Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c5.67

c5.67

**Collapse of Greek Rule after Alexander's death in 323 B.C.** On the top of this took place the death of Alexander¹ himself (without issue) in 323 B.C. in distant Babylon, followed by confusion in his own empire. The empire could not hold together. His generals immediately met and decided on its division among themselves. A second partition of the empire took place in 321 B.C. at Triparadisus, in which no part of India to the east of the Indus was included as a part of that empire. The Greek governor of Sind, Peithon, was now removed, and placed in charge of the province between the Indus and the Paropanisus. Eudamus was the solitary Greek agent lingering on in India, but he had no official position in the empire and is ignored in its partitions. He probably set himself up as the leader of the Hellenic 'outlanders' left in the valleys of the Indus and the Hydaspes, but he, too, left India in 317 B.C. to help his chief, Eumenes, against Antigonos, with a small force of infantry and cavalry and of 120 elephants which he had secured by slaying treacherously an Indian chief (supposed to be Poros) who was his trusted colleague. Poor Eudamus met his doom at the hands of Antigonos [Diodorus, XIX. 44, 1]. Peithon also left his province and joined the fray and met the same fate. He fell fighting by the side of Demetrius at the battle of Gaza [*Ib.* 85, 2]. There was no more Greek to take the place of either in India.