In 328, Attalus was left with Polyperchon and other officers in Bactria with part of the troops, while the king himself marched against the Sogdians.
After the murder of Perdiccas, all his friends were condemned to death by the army; Atalantê, who was in the camp, was executed immediately,[4] but Attalus escaped his wife's fate in consequence of his absence with the fleet at Pelusium.
These, which amounted to as much as 800 talents, were surrendered to him by Archelaus, who had been appointed governor of the town, and by means of these he soon found himself at the head of 10,000 foot and 800 horse.
He remained at Tyre for some time, to collect the friends of Perdiccas who had escaped from the army; but then, instead of uniting his forces immediately with those of Alcetas, the brother of Perdiccas, he sailed to the coast of Caria, where he became involved in a contest with the Rhodians, by whom he was completely defeated in a sea-fight.
[5] After this, he joined Alcetas; but their united forces were defeated in Pisidia by Antigonus, who had the conduct of the war against the party of Perdiccas.