During this siege, as he perceived that
the men, cooped up in such narrow limits and eating their food without
exercise, would lose health, and also that the horses would lose
condition if they never used their limbs, while it was most important
that, if they were required for a sudden emergency, they should be
able to gallop, he arranged the largest room in the fort, fourteen
cubits in length, as a place of exercise for the men, and ordered them
to walk there, gradually quickening their pace, so as to combine
exercise with amusement. For the horses, he caused their necks to be
hoisted by pulleys fastened in the roof of their stable, until their
fore feet barely touched the ground. In this uneasy position they were
excited by their grooms with blows and shouts until the struggle
produced the effect of a hard ride, as they sprung about and stood
almost erect upon their hind legs till the sweat poured off them, so
that this exercise proved no bad training either for strength or
speed. They were fed with bruised barley, as being more quickly and
easily digested.
XII. After this siege had lasted for some time, Antigonus learned that
Antipater had died in Macedonia, and that Kassander and Polysperchon
were fighting for his inheritance. He now conceived great hopes of
gaining the supreme power for himself, and desired to have Eumenes as
his friend and assistant in effecting this great design.
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