II. Eumenes however was often in danger of incurring the displeasure
of Alexander, because of his favourite Hephaestion. On one occasion a
house was assigned to Evion, Hephaestion's flute-player, which the
servants of Eumenes had previously claimed for their master's lodging.
Hearing this, Eumenes went to Alexander in a rage, and complained that
it was better to be a flute-player than a soldier. At first Alexander
agreed with him, and blamed Hephaestion for his conduct. But afterwards
he changed his mind, and attributed what Eumenes had done to a desire
to insult himself, rather than to vindicate his rights against
Hephaestion. At another time, when Alexander was about to despatch
Nearchus with a fleet to explore the Atlantic, he asked his friends to
subscribe some money, as he had none in his treasury. The sum for
which Eumenes was asked was three hundred talents, of which he only
paid one hundred, and said that he had had great difficulty in
collecting even that amount. Alexander did not reproach him, nor take
the money from him; but he ordered his slaves secretly to set the tent
of Eumenes on fire, hoping when his property was brought out of it to
prove him to have lied in saying that he possessed so little money.
However the tent burned quicker than was expected, and Alexander was
sorry that he had destroyed all the papers and writings which it
contained. There was found in the ruins more than a thousand talents'
worth of gold and silver, melted by the heat of the fire.
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