iolent and unmanageable women that ever
lived--Olympias and Eurydice--who quarreled with him incessantly, and
who hated each other even more than they hated him.

Olympias was at this time in Epirus. She remained there, because she
did not choose to put herself under Antipater's power by residing in
Macedon. She succeeded, however, by her maneuvers and intrigues, in
giving Antipater a great deal of trouble. Her ancient animosity
against him had been very much increased and aggravated by the failure
of her plan for marrying her daughter Cleopatra to Perdiccas, through
the advances which Antipater made in behalf of his daughter Nicaea; and
though Nicaea and Perdiccas were now dead, yet the transaction was an
offense which such a woman as Olympias never could forgive.

Eurydice was a still greater source of annoyance and embarrassment to
Antipater than Olympias herself. She was a woman of very masculine
turn of mind, and she had been brought up by her mother, Cynane, to
martial exercises, such as those to which young men in those days were
customarily trained. She could shoot arrows, and throw the javelin,
and ride on horseback at the head of a troop of armed men. As soon as
she was married to Philip she began at once to assume an air of
authority, thinking, apparently, that she herself, being the wife of
the king, was entitled to a much greater share of the regal authority
than the generals, who, as she considered them, were merely his tutors
and guardians, or, at most, only military agents, appointed to execute
his will. During the memorable expedition into Egypt, Perdiccas had
found it very difficult to exercise any control over her; and after
the death of Perdiccas, she assumed a more lofty and imperious tone
than ever. She quarreled incessantly with Pithon, the commander of the
army, on the return from Egypt; and she made the most resolute and
determined opposition to the appointment of Antipater as the custodian
of the persons of the kings.

The place where the consultation was held, at which this appointment
was made, was Triparadeisus,[F] in Syria. This was the place where the
expedition of Antipater, coming from Asia Minor, met the army of Egypt
on its return. As soon as the junction of the two armies was effected,
and the grand council was convened, Eurydice made the most violent
opposition to the proceedings. Antipater reproved her for evincing
such turbulence and insubordination of spirit. This made her more