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Cornelius Nepos · Eumenes §7.1-7.3

The Tent of Alexander and the Holding of Command

Passage 7 of 13 · Latin

Summary

To avoid envy as a foreigner holding the supreme command, Eumenes sets up a tent in Alexander's name with his royal insignia, making it the nominal council site while maintaining actual control.

§7.1Itaque copias contraxit, bellum adversus Antigonum comparavit.
Therefore he assembled his forces and prepared war against Antigonus.
quod una erant Macedones complures nobiles, in eis Peucestes, qui corporis custos fuerat Alexandri, tum autem obtinebat Persidem, et Antigenes, cuius sub imperio phalanx erat Macedonum, invidiam verens (quam tamen effugere non potuit), si potius ipse alienigena summi imperii potiretur quam aliquis Macedonum, quorum ibi erat multitudo, §7.2in principiis Alexandri nomine tabernaculum statuit in eoque sellam auream cum sceptro ac diademate iussit poni eoque omnes cottidie convenire, ut ibi de summis rebus consilia caperentur, credens minore se invidia fore, si specie imperii nominisque simulatione Alexandri bellum videretur administrare.
Because many Macedonian nobles were with him—among them Peucestes, who had been a bodyguard of Alexander and was then governing Persis, and Antigenes, under whose command was the Macedonian phalanx—and because he feared ill-will (which, however, he could not escape) if he himself, a foreigner, should hold the supreme command rather than some Macedonian, of whom there was a great multitude there, he erected a tent in the headquarters in the name of Alexander, and ordered a golden chair with a scepter and diadem to be placed in it, and all to assemble there daily, so that councils might be held there concerning the most important matters; believing that he would be exposed to less envy if he should seem to conduct the war under the appearance of power and the simulation of the name of Alexander.
quod effecit.
This he accomplished.
§7.3nam cum non ad Eumenis principia, sed ad regia conveniretur atque ibi de rebus deliberaretur, quodam modo latebat, cum tamen per eum unum gererentur omnia.
For since they assembled not at the headquarters of Eumenes, but at the royal tent, and there deliberated on affairs, he was in a manner concealed, although all things were nevertheless carried on by him alone.

Notes

  1. §7.1si potius ipse alienigena summi imperii potiretur — The conditional clause features the subjunctive imperfect potiretur (from potior, "to obtain"), following the sequence of tenses dependent on the historical main verbs (statuit, etc.). While potior usually governs the ablative, here it governs the genitive summi imperii. alienigena ("foreigner") is in apposition to the subject ipse. This clause explains the specific condition under which the feared envy (invidiam) would arise.
  2. §7.2minore se invidia fore — An accusative with infinitive clause functioning as the object of credens ("believing"). se is the subject accusative, and fore (alternative form of futurum esse) is the infinitive. minore... invidia is an ablative of quality acting as a predicate to describe the state of being exposed to less envy.
  3. §7.3non ad Eumenis principia, sed ad regia conveniretur — An expression within the clause introduced by the conjunction cum ("when"). The passive form of the intransitive verb convenio ("to assemble"), conveniretur, is used impersonally to mean "there was an assembly" or "people assembled." Similarly, deliberaretur is also an impersonal passive. regia (royal), contrasted with principia (headquarters, neuter plural), refers to regia tabernacula (the royal tents) or is a substantivized neuter plural meaning "royal quarters."

Cite this passage

Cornelius Nepos, Eumenes §7.1-7.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0588.abo018.humanitext-lat2:7.1-7.3

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