Perceiving that Eumenes was one
of the most athletic, and that he was a manly and clever boy, Philip
took him away and attached him to his own person. A more probable
story is that Philip gave the boy this advancement out of regard for
his father, whose friend and guest he was. After the death of Philip,
Eumenes continued in the service of his son Alexander, and was thought
to be as wise and as faithful as any of that prince's servants. His
position was nominally that of chief secretary, but he was treated
with as much honour and respect as the king's most intimate friends,
and was entrusted with an independent command during the Indian
campaign. On the death of Hephaestion, Perdikkas was appointed to
succeed him, and Eumenes was given the post of commander of the
cavalry, vacated by Perdikkas. Upon this Neoptolemus, the chief of the
men-at-arms, sneered at Eumenes, saying that he himself bore a spear
and shield in Alexander's service, but that Eumenes bore a pen and
writing-tablets. However the Macedonian chiefs laughed him to scorn,
as they well knew the worth of Eumenes, and that he was so highly
esteemed that Alexander himself had done him the honour to make him
his kinsman by marriage. He bestowed upon him Barsine, the sister of
that daughter of Artabazus by whom he himself had a son named
Herakles, and gave her other sister Apame to Ptolemaeus at the time
when he distributed the other Persian ladies among his followers.
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