§5.1Haec dum apud Hellespontum geruntur, Perdiccas apud Nilum flumen interficitur a Seleuco et Antigene, rerumque summa ad Antipatrum defertur.
While these things were being done at the Hellespont, Perdiccas was killed at the river Nile by Seleucus and Antigenes, and the supreme power was transferred to Antipater.
hic qui non deseruerant, exercitu suffragium ferente capitis absentes damnantur, in eis Eumenes.
Here, those who had not deserted were condemned to death in their absence, by the vote of the army, among them Eumenes.
hac ille perculsus plaga non succubuit neque eo setius bellum administravit. sed exiles res animi magnitudinem, etsi non frangebant, tamen minuebant.
Although struck by this blow, he did not succumb, nor did he conduct the war any less actively on that account; but his meager resources, though they did not break his greatness of soul, nevertheless diminished it.
§5.2hunc persequens Antigonus, cum omni genere copiarum abundaret, saepe in itineribus vexabatur, neque umquam ad manum accedere licebat nisi iis locis, quibus pauci multis possent resistere.
Antigonus, pursuing him, although he abounded in every kind of forces, was often harassed on his marches, nor was he ever allowed to come to close quarters except in those places where a few could resist many.
§5.3sed extremo tempore, cum consilio capi non posset, multitudine circumitus est.
But at last, when he could not be captured by strategy, he was surrounded by a multitude.
hinc tamen multis suis amissis se expedivit et in castellum Phrygiae, quod Nora appellatur, confugit.
Nevertheless, having lost many of his men, he extricated himself from here and fled into a fortress of Phrygia, which is called Nora.
§5.4in quo cum circumsederetur et vereretur, ne uno loco manens equos militares perderet, quod spatium non esset agitandi, callidum fuit eius inventum, quem ad modum stans iumentum concalfieri exercerique posset, quo libentius et cibo uteretur et a corporis motu non removeretur.
When he was besieged in this place, and feared that by remaining in one spot he might lose the military horses, because there was no space for exercising them, his invention was ingenious as to how a standing beast of burden could be warmed and exercised, so that it might eat its food more readily and not be kept from bodily movement.
§5.5substringebat caput loro altius, quam ut prioribus pedibus plene terram posset attingere, deinde post verberibus cogebat exsultare et calces remittere: qui motus non minus sudorem excutiebat, quam si in spatio decurreret.
He tied up its head with a strap higher than would allow it to touch the ground fully with its forefeet, and then forced it with whips from behind to leap up and kick out its hind legs; which movement drew out sweat no less than if it were running on an open course.
§5.6quo factum est, quod omnibus mirabile est visum, ut aeque nitida iumenta ex castello educeret, cum complures menses in obsidione fuisset, ac si in campestribus ea locis habuisset.
Whereby it came to pass—a thing that seemed wonderful to everyone—that he led the beasts out of the fortress just as sleek, although he had been in a state of siege for several months, as if he had kept them in open plains.
§5.7in hac conclusione, quotienscumque voluit, apparatum et munitiones Antigoni alias incendit, alias disiecit.
In this blockade, as often as he wished, he burned some of Antigonus' siege works and fortifications, and demolished others.
tenuit autem se uno loco, quamdiu hiems fuit, quod castra sub divo habere non poterat.
He kept himself, however, in one place as long as winter lasted, because he could not have his camp under the open sky.
ver appropinquabat: simulata deditione, dum de condicionibus tractat, praefectis Antigoni imposuit seque ac suos omnes extraxit incolumes.
Spring was approaching; under the pretense of surrender, while he was treating for terms, he deceived the officers of Antigonus and drew out himself and all his men unharmed.