Amyntas III of Macedon
Amyntas III | |
---|---|
King of Macedonia | |
First reign | 393/2 – 388/7[1] |
Predecessor | Pausanias |
Successor | Argaeus II |
Second reign | 387/6 – 370 |
Predecessor | Argaeus II |
Successor | Alexander II |
Born | ? |
Died | 370 BC |
Wives |
|
Issue | Alexander II Perdiccas III Philip II Eurynoe (wife of Ptolemy of Aloros) Archelaus Arrhidaeus Menelaus Iphicrates (adopted) |
Father | Arrhidaeus, son of Amyntas |
Mother | unknown |
Religion | Ancient Greek religion |
Amyntas III (
Family
Polygamy was used by Macedonian kings both before and after Amyntas to secure marriage alliances and produce enough heirs to offset losses from intra-dynastic conflict.[2] Consequently, Amyntas took two wives: Eurydice and Gygaea. He first married Eurydice, daughter of Sirras and maternal granddaughter of the Lynkestian king Arrhabaeus, probably in a Macedonian effort to strengthen the alliance with both the Illyrians and Lynkestians or to detach the Lynkestians from their historical alliance with the Illyrians, after the Macedonian defeat by Illyrians or an Illyrian-Lynkestian invasion in 393 BC.[3][4][5][6] Through Eurydice, Amyntas had three sons, all of whom became kings of Macedonia one after the other, and a daughter: Alexander II, Perdiccas III, Philip II, and Eurynoe.
The Roman historian Justin relates several, possibly apocryphal, stories about Eurydice and Eurynoe. He claims that Eurynoe prevented her mother and her lover (unnamed, but likely Ptolemy of Aloros) from assassinating Amyntas late in his reign by revealing the plan to her father.[7] However, Eurynoe is not referred to by name in any other source and, moreover, is unlikely to have known the details of this supposedly secret plot.[2][8] According to Justin, Amyntas spared Eurydice because they shared children, but that she would later help murder Alexander and Perdiccas in order to place Ptolemy on the throne.[9] Alexander was in fact killed by friends of Ptolemy at a festival in 368 BC, but the extent to which Eurydice knew of or participated in this plot is opaque.[10] Perdiccas, on the other hand, assassinated Ptolemy in 365 BC only to be killed in battle by the Illyrians in 359 BC.[11]
Amyntas most likely married Gygaea soon after marrying Eurydice, because Gygaea's children made no attempt to claim the throne before the 350s BC, implying that they were younger than Eurydice's children.[12] Additionally, both Diodorus and Justin call Alexander II the eldest son of Amyntas.[13][14] Through Gygaea, Amyntas had three more sons: Archelaus, Arrhidaeus, and Menelaus. Unlike Eurydice's children, none of Gygaea's sons ascended to the throne and were all killed by their half-brother Philip II.[15]
Amyntas also adopted the Athenian general Iphicrates around 386 BC in recognition of his military services and marital ties with the Thracian king, Cotys I.[16]
Lineage and accession
Amyntas became king at a troubled time for Macedonia and the Argead dynasty. The unexpected death of his great-grandfather King
King of Macedon
Shortly after he became king in 393 or 392, he was driven out by the
To shore up his country against the threat of the Illyrians, Amyntas established an alliance with the
After the
With Olynthus defeated, Amyntas was now able to conclude a treaty with Athens and keep the timber revenues for himself. Amyntas shipped the timber to the house of the Athenian Timotheus, in Piraeus.
Amyntas died aged 50, leaving his throne to his eldest son, Alexander II.
See also
Citations
- ^ March, Duane (1995). "The Kings of Makedon: 399-369 B.C". Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte: 280.
- ^ ISBN 0-8061-3212-4.
- ^ Carney 2019, pp. 27–28; Heckel, Heinrichs & Müller 2020, pp. 87, 273; King 2017, pp. 57, 64; Carney & Müller 2020, p. 391; Müller 2021, p. 36.
- ISBN 978-1-4443-5163-7.
- ISBN 978-0-300-12079-0.
- ISBN 978-90-04-20650-2.
- ^ Justin. "Epitome of Pompeius Trogus' Philippic Histories". Translated by Watson, John Selby (1853), 7.4.7.
- ^ Hammond, N.G.L. (1979). A History of Macedonia Volume II: 550-336 B.C. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 183.
- ^ Justin 7.5.4-6
- ^ Greenwalt, William (2016). "Alexander II of Macedon". In Howe, Timothy; Müller, Sabine; Stoneman, Richard (eds.). Ancient Historiography on War and Empire. Oxbow Books. pp. 87–89.
- ^ Hammond 1979, p. 185-188.
- ^ Carney 2000, p. 47.
- ^ Diodorus Siculus. "Library". Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes. Vol. 4–8. Translated by Oldfather, C.H. Harvard University Press, 16.2.4.
- ^ Justin 7.4.9
- ^ Carney 2000, p. 39-42.
- ^ Borza 1990, p. 183.
- ^ Hammond 1979, p. 115.
- ^ a b Roisman 2010, p. 157-158.
- ^ Errington, R. Malcolm (1990). A History of Macedonia. University of California Press. p. 15.
- ^ Roisman, Joseph (2010). "Classical Macedonia to Perdiccas III". In Roisman, Joseph; Worthington, Ian (eds.). A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. Blackwell. p. 154.
- ISBN 0-691-05549-1
- ^ Diodorus, "Library", 14.89.2.
- ^ Errington 1990, p. 29.
- ^ OCLC 894227661.
- ISBN 0-19-873095-0, 1986, page 479, "Molossi, Alcetas, who was a refugee at his court, Dionysius sent a supply of arms and 2,000 troops to the Illyrians, who burst into Epirus and slaughtered 15,000 Molossians. Sparta intervened as soon as they had learned of the events and expelled the Illyrians, but Alcetas had regained his..."
- ^ public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Amyntas II". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 900–901. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Aeschines - On the Embassy 2.32
- ^ A history of Greece by George Grote
Bibliography
- Carney, Elizabeth D. (2019). Eurydice and the Birth of Macedonian Power. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-028054-3.
- Carney, Elizabeth D.; Müller, Sabine (2020). The Routledge Companion to Women and Monarchy in the Ancient Mediterranean World. Routledge. ISBN 9780429783982.
- Heckel, Waldemar; Heinrichs, Johannes; Müller, Sabine, eds. (2020). Lexicon of Argead Makedonia. Frank & Timme GmbH. ISBN 978-3732904051.
- King, Carol J. (2017). Ancient Macedonia. Routledge. ISBN 9780415827287.
- Müller, Sabine (2021). "Political Marriage in Antiquity". In Mohammed, Jowan A.; Jacob, Frank (eds.). Marriage Discourses: Historical and Literary Perspectives on Gender Inequality and Patriarchic Exploitation. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. pp. 25–50. ISBN 9783110751451.