Battle of Orkynia

Battle of Orkynia

Part of: Diadoch Wars

date	Spring 319 BC Chr.
place	Cappadocia / Asia Minor
output	Victory of Antigonus

Parties to the conflict
Perdiccans	Representative of royalty
Commander
Eumenes Apollonides	Antigonos Monophthalmos
Troop strength
according to Diodor:20,000 infantrymen 5,000 cavalrymen	according to Diodor:more than 10,000 infantrymen 2,000 cavalrymen 30 elephants
losses
according to Diodor:8,000 dead, almost all of the cavalry defected to the enemy	unknown

The Battle of Orkynia was a military clash in the spring of 319 BC. Chr. At an unspecified location in the landscape of Cappadocia in today's central Turkey .

Although not part of any of the Diadoch Wars counted , the battle is one of the events of the early Diadoch Age that followed the death of Alexander the Great . It took place between the first and second Diadoch Wars.

background

In 323 BC Alexander the great died in Babylon . Because he only has a mentally handicapped half-brother Philip III. Arrhidaios and an underage son Alexander IV. Aigos on the throne of the world empire he had conquered , the companions and generals who had participated in the Asian campaign and are known as "Diadochi" (successors) began to fight for the reign. General Perdiccas , who also received Alexander's signet ring , had finally established himself as regent in the imperial order of Babylon .

Because of their own higher ambitions, but also because of the particular interests of some who strived for a division of the empire, 321 BC. A faction was formed against Perdiccas, which led the first Diadoch war against him. Despite the victory of the "Perdiccans" in the battle of the Hellespont (spring 320 BC) Perdiccas was murdered by his own men at the same time on the Nile . The victors of the war rearranged imperial affairs at the Triparadeisus conference , with Antipater being the new regent and the surviving followers of Perdiccas outlawed. These were above all Eumenes , the victor of the Hellespont, and Alketas , the brother of Perdiccas. Antigonos Monophthalmos , appointed strategos of Asia, was charged with fighting them .

Eumenes had until the winter of 320 BC. By clever tactics he was able to evade the persecution of Antipater and went to Cappadocia, the province of whose satrap he had been appointed by Perdiccas and which he also had in 322 BC. BC had successfully conquered. Here he still had support, especially since he had integrated local troops into his army, who were far more loyal to him than his Macedonian warriors. After Antipater had marched off to Macedonia, Eumenes now had to deal with Antigonus, who had been appointed governor of several provinces in Asia Minor by Alexander and who could now also act as generalissimo of the empire. Against him, Eumenes hoped to be able to ally himself with Perdiccas's brother, Alketas, who was staying with a handsome following in south-western Asia Minor. The Macedonian Alketas rejected this, however, because he did not want to submit to the orders of a non-Macedonian; Eumenes was a native of Kardia , a colony of Miletus . In the spring of 319 BC In BC Antigonus pulled his half of the imperial army - the other half was brought to Macedonia by Antipater - from his winter camps and initially turned against Eumenes in Cappadocia.

The battle

On his march, Antigonus had made secret contact with the commander of the Eumenes cavalry named Apollonides, presumably a Macedonian, and had persuaded him to change sides during the battle with a promise of rich reward. Eumenes intended to put his enemy to battle on a plain near the town of Orkynia in Cappadocia, in order to bring out the best of his cavalry on it. This tactic had already helped him win at the Hellespont.

When the battle was finally fought and entered the decisive phase, Apollonides and his riders made the agreed change of sides, which ultimately helped Antigonus to a complete victory. Eumenes lost almost all of his army in the field and those who had not fallen surrendered to Antigonus. Only with a small following of the most loyal followers, no more than 600 men, Eumenes managed to escape from the field to a nearby mountain landscape, where he holed up in the fortress Nora.

consequences

Antigonus gained control of Cappadocia through his victory, which decisively favored him in establishing his rule over Asia Minor, which became the foundation of his future position of power under the Diadochi. With his troops he took up the pursuit of Eumenes and besieged him in Nora. Then he turned to Pisidia , where he was victorious over Alketas in the battle of Cretopolis and thus completely destroyed the faction of the "Perdiccans". Eumenes, too, was in fact lost. He was well entrenched in Nora, but with no prospect of support soon, his fall was only a matter of time. He had already sent his friend and compatriot Hieronymos to Macedonia, who was to negotiate the terms of his submission and pardon with Antipater until the fall of 319 BC. The news of Antipater's death in Asia Minor arrived and the political situation changed for both Antigonus and Eumenes.

After he had reached a contractual agreement with Eumenes, Antigonus let him withdraw from Nora in order to devote himself to his alliance with Kassander against the new regent Polyperchon , which marked the beginning of the second Diadoch war. Hardly escaped his opponent in this way, Eumenes now allied himself with Polyperchon and thus became again the main opponent of Antigonus in Asia.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The place name of the battle is only mentioned in Plutarch ( Eumenes 9, 2). The location of the place or its identity cannot be precisely determined.
2. ^ For the battle report, see Diodor 18, 40, 1–8.
3. ↑ The traditions differ about the exact location of the fortress Nora. Diodor (18, 41, 3) located them in the mountains of Armenia, Plutarch ( Eumenes 10, 1) in the border region of Cappadocia with Lycaonia and Cornelius Nepos ( Eumenes 5, 3) even in Phrygia .
4. ↑ Diodorus 18, 42, 1.