[63] In addition to his other military improvements, Philip had organized an effective siege-train with projectile and battering engines superior to anything of the kind existing before. This artillery was at once made use of by Alexander in this campaign against the Illyrians.
[64] Perdiccas, son of Orontes, a Macedonian, was one of Alexander’s most distinguished generals. The king is said on his death-bed to have taken the royal signet from his finger and to have given it to Perdiccas. After Alexander’s death he was appointed regent; but an alliance was formed against him by Antipater, Craterus, and Ptolemy. He marched into Egypt against Ptolemy. Being defeated in his attempts to force the passage of the Nile, his own troops mutinied against him and slew him (B.C. 321). See Diodorus, xviii. 36. For his personal valour see Aelian (Varia Historia, xii. 39).
[65] Coenus, son of Polemocrates, was a son-in-law of Parmenio, and one of Alexander’s best generals. He violently accused his brother-in-law Philotas of treason, and personally superintended the torturing of that famous officer previous to his execution (Curtius, vi. 36, 42). He was put forward by the army to dissuade Alexander from advancing beyond the Hyphasis (Arrian, v. 27). Soon after this he died and was buried with all possible magnificence near that river, B.C. 327 (Arrian, vi. 2).
[66] The Cadmea was the Acropolis of Thebes, an oval eminence of no great height, named after Cadmus, the leader of a Phoenician colony, who is said to have founded it. Since the battle of Chaeronea, this citadel had been held by a Macedonian garrison.
[67] Amyntas was a Macedonian officer, and Timolaüs a leading Theban of the Macedonian faction.
[68] Cf. Aelian (Varia Historia, xii. 57).
[69] These were two provinces in the west of Macedonia.
[70] Two divisions of Epirus.
[71] A town on the Penēus in Hestiaeotis.
[72] A town in Boeotia, on the lake Copais, distant 50 stades north-west of Thebes.