Letters and Diaries

[agesilaos]

John and I have been trading blows over the letter in Arrian quoted after Issos in the Persepolis thread. Rather than leave it buried there I thought and start a new thread and broaden it to include the Ephemerides.My own view is that they both owe more to later fabrication than actual documents. NGL Hammond beleived that Eumenes had saved detailed reports of each days action and roster strengths, etc in the shape of the Ephemerides. I do not think the evidence can support this claim. But maybe I'm just an old, well, middle-aged Cynic.

[susan]

I've been wondering who would have kept the diaries & letters after Alexander's death. Would they have stayed with Eumenes, or would Perdikkas have taken them as principal regent ? If so, when Perdikkas died in Egypt would Ptolemy have taken them or would Eumenes have retained them ?I've always felt that most of the items emerged from the propaganda-mills of Alexandria, along with the Romance; partly because the presence of Alexander's body would stimulate the need for souvenirs - "You've seen the body, now buy his collected letters" in the giftshop on the way out - - and also publications from Alexandria would gain a certain spurious authenticity - "It comes from Alexandria, Alexander's buried there so it must be genuine".Susan

[susan]

Karl, John
There must be many people on this forum who don't know what the Ephemerides are - do you think that you could give a brief summary of what they are, what they say, and where they are referred to ? I'm sure that it will be appreciated.RegardsSusan

[yiannis]

Ephimerides were the official daily log of the army. Everything concerning the army was recorded there.
Eumenes and Diodotus supervised the military records and Callisthenes the political ones.
These records are lost but some ancient writers (which ones?) have a part of their story based on them.
Ephimerides means "newspapers" in Greek. From the word "Ephemerous", meaning momentary.

[marcus]

Plutarch certainly used the Ephemerides at times, and if I recall correctly Arrian (through Ptolemy) used them for the record of Alexander's last days.I don't think that what Callisthenes was writing was anything to do with the Ephemerides, though. He was writing a history to be disseminated to the Greek cities, whereas the Ephemerides were more like a ship's log.All the bestMarcus

[agesilaos]

From the little preserved in Arrian and Plutarch the Ephemerides (Journal would be a better translation than Diary perhaps) they were records of the King's day to day business which is confined to sacrificial duties and the purification which preceded these. Appended to this were notes about his social activity and occaisional notices of army matters in a manner similar to the Babylonian Astronomical Diary posted by Tre I think. They are called Ephemerides because they deal with events on a daily basis.There may have been such a record but comparison of Plutarch and Arrian's versions reveals they are not singing from the same hymn sheet. Also they are only cited for Alexander's death and this in itself is suspicious if they were the wonderful full source Hammond alleges.

[xxx]

As I recall most of these were destroyed when Alexander burned Eumenes' tent. It would stand to reason that they would exist only for the times toward the end of the reign, which I believe is what they contain.They were probably split between Eumenes and Ptolemy, who may have gotten hold of the bulk of them when he captured the funeral train. It is unlikely they would have survived under anyone else's care. As to their authenticity, it's all a matter of personal opinion.

[ruthaki]

I can't remember where I read it (It's late and I'm so tired I'm cross-eyed) but I understood that Eumenes was the official Royal Secretary and that after Kassandros took over the dynasty he destroyed all Eumenes records (diaries). I don't know of course if this meant the ones kept on campaign or just the others that he had recorded during Philip's lifetime.