§2.1Alexandro Babylone mortuo, cum regna singulis familiaribus dispertirentur et summa tradita esset tuenda eidem, cui Alexander moriens anulum suum dederat, Perdiccae §2.2(ex quo omnes coniecerant eum regnum ei commisisse, quoad liberi eius in suam tutelam pervenissent: aberat enim Crateros et Antipater, qui antecedere hunc videbantur; mortuus erat Hephaestio, quem unum Alexander, quod facile intellegi posset, plurimi fecerat), hoc tempore data est Eumeni Cappadocia sive potius dicta: nam tum in hostium erat potestate.
Upon the death of Alexander in Babylon, when the provinces were being distributed to his individual friends, and the supreme power had been delivered to be protected to the same man to whom Alexander, while dying, had given his ring, namely Perdiccas (from which everyone had inferred that he had committed the kingdom to him until his children should come into their own guardianship; for Crateros and Antipater, who seemed to take precedence over him, were absent, and Hephaestion had died, whom alone Alexander, as could easily be understood, had valued most highly), at this time Cappadocia was given, or rather assigned, to Eumenes; for at that time it was in the power of the enemy.
§2.3hunc sibi Perdiccas adiunxerat magno studio, quod in homine fidem et industriam magnam videbat, non dubitans, si eum pellexisset, magno usui fore sibi in eis rebus quas apparabat.
Perdiccas had attached this man to himself with great zeal, because he saw great fidelity and industry in the man, not doubting that, if he should win him over, he would be of great use to him in those matters which he was preparing.
cogitabat enim, quod fere omnes in magnis imperiis concupiscunt, omnium partes corripere atque complecti.
For he was thinking, as almost everyone in great empires covets, of seizing and grasping the shares of everyone.
§2.4neque vero hoc ille solus fecit, sed ceteri quoque omnes, qui Alexandri fuerant amici.
Nor indeed did he alone do this, but also all the others who had been friends of Alexander.
primus Leonnatus Macedoniam praeoccupare destinavit.
First, Leonnatus resolved to preoccupy Macedonia.
is multis magnisque pollicitationibus persuadere Eumeni studuit, ut Perdiccam desereret ac secum faceret societatem.
He strove to persuade Eumenes with many and great promises to desert Perdiccas and make an alliance with him.
§2.5cum perducere eum non posset, interficere conatus est et fecisset, nisi ille clam noctu ex praesidiis eius effugisset.
When he could not win him over, he attempted to kill him, and would have done so had Eumenes not escaped secretly by night from his strongholds.