When Alexander was dying, he entrusted his signet ring to Perdiccas. Initially the most pre-eminent of the successors, [ 2 ] Perdiccas effectively ruled Alexander's increasingly unstable empire [ 3 ] from Babylon for three years, until his assassination, as the kings he ruled for were incapable.
Perdiccas was born to Macedonian nobility. A supporter, somatophylax bodyguard and hetairos elite cavalry commander of Alexander, he took part in Alexander's campaign against the Achaemenid Persian Empire , distinguishing himself in Thebes and Gaugamela , and followed Alexander into India. Perdiccas gained supreme power but also inherited the problems of Alexander's quickly conquered and unstable empire.
To consolidate power and retain authority, Perdiccas crushed numerous revolts, like that of Ariarathes , and assassinated rivals, like Meleager. Perdiccas' position as regent was never fully secure, however, and his authority was repeatedly contested by other generals. His attempt to marry Cleopatra of Macedon , Alexander's sister, which would have given him claim to the Macedonian throne, angered critical generalsโincluding Antipater , Craterus and Antigonus โwho decided to revolt against the regent in the First War of the Diadochi.
According to the 2nd-century historian Arrian , Perdiccas was the son of the Macedonian nobleman, Orontes, [ 5 ] [ 6 ] a descendant of the independent princes of the Macedonian province of Orestis. He had a brother called Alcetas [ 9 ] and a sister, Atalante, who married Attalus. Little is known of Perdiccas' youth, but he was probably brought to the Macedonian court in Pella to serve as page like many other young nobles alongside Alexander. An anecdote reports that Perdiccas once went into the cave of a lioness who had recently gave birth, and stole two of its cubs.
As the commander of a battalion of the Macedonian phalanx heavy infantry , in BC Perdiccas fought in the Balkan campaigns of Alexander against the Illyrian peoples located northwest of Macedon. In the same year, he distinguished himself during the conquest of Thebes , which had rebelled against Macedon following the death of Philip II.
