and was returning to Macedon partly on this account. In fact, he
was not fully able to take the active command of the detachment
committed to him, and Alexander had accordingly sent an officer with
him, named Polysperchon, who was to assist him in the performance of
his duties on the march. This Polysperchon, as will appear in the
sequel, took a very important part in the events which occurred in
Macedonia after he and Craterus had arrived there.

In addition to these great and important provinces--that of Egypt in
Africa, and Macedon and Greece in Europe--there were various other
smaller ones in Asia Minor and in Syria, which were assigned to
different generals and ministers of state who had been attached to the
service of Alexander, and who all now claimed their several portions
in the general distribution of power which took place after his death.
The distribution gave at first a tolerable degree of satisfaction. It
was made in the _name_ of Philip the king, though the personage who
really controlled the arrangement was Perdiccas, the general who was
nearest to the person of Alexander, and highest in rank at the time of
the great conqueror's decease. In fact, as soon as Alexander died,
Perdiccas assumed the command of the army, and the general direction
of affairs.[D] He intended, as was supposed, to make himself emperor
in the place of Alexander. At first he had strongly urged that
Roxana's child should be declared heir to the throne, to the exclusion
of Aridaeus. His secret motive in this was, that by governing as
regent during the long minority of the infant, he might prepare the
way for finally seizing the kingdom himself. The other generals of the
army, however, would not consent to this; they were inclined to insist
that Aridaeus should be king. The army was divided on this question for
some days, and the dispute ran very high. It seemed, in fact, for a
time, that there was no hope that it could be accommodated. There was
every indication that a civil war must ensue--to break out first under
the very walls of Babylon. At length, however, as has already been
stated, the question was compromised, and it was agreed that the crown
of Alexander should become the joint inheritance of Aridaeus and of the
infant child, and that Perdiccas should exercise at Babylon the
functions of regent. Of course, when the division of the empire was
made, it was made in the name of Philip; for the child of Roxana, at
the time of the