His speech was received with loud cheers.  He stood there unhurt and admired before the Macedonians, who but a few hours earlier had been his bitterest foes.  Now they looked upon him as their saviour; they all acknowledged him as the conqueror, and for the moment he stood in unequivocal possession of that power for which Perdiccas had worked so hard, and which he had so much abused.  Who was now to be Perdiccas’ successor, and to manage the kingdom in the name of the kings?  With one voice the people begged Ptolemy to undertake this task.  The foresight and presence of mind of the son of Lagus were not clouded by the allurement of such an offer gained by his sudden change of fortune.  At this supreme moment he acted with consummate sagacity.  He divined that a refusal of the proffered honour would make him in reality more powerful, although, at the moment, he would seem to be acting in an unselfish manner.  He recommended to the army, as a favour which he had to bestow, those he thought worthy of his thanks; they were Python, the Median strategist, who had taken the first decisive step against Perdiccas; and Arridaeus, who, in spite of Perdiccas’ orders, had taken the body of the king to Egypt.  These two were nominated regents with loud cheers.

The Macedonian army, accordingly, chose Python and Arridaeus as guardians, and as rulers with unlimited power over the whole of Alexander’s conquests; but, though none of the Greek generals who now held Asia Minor, Syria, Babylonia, Thrace, or Egypt dared to acknowledge it to the soldiers, yet in reality the power of the guardians was limited to the little kingdom of Macedonia.  With the death of Perdiccas, and the withdrawal of his army, Phoenicia and Coele-Syria were left unguarded, and almost without a master.  In order that Egypt might take an important part in the universal policy, Ptolemy felt he must possess Syria, which would open up the way for him to the countries along the Euphrates and the Tigris, and also the island of Cyprus, where he would be near the coast of Asia Minor.  He could not yet think of conquering Cyprus, which had an important fleet.  He felt that, if he annexed Syria, either by diplomacy or by force, the organisation of the kingdom and the territorial division of power would be changed in a tangible manner.  The Egyptian satraps already possessed some measure of authority, and he could also depend upon the satrap of Syria joining him.

Perdiccas had bestowed this satrapy upon Laomedon, the Amphysolite, who had taken no part in the great fight between Perdiccas and Ptolemy.  Ptolemy now informed him that he wished to possess his satrapy, but was ready to compensate him with a sum of money.  Laomedon refused this offer with scorn.  Thereupon, an army under Nicanor, one of the “friends” of Ptolemy, marched into Palestine.  Jerusalem was the only place that held out against the Egyptian army; but Nicanor, says the historian Agathareides, seeing that on every seventh day the garrison withdrew