Perdiccas

Perdiccas was a senior Macedonian officer and regent after the death of Alexander the Great. His attempt to control the empire in the name of Alexander’s heirs triggered early conflicts among the Successors.

At Babylon after Alexander’s death, Perdiccas emerged as the dominant officer in the settlement that recognised Philip III and the infant Alexander IV as kings. Acting as regent, he tried to hold the empire together while rivals such as Antipater, Antigonus and Ptolemy consolidated regional power. His invasion of Egypt in 320 BC ended in military failure on the Nile, after which dissatisfied officers murdered him.

In Diodorus Siculus’ The Library, Books 16-20, the settlement at Babylon, the Lamian War, the regencies of Perdiccas and Antipater, the campaigns of Eumenes and Antigonus, the struggles involving Olympias and Cassander, and the emergence of the Ptolemaic and other successor kingdoms unfold alongside Agathocles’s seizure of power at Syracuse and his extraordinary invasion of Carthaginian North Africa. In Mary Renault’s Funeral Games, Alexander dies in Babylon without naming a capable adult successor. Perdiccas attempts to preserve the empire under the nominal kingship of Philip III and the unborn child of Roxana, while generals, infantry leaders and royal women compete to control the settlement. Roxana eliminates rivals, Ptolemy diverts Alexander's funeral cortege to Egypt and the successors divide into hostile coalitions. Further fictional perspectives on Perdiccas can be found in Robert Fabbri’s To the Strongest and Robert Fabbri’s The Three Paradises. For broader historical treatment of Perdiccas, see Quintus Curtius Rufus’ The History of Alexander.