1While this is going on at the Hellespont, Perdiccas is killed by the river Nile by Seleucus and Antigenes, and supreme power is conferred on Antipater. 1Here those who had not deserted are condemned to death in their absence by the vote of the army, Eumenes among them. 1Struck by this blow, he did not give in, nor did he conduct the war any less vigorously. 1But his straitened circumstances, though they did not break the greatness of his spirit, still diminished it. 2Antigonus, pursuing him, though he abounded in every kind of forces, was often harassed on the march, and was never allowed to come to close quarters except in places where a few could resist many.
3But in the end, when he could not be caught by strategy, he was surrounded by numbers. 3From there, however, he extricated himself with the loss of many of his men and took refuge in a fortress of Phrygia called Nora. 4When he was besieged in it and feared that by staying in one place he would ruin his war-horses, since there was no room for exercising them, he made a clever discovery of how a beast could be warmed and exercised while standing still, so that it would both eat more readily and not be kept from bodily movement. 5He would tie up its head with a strap higher than would let it touch the ground fully with its forefeet, and then from behind force it with blows to leap up and kick out its heels: this motion drew out no less sweat than if it were running on a racecourse.
6As a result, to everyone's amazement, he led his animals out of the fortress as sleek, though he had been under siege for several months, as if he had kept them in open country. 7During this blockade, as often as he wished, he now burned, now pulled down Antigonus' siege equipment and fortifications. 7But he kept himself in one place as long as it was winter, because he could not keep a camp in the open air. 7Spring was approaching: pretending to surrender, while he was negotiating the terms, he deceived Antigonus' officers and got himself and all his men out unharmed.