that protects armies, and the gods who watch over the true keeping of oaths, kill me here with your own hands; for I shall be slain by you no less when I am put to death in the enemy’s camp.  Antigonus cannot complain of this action of yours, for he wishes to receive Eumenes dead, and not alive.  If you are chary of your own hands to do the deed, one of mine will suffice if you will loose it from its bonds.  Or if you will not trust me with a sword, then cast me, bound as I am, to be trampled on by the elephants.  If you will act thus I will acquit you of all blame, and will declare that you have dealt with your general as became honourable men.”

XVIII.  When Eumenes had spoken thus, all the army was grieved and lamented his fate, but the Argyraspids called out that he must be carried away, and no attention paid to his talk; for, they said, it mattered little what fate befel a pestilent fellow from the Chersonese, who had involved the Macedonians in endless wars and troubles, but that it was not to be borne that the bravest of the soldiers of Philip and Alexander, after their unheard-of exploits, should in their old age be deprived of the fruits of their toils and be forced to depend upon charity, or that their wives should pass a third night in the enemy’s camp.  They at once hurried him away.  When he reached the enemy’s quarters, Antigonus, fearing that he would be crushed to death by the crowd (for not a man remained in the camp), sent ten of the strongest elephants, and many Medes and Parthians, armed with spears, to keep off the press from him.  He himself could not bear to see Eumenes, because they had once been friends and comrades; and when he was asked by those who had charge of his person how they were to treat him, answered, “Like an elephant, or a lion!” After a while he felt compassion for his sufferings, and ordered his heavy chains to be removed, appointed an attendant to anoint his person, and allowed his friends to have free access to him and supply him with provisions.  A long debate took place for several days about the fate of Eumenes, in which Nearchus, a Cretan, and the young Demetrius, pleaded earnestly for him, while the other generals all opposed them and pressed for his execution.  It is said that Eumenes himself inquired of his jailer, Onomarchus, what the reason was that Antigonus, having got his enemy into his power, did not put him to death quickly or else set him free honourably.  When Onomarchus insultingly answered that it was not then, but in the battle-field that he ought to have shown how little he feared death, Eumenes retorted, “I proved it there also; ask those whom I encountered; but I never met a stronger man than myself.”  “Since then you have now met with a stronger man than yourself,” said Onomarchus; “why cannot you patiently await his pleasure?”