Eumenes

Eumenes (; ; ) was a Greek general, satrap, and Successor of Alexander the Great. He participated in the Wars of Alexander the Great, serving as Alexander's personal secretary and later on as a battlefield commander. Eumenes depicted himself as a lifelong loyalist of Alexander's dynasty and championed the cause of the Macedonian Argead royal house. Notably, unlike other Successors of Alexander, Eumenes was not Macedonian, and so could not inherently stake a claim to the throne|Anson|2015|4loc=the most authoritative source on the career of Eumenes, believes that "As with his contemporaries, Eumenes' first concern was his own self-interest, not any loftier ideals" and that Eumenes had an "all consuming" ambition for personal power (pp. 1, 205). Whatever his true motives, which are ultimately unknowable, Eumenes was essentially the last hope of the royals, and his defeat spelled their end as a powerful political force}}

In the Wars of the Diadochi after Alexander's death, Eumenes initially supported the regent Perdiccas in the First Diadochi War, and later the Argead royalty in the Second Diadochi War. Despite less experience as a commander, Eumenes defeated Craterus, one of Alexander's most accomplished generals, at the Battle of the Hellespont in 321 BC. After Perdiccas' murder in 320 BC Eumenes became a public enemy of the new Post-Alexander regime under Antipater and Antigonus. In 319 BC he was defeated by Antigonus at the Battle of Orkynia and confined to Nora.

Eumenes escaped and then allied with Polyperchon and Olympias, Alexander's mother, against Cassander and Antigonus. From 318 BC onward he led a hard-fought campaign against Antigonus, defeating him at the Battle of Paraitakene, then being indecisively defeated later at the Battle of Gabiene. Afterward, Eumenes was betrayed by his soldiers (the Silver Shields) and given over to Antigonus. Antigonus executed him in the winter of 316–315 BC.

The Greek biographer and essayist Plutarch chose Eumenes as the focus of one of his biographies in ''Parallel Lives,'' where he was paired with Quintus Sertorius, the rebel Roman general who led a revolt against Rome in the 70s BC. Provided by Wikipedia