Eumenes was an unlikely general. Born in Cardia on the Gallipoli Peninsula, he had served Alexander as his chief secretary, managing correspondence and logistics while the Macedonian generals won glory in battle. After Alexander's death, the Macedonian officers dismissed him as a Greek outsider, unworthy of real command. They were wrong. Eumenes defeated and killed the popular general Craterus in battle, a feat that earned him both respect and deep enmity. Antigonus outmaneuvered him in a series of campaigns across Asia Minor, eventually besieging him in the fortress of Nora. There, Eumenes talked his way to freedom by swearing an oath of loyalty, then cleverly rewording it so he could resume fighting without technically breaking his word. He marched south to Cilicia, where he forged an alliance with the commanders of Alexander's most feared veterans: the Argyraspides, the Silver Shields.

The Argyraspides were among the most extraordinary fighting forces in the ancient world. These 3,000 veterans had marched with Alexander from Macedonia to the borders of India and back. By 317 BC, they were between fifty and seventy years old, yet they remained devastating on the battlefield. Their phalanx technique, honed over decades of continuous warfare, was essentially flawless. Alongside them stood another 3,000 veterans, the Hypaspists or Shield-Bearers, equally experienced. When these old soldiers lowered their sarissas and advanced, younger troops simply could not match their discipline. Together with additional forces recruited from the eastern provinces, Eumenes assembled an army of roughly 35,000 infantry, 6,300 cavalry, and 125 war elephants, nearly double Antigonus's elephant strength.

The two armies met in Paraitakene after months of marching and countermarching through Babylonia, Susiana, and Media. Antigonus took up a strong defensive position on high ground. For four days, the armies watched each other and foraged. On the fifth day, with supplies dwindling, Antigonus decided to slip away toward the rich, unplundered district of Gabiene. Deserters betrayed his plan. Eumenes broke camp first and raced ahead. Antigonus sent his cavalry galloping after the retreating column, caught Eumenes's rearguard, and forced him to halt. As the infantry of both sides arrived, battle lines formed across the plain. Antigonus deployed his 28,000 heavy infantry in the center, with cavalry on both flanks. His twenty-year-old son Demetrius, making his first major combat appearance, commanded the heavy cavalry on the right wing.

The battle opened badly for Antigonus. On his left, his ally Peithon disobeyed orders to hold back and charged Eumenes's heavy cavalry with lighter mounted troops. Eumenes repulsed the attack, then struck Peithon's flank with cavalry squadrons pulled from his own left wing. Peithon's horsemen broke and fled toward the foothills. In the center, the phalanxes crashed together, and the aging Silver Shields proved their reputation. Despite the years, despite the miles, they drove Antigonus's infantry backward. But Antigonus had one quality that separated great commanders from good ones: composure under pressure. He watched Eumenes's victorious phalanx push forward so eagerly that a gap opened between the center and the left flank. Antigonus drove his heavy cavalry into that gap, wheeling behind both Eumenes's cavalry and his infantry. The encirclement halted what had been a decisive Eumenes victory.

As darkness fell, both armies tried to regroup. Eumenes wanted to occupy the battlefield to claim victory, but his exhausted troops refused, insisting on returning to their baggage camp. Antigonus, who maintained better control over his men, marched forward and held the ground. He proclaimed victory. The casualty figures told a different story. Antigonus lost approximately 3,700 dead and 4,000 wounded. Eumenes lost just 540 killed and around 1,000 wounded. By every material measure, Eumenes had won. But battles in the ancient world were not measured only in bodies. Antigonus held the field; Eumenes had withdrawn. That night, Antigonus force-marched his battered army away under cover of darkness. He would return the following year for the Battle of Gabiene, where the story of Eumenes and the Silver Shields would reach its final, bitter chapter.