Macedon, to govern
it as regent until Antipater should return. Antipater had a son named
Cassander, who was a general in his army. Cassander naturally expected
that, during the absence of his father, the kingdom would be committed
to his charge. For some reason or other, however, Antipater had
preferred Polysperchon, and had intrusted the government to him.
Polysperchon had, of course, become acquainted with the duties of
government, and had acquired an extensive knowledge of Macedonian
affairs. He had governed well, too, and the people were accustomed to
his sway. Antipater concluded, therefore, that it would be better to
continue Polysperchon in power after his death, rather than to
displace Polysperchon for the sake of advancing his son Cassander. He
therefore made provision for giving to Cassander a very high command
in the army, but he gave Polysperchon the kingdom. This act, though
Cassander himself never forgave it, raised Antipater to a higher place
than ever in the estimation of mankind. They said that he did what no
monarch ever did before; in determining the great question of the
succession, he made the aggrandizement of his own family give place to
the welfare of the realm.

Antipater on his death-bed, among other councils which he gave to
Polysperchon, warned him very earnestly against the danger of yielding
to any woman whatever a share in the control of public affairs. Woman,
he said, was, from her very nature, the creature of impulse, and was
swayed in all her conduct by the emotions and passions of her heart.
She possessed none of the calm, considerate, and self-controlling
principles of wisdom and prudence, so essential for the proper
administration of the affairs of states and nations. These cautions,
as Antipater uttered them, were expressed in general terms, but they
were understood to refer to Olympias and Eurydice, whom it had always
been very difficult to control, and who, of course, when Antipater
should be removed from the scene, might be expected to come forward
with a spirit more obtrusive and unmanageable than ever.

These counsels, however, of the dying king seemed to have had very
little effect upon Polysperchon; for one of the first measures of his
government, after Antipater was dead, was to send to Epirus to invite
Olympias to return to Macedon. This measure was decided upon in a
grand council which Polysperchon convened to deliberate on the state
of public affairs as soon as the gov