been left in charge of the baggage, and enabled
him to withdraw into an unassailable position. This seemingly generous
action excited the gratitude of the Macedonians, whose wives and
children it had saved from slavery and dishonour, till Antigonus
pointed out to them that Eumenes had spared them only that he might
not encumber himself.[173] X. After this, Eumenes, who was being
constantly pursued by a superior force, recommended the greater part
of his men to return to their homes. This he did either because he was
anxious for their safety, or because he did not wish to drag about
with him a force which was too small to fight, and too large to move
with swiftness and secrecy. He himself took refuge in the impregnable
fortress of Nora, on the borders of Cappadocia and Lycaonia, with five
hundred horse and two hundred foot soldiers, and dismissed from thence
with kind speeches and embraces, all of his friends who wished to
leave the fortress, dismayed by the prospect of the dreary
imprisonment which awaited them during a long siege in such a place.
Antigonus when he arrived summoned Eumenes to a conference before
beginning the siege, to which he answered, that Antigonus had many
friends and officers, while he had none remaining with him, so that
unless Antigonus would give him hostages for his safety, he would not
trust himself with him. Upon this Antigonus bade him remember that he
was speaking to his superior. "While I can hold my sword," retorted
Eumenes, "I acknowledge no man as my superior." However, after
Antigonus had sent his cousin Ptolemaeus into the fortress, as Eumenes
had demanded, he came down to meet Antigonus, whom he embraced in a
friendly manner, as became men who had once been intimate friends and
comrades. They talked for a long time, and Eumenes astonished all the
assembly by his courage and spirit; for he did not ask for his life,
and for peace, as they expected, but demanded to be reinstated in his
government, and to have all the grants which he had received from
Perdikkas restored to him. The Macedonians meanwhile flocked round
him, eager to see what sort of man this Eumenes was, of whom they had
heard so much; for since the death of Kraterus no one had been talked
of so much as Eumenes in the Macedonian camp. Antigonus began to fear
for his safety; he ordered them to keep at a distance, and at last
throwing his arms round the waist of Eumenes conducted him back
through a passage formed by his gua