Dividing The Spoils: Mutiny
In war important events result from trivial causes
-Julius Caesar
As mentioned earlier, the decision to proclaim both Alexander IV and Arrhidaeus (Phillip III) as joint kings, was decided after an insistence by the military. However, the events that lead to this conclusion were far more in depth than this, and are very telling as to the chaos and weird twists of fate that highlight the Diadochi period.
Originally, the plan had been to make Alexander the sole king, the generals agreeing that Arrhidaeus was not competent enough to rule. There was one problem though. The infantry and cavalry, were always in dissagreement and distrust of one another, and began to quarrel. The cavalry, always made up of the more well off, supported this decision wholeheartedly. However, the infantry, wanting a pure blooded Macedonian on the throne, were outraged at the notion that an adult son of the great Phillip II, was being passed over on the throne for a child who was half barbarian! The quarrels got heated, and a fight between the cavalry and infantry seemed inevitable. Only a couple days after the death of Alexander, the infantry was on the verge of a full fledged mutiny, and the army in Babylon was tearing itself apart.
Perdiccas sent a trusted general of his, Meleager, to dissuade the infantry from mutinying, and convince them to accept Alexander as their new future king. The thought process of Perdiccas surely was that since Meleager was extremely popular among the infantry, if anybody could calm them down, it was him. However, the soldiers wanted none of it. Meleager tried to dissuade them from mutiny*, but their mind was set, and they would have lynched him, had he not recognized his situation was hopeless, and fled back to Perdiccas.
Perdiccas was frantic. The infantry was rampaging through Babylon, with the intent to kill him and Meleager, and anyone who stood in their way. Shortly after their fallout with Meleager, the soldiers proclaimed Arrhidaeus as Phillip III, a sign that they wanted to return to the days of Phillip, when there was no mixture of Macedonians and eastern barbarians. They easily got him to sign a declaration condemning Perdiccas and Meleager to death, him being ignorant and unaware of what he was actually doing. Perdiccas and Meleager holed themselves up in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, where Alexander's corpse was. The soldiers burst in, but they managed to escape with their lives just barely, as they fled just in the nick of time. Together with the cavalry, they managed to flee the city, and set up camp just outside of Babylon. In just one swoop, the infantry had proven their opinion would not be silenced, and taken control for themselves.
Perdiccas's position was tenuous, but it was not out of control. Shockingly, in the fray, no prominent general had taken up with the rebel cause. They had no strong leader, and could not remain in rebellion forever. Therefore, Perdiccas and Meleager surrounded Babylon with the cavalry, and cut it off from food and supplies. During all this, the former secretary turned cavalry commander, Eumenes of Cardia, had remained in Babylon. Now with the soldiers willing to negotiate, Eumenes emerged from the sidelines and proposed a compromise. He argued that as a Greek, he had nothing to gain from the power struggle, and thus could act as the mediator in the mutiny. Eumenes proposed to the soldiers, and to Perdiccas, both Alexander and Phillip be proclaimed as kings.
Sensing they probably were not going to be able to get a better deal, the infantry agreed to the compromise. Perdiccas grudgingly accepted it as well. As a part of the deal, Antipater was made protector of Arrhidaeus and Europe, a position which up until then, had been held by Perdiccas's friend and fellow former bodyguard, Leonnatus (other than the Europe part, which had been Antipater's position already). Perdiccas would resume his position of regent of Alexander, and assume the title as Protector of Asia. Perdiccas may have been reluctant to cast Leonnatus aside, but a part of making Antipater Phillip's protector, was sending Phillip to Macedon, and thus freeing himself from the trouble the man caused. In any case, Leonnatus would be rewarded with an important satrapy soon thereafter anyway. Perdiccas had survived his first test, but there were many more yet to come.