Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/365

 TROJECTS OF PERDIKKAS. 333 ftiiJ reduced them to extreme distress, amidst the winter which had now supervened. The -^tohans, in spite of braverj and endurance, must soon have been compelled to surrender from cold and hunger, had not the unexpected an*ival of Antigonus from Asia communicated such news to Antipater and Kraterus, as induced them to prepare for marching back to Macedonia, with a view to the crossing of the Hellespont and operating in Asia. The J concluded a pacification with the -^^tolians — post- poning till a future period their design of deporting that people^ — and withdrew into Macedonia ; where Antipater cemented his alliance with Kraterus bj giving to him his daughter Pliila in marriage.^ Another daughter of Antipater, named Nikfea, had been sent over to Asia not long before, to become the wife of Perdikkas. That general, acting as guardian or prime minister to the kings of Alexander's family (who are now spoken of in the plural number, since Roxana had given birth to a posthumous son, called Alexander, and made king jointly with Philip Aridasus), had at first sought close combination with Antipater, demanding liis daugliter in marriage. But new views were presently opened to him by the intrigues of the princesses at Pella (Olympias, with her daughter Kleopatra, widow of the Molossian Alexan- der) — who had always been at variance with Antipater, even throughout the life of Alexander — and Kynane (daughter of Philip by an lUyrian mother, and widow of Amyntas, first cou- sin of Alexander, but slain by Alexander's order) with her daughter Eurydike. It has been already mentioned that Kleo- patra had offered herself in marriage to Leonnatus, inviting him to come over and occupy the throne of Macedonia : he had obey- ed the call, but had been slain in his first battle against the Greeks, thus relieving Antipater from a dangerous rival. The first project of Olympias being thus frustrated, she had sent to Pei'dikkas proposing to him a marriage with Kleopatra. Per- dikkas had already pledged himself to the daughter of Antipa- ter ; nevertheless he now debated whether his ambition would not be better served by breaking his pledge, and accepting the new proposition. To this step he was advised by Eumenes, his ' Diodor. xviii. 18-25.