[1] As Eumenes said this, the rest of the throng was overwhelmed with sorrow, and some wept, but the Silver-shields shouted to lead him along and pay no attention to his babbling; for it was not so dreadful a thing, they said, that a pest from the Chersonesus should come to grief for having harassed Macedonians with infinite wars, as that the best of the soldiers of Philip and Alexander, after all their toils, should in their old age be robbed of their rewards and get their support from others, and that their wives should be spending the third night now in the arms of their enemies. At the same time they led him along at a quickened pace.
[2]
But Antigonus, fearing their multitude (since no one had been left behind in the camp), sent out ten of his strongest elephants and a great number of Median and Parthian spear-men to drive away the throng. He himself could not endure to see Eumenes, by reason of their former intimate friendship, and when those who had received him asked how they should guard his person, he said: Just as ye would an elephant or a lion.
But Antigonus, fearing their multitude (since no one had been left behind in the camp), sent out ten of his strongest elephants and a great number of Median and Parthian spear-men to drive away the throng. He himself could not endure to see Eumenes, by reason of their former intimate friendship, and when those who had received him asked how they should guard his person, he said: Just as ye would an elephant or a lion.
[3] But after a little while he became compassionate and ordered the keepers to remove the prisoner’s heavy fetters and admit one of his personal servants to anoint him, and permitted any one of his friends who wished to spend the day with him and bring him what he needed. Then he deliberated many days what to do with him, and considered various arguments and suggestions, Demetrius his son and Nearchus the Cretan being eager to save the life of Eumenes, while the rest, almost all of them, were insistent in urging that he be put to death.
[4]
We are told, also, that Eumenes asked his keeper, Onomarchus, why in the world Antigonus, now that he had got a hated enemy in his hands, neither killed him speedily nor generously set him free; and when Onomarchus insolently told him it was not now, but on the field of battle, that he should have faced death boldly, Yea, by Zeus, said Eumenes, then, too, I did so; ask the men who fought with me; I know that none I met was a better man. Well, then, said Onomarchus, since now thou hast found thy better, why canst thou not bide his time?
We are told, also, that Eumenes asked his keeper, Onomarchus, why in the world Antigonus, now that he had got a hated enemy in his hands, neither killed him speedily nor generously set him free; and when Onomarchus insolently told him it was not now, but on the field of battle, that he should have faced death boldly, Yea, by Zeus, said Eumenes, then, too, I did so; ask the men who fought with me; I know that none I met was a better man. Well, then, said Onomarchus, since now thou hast found thy better, why canst thou not bide his time?
Eumenes. Plutarch. Bernadotte Perrin (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1919.
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