order of Ptol'e-my, one of Alexander's generals,
who said that his dead master also should be worshiped as a god.

Ptolemy wanted the body to remain in Egypt because an oracle had said
that he who buried Alexander would be master of his kingdom.

CIV. THE DIVISION OF THE REALM.

The day after Alexander's death there was a sad assembly in the palace.
All the Macedonian generals sat there in silence and dismay, gazing at
the empty golden throne, upon which Perdiccas had solemnly laid the
royal signet ring.

Who was to take the place of the king whose military genius and great
conquests had won for him the title of "Great"? It is true that
Alexander had a half-brother, named Ar-ri-dae'us, but he was weak-minded.
The only other heir was an infant son, born shortly after his father's
death.

The generals gravely talked the matter over, and finally said that
Arridaeus and the child should be publicly named successors of the dead
king, while four of their own number should be appointed guardians of
the princes, and regents of the vast realm.

This decision was considered wise, and the kingdom of Alexander was
divided into thirty-three provinces, each governed by a Macedonian
officer, who was to hold it in the name of Arridaeus and of the child.

In dying, Alexander had foretold that his funeral would be followed by
bloodshed, and this prediction came true. The generals who had met so
solemnly around the empty throne soon became dissatisfied at being only
governors, and each wanted to be king in his own right, of the land
intrusted to his care.

Perdiccas, having received Alexander's signet ring from his dying hand,
was, of course, their leader, and took under his own protection the
infant king and the Persian mother Roxana.

He fancied that it would thus be an easy matter to keep the power in his
own hands, and to govern the vast realm as he pleased. But An-tip'a-ter,
governor of Macedon, no sooner heard that Alexander was dead, than he
placed the idiot Arridaeus on the throne, proclaimed him king, and began
to rule as if he were the only regent.

The other Macedonian generals daily claimed new rights, which Perdiccas
was forced to grant in order to pacify them; but when it was too late,
he found out how mistaken he had been, and regretted that he had yielded
to their demands.

The various governors, never satisfied with the honors given them, were
not only suspicious of each other, but particularly jealou