Perdiccas

Perdiccas held Alexander's ring and the empire for two years, and was murdered by his own officers on the bank of the Nile. He was a Macedonian noble of the royal house of Orestis, a bodyguard of Philip II who was present when Philip was assassinated, and one of Alexander's most senior commanders throughout the eastern campaign — leading a phalanx battalion at the Granicus, storming Thebes, and taking over the Companion cavalry after Hephaestion's death. When Alexander was dying in Babylon in June 323 BC and was asked to whom he left the kingdom, he is said to have answered to the strongest, and to have handed his signet ring to Perdiccas. The settlement that followed made him regent for two nominal kings — Alexander's disabled half-brother Philip Arrhidaeus and the unborn child of Roxana — with the provinces distributed among the other generals. He held it by force of position rather than of law, and everyone knew it. He rejected an offer of marriage from Alexander's sister Cleopatra, then accepted it, which announced an ambition the others would not tolerate. The break came over Alexander's body. Perdiccas intended it for Macedonia; Ptolemy hijacked the funeral carriage on the road and took it to Egypt, which was both a theft and a claim to legitimacy. Perdiccas invaded Egypt in 321 BC. He lost about two thousand men attempting to cross the Nile at Memphis, many taken by crocodiles. His officers, Seleucus among them, stabbed him in his tent. Alexander's body stayed in Egypt, and the empire was formally partitioned at Triparadisus weeks later.

• Lived: 355 BCE – 321 BCE
• Nationality: Macedonian
• Roles: ruler, general