at he was to start without orders from the regent.
He was afraid that Perdiccas, in order to add to the solemnity of the
procession, would himself accompany the body with the imperial army to
Egypt. Ptolemy felt that his position in the lands entrusted to his
care would be greatly weakened if a higher authority than himself could
appear there with a military force. Arridaeus led the funeral train to
Damascus, as had been arranged before with Ptolemy. It was in vain that
Pole-mon (one of Perdiccas' generals), who was in the neighbourhood,
went to meet him. He was able to obtain no aspect for the express order
of the regent. The funeral procession passed Damascus on its way to
Egypt. Ptolemy accompanied the body with his army as far as Syria. It
was then taken on to Memphis to rest there until it could be sheltered
by that beautiful sepulchre of the kings at Alexandria.

Arridaeus' action, in starting without permission, and the defiance of
Polemon's order, were acts of open revolt against the higher authority
of the kingdom. Perdiccas called all loyal followers to the council
of war. Ptolemy, he said, had defied the order of the kings in his
behaviour concerning the funeral procession; and he had also given
shelter to the exiled satraps of Phrygia. He was prepared for war, which
he hoped to bring about. It was for them (the loyal ones) to uphold
the dignity of the kingdom. They must try to take him unawares, and to
overcome them individually. The question was, if the Egyptians or the
Macedonians ought to be first attacked. In the end, plans were carefully
concerted for an attack on Egypt and the protection of Europe. In the
early spring of B.C. 321, Perdiccas and his colleagues set out for
Egypt with the imperial army, ordering the fleet to follow, and leaving
Eumenes with skilled officers and troops in general command of Asia
Minor for the purpose of guarding the Hellespont.

At the Egyptian frontier, Perdiccas summoned the army together, that the
men themselves should give judgment in the case of the satrap of Egypt,
in the same way as in the preceding autumn they had given judgment in
the case of Antigones. He expected a decision which would enable him
to finish what he had already begun. The accusations were that he had
refused obedience to the kings, that he had fought against and overcome
the Greeks of Cyrenaica (who had received freedom from Alexander),
and that he had taken possession of the king's body, and carr