ABSTRACT
According to Diodorus (xviii. 14) he " possessed " himself of the country without any diffi cult y, and ." carried himself with great mildness and winning "behaviour towards the people ; and having a " treasure of 8000 talents, raised an army of mer-"cenuries ; and many out of love flocked to him
"upon the account of the goodness of his disposition. "He entered into a league with Antipater, when he "was assured that Perdiccas designed to dispossess him "of Egypt." Soon after he arrived in Egypt he found that Oleomenes, the satrap of the country under Alexander, had made himself very rich by taking the fullest advantage of all the opportunities of making money whieh came in his way, and had also made himself unpopular with the priests of Egypt, therefore to please them and to remove an ally of Perdiccas and one who might become an active enemy of himself, Ptolemy put him to death. Two years later (321) an open rupture occurred between Ptolemy and Perdiccas. Arrhidaeus, or Arrhibaeus, had in the interval made ready all things, and had succeeded in bringing the body of Alexander in its golden coffin to Syria, and was, presumably, about to carry it to the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon, or Siwa, according to the decision which had been arrived at in Babylon. Ptolemy marched out to meet the body of his dead king, and, finding that Perdiccas had commanded that it should be taken to Aegae in Macedonia, persuaded Arrhidaeus to allow it to go to Egypt instead. Arrhidaeus seems to have had no desire to take the body to Aegae, and if he had it would have been difficult for him to withstand ptolemy, who was no doubt accompanied by his army; the body of Alexander was then brought to Memphis and thence to Alexandria, where its presence must have been of the greatest importance to Ptolemy. The result of this
victory was to stir up the wrath of Perdiccas, who straightway determined to invade Egypt. He marched to Pelusium, where he encamped, but a sudden rise of the Nile drowned out his trenches, etc., and upset all his plans, and at the same time many of his men deserted to Ptolemy.
