9 - Eumenes 3: Loyalty
How far are you willing to go for what you believe in? Eumenes of Kardia had the choice at many points to retire from conflict and be satrap of Cappadocia, to raise his family, to rebuild his life. But instead he chose the path of war, and the path of glory, and gave everything he had to defend the throne and the legacy of dead friend Alexander the Great.
How to secure loyalty from reluctant followers
How to wait out a siege
The brittle peace after Antipater’s death, and the wrench that smashed it
How Eumenes made it into the Babylonian Chronicle
Why the debtor rules the creditor
The way Eumenes fought when the odds were against him
In this final part of his Life, Eumenes’ loyalty to the legacy of Alexander is put to the ultimate test. He faces off against Antigonus, on behalf of Queen Olympias, over rulership of the kingdom and the regency of the kings.
A notable historian, A.B. Bosworth, remarks that the struggle between Eumenes and Antigonus “Did more than anything to determine the shape the Hellenistic world.”
Our guest narrator is Dawn LaValle Norman, a classicist and scholar of Plutarch and his era.
Eumenes has the choice at multiple points to retire in peace. But he fights on. Why? And what can we learn from his example?
Eumenes knew the secrets of how to secure the loyalty and admiration of followers, and the compliance of reluctant subordinates.
He took his men on grand campaigns from the steppes of central Turkey to the marshes of Babylonia, the death valley of Susa, and the Iranian highlands.
As Plutarch remarks: “Success… makes even men of smaller character look impressive to us, as they stare down upon us from the heights, but it is when misfortune strikes, that the truly great and steadfast man becomes unmistakeable.”
On today’s podcast:
- How to secure loyalty from reluctant followers
- How to wait out a siege
- The brittle peace after Antipater’s death, and the wrench that smashed it
- How Eumenes made it into the Babylonian Chronicle
- Why the debtor rules the creditor
- The way Eumenes fought when the odds were against him
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