in the events that led to the first open breach between
Alexander’s generals. Antipater had offered his three daughters in
marriage to the three most important successors – Perdiccas, Craterus and
Ptolemy. All three accepted the offer, Perdiccas then received a more
interesting offer, from Alexander’s sister Cleopatra. As Alexander’s
posthumous brother-in-law, Perdiccas would have had a reasonable claim to the
Macedonia throne. For a time he was undecided as to who to marry, but after
Antigonus fled to Macedonia (late 322 BC), Perdiccas was engaged to Cleopatra,
and possibly even married her. The battle lines were now clear.
In Macedonia an alliance was formed between Antipater, Craterus and Antigonus.
They were joined by Lysimachus, who as satrap
of Thrace controlled the land route between Greece and Asia Minor. Ptolemy too
now declared against Perdiccas, by the dramatic gesture of seizing Alexander
the Great’s funeral cortege and taking his body to Alexandria. Perdiccas
was left almost without significant allies. Only Eumenes of the better known
successors remained on his side. However, he did have command of the Macedonian
army in Asia. Perdiccas now split his forces. He led the expedition against
Egypt, leaving Eumenes to defend Asia Minor against an invasion from Europe.
The Egyptian campaign could hardly have gone worse. The army reached the
eastern branches of the Nile, but then became stuck in front of natural and
man-made defences. After a disastrous attempt to cross the river, Perdiccas was
murdered by his own officers. Ptolemy was then able to take command of the
Macedonian army. The troops offered him Perdiccas’s role as guardian of
the kings, but Ptolemy refused. His attention was already focused on an
independent Egypt. Ironically the murder of Perdiccas occurred before news of a
great victory won by Eumenes reached the army. Eumenes had been unable to stop
an army under Craterus from crossing the Hellespont, but when the two armies
met in battle, probably somewhere on the borders of Cappadocia, Eumenes won.
Craterus was killed in the battle.
Two of the three most important of the successors had been killed within weeks
of each other. The murder of Perdiccas is seen as ending the First Diadoch War.
Eumenes was isolated in Asia Minor. In 320 the remaining successors met at
Triparadisus (Syria), to redistribute power in the empire. This new settlement
would last no longer than the first. In 319 Antipater, possibly the last force
for stability in the empire died, of old age, a genuine rarity amongst the
successors, and the arrangements he had created at Triparadisus would collapse.
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