540 HISTOr.Y OF GREECE. and n/ight have kept out the new commander.' Kassander, while securing this important post in the hands of a confirmed partisan, affected to acquiesce in the authority of Poljsperchon, and to occupy himself with a hunting-party in the country. He at the same time sent confidential adherents to the Hellespont and other places in furtherance of his schemes ; and especially . to contract alliance with Antigonus in Asia and with Ptolemy in Egypt. His envoys being generally well received, he himself soon quitted Macedonia suddenly, and went to concert measures with Antigonus in Asia.- It suited the policy of Ptolemy, and still more that of Antigonus, to aid him against Polysperchon and the imperial dynasty. On the death of Antipater, Antigo- nus had resolved to make himself the real sovereign of the Asiatic Alexandrine empire, possessing as he did the most powerful military force within it. Even before this time the imperial dynasty had been a name rather than a reality ; yet still a respected name. But now, the prefei-ence shown to Polysperchon by the deceased Antipater, and the secession of Kassander, placed all the real great powers in active hostility against the dynasty. Polysperchon and his friends were notlilind to the difficulties of their position. The principal officers in Macedonia having been convened to de- liberate, it was resolved to invite Olympias out of Epii'us, that she might assume the tutelage of her grandson Alexander (son of Roxana) — to place the Asiatic interests of the dynasty in the hands of Eumenes, appointing him to the supreme command^ — and to combat Kassander in Europe, by assuring to themselves the general goodwill and support of the Greeks. This last object was to be obtained by granting to the Greeks general enfran- chisement, and by subverting the Antipatrian oligarchies and military governments now paramount throughout the cities. The last hope of maintaining the unity of Alexander's empire in Asia, against the counter-interests of the great Macedonian officers, who were steadily tending to divide and appropriate it — now lay in the fidelity and military skill of Eumenes. At his ' Plutarch, Phokion, 31. Diodonis (xviii. 64) says also that Nikanor was nominated by Kassander. ' Diodor xviii. 54. ^ Diodor. xviii. 49-58
