Meanwhile Eumenes encountered Neoptolemus.  Each had a long-standing grudge against the other; but it chanced that in the first two charges which took place they did not see one another.  The third time they recognized one another, and at once drew their daggers and rode together with loud shouts of defiance.  With their reins flowing loose they drove their horses against one another like two triremes, and each clutched at the other as he passed, so that each tore the helmet from the other’s head, and burst the fastenings of the corslet upon his shoulder.  Both fell from their horses, and wrestled together in deadly strife on the ground.  As Neoptolemus strove to rise, Eumenes struck him behind the knee, and leaped upon his own feet, but Neoptolemus rested upon his other knee, and continued the fight until he received a mortal stab in the neck.  Eumenes through the mortal hate which he bore him at once fell to stripping him of his armour and abusing him, forgetting that he was still alive.  He received a slight stab in the groin, but the wound frightened Eumenes more than it hurt him, as the hand that dealt it was almost powerless.  Yet when Eumenes had finished despoiling the corpse he found that he was severely cut about the arms and thighs, in spite of which he remounted his horse, and rode to the other side of the battle-field, where he thought the enemy might still be offering resistance.  Here he heard of the death of Kraterus, and rode up to where he lay.  Finding that he was still alive and conscious, Eumenes dismounted, and with tears and protestations of friendship cursed Neoptolemus and lamented his hard fate, which had forced him either to kill his old friend and comrade or to perish at his hands.

VIII.  This victory was won by Eumenes about ten days after his former one.  He gained great glory from this double achievement, as he appeared to have won one battle by courage and the other by generalship.  Yet he was bitterly disliked and hated both by his own men and by the enemy, because he, a stranger and a foreigner, had vanquished the most renowned of the Macedonians in fair fight.  Now if Perdikkas had lived to hear of the death of Kraterus, he would have been the chief Macedonian of the age; but the news of his death reached the camp of Perdikkas two days after that prince had fallen in a skirmish with the Egyptians, and the enraged Macedonian soldiery vowed vengeance against Eumenes.  Antigonus and Antipater at once declared war against him:  and when they heard that Eumenes, passing by Mount Ida where the king[171] used to keep a breed of horses, took as many as he required and sent an account of his doing so to the Masters of the Horse, Antipater is said to have laughed and declared that he admired the wariness of Eumenes, who seemed to expect that he would be called upon to give an account of what he had done with the king’s property.  Eumenes had intended to fight a battle on the plains of Lydia near Sardis, because his chief strength lay in his cavalry, and also to let Kleopatra[172] see how powerful he was; but at her particular request, for she was afraid to give umbrage to Antipater, he marched into Upper Phrygia, and passed the winter in the city of Kelainae.  While here, Alketas, Polemon, and Dokimus caballed against him, claiming the supreme command for themselves.  Hereupon Eumenes quoted the proverb, “No one reflects that he who rules must die.”