Amyntas

Ămyntas, ae, m., = Ἀμύντας.

• The father of the Macedonian king Philip, Nep. Reg. 2; Just. 7, 4.
• —Hence, Ămyntĭă-dēs, ae, m. patr., a descendant of Amyntas, i.e. Philip, Ov. Ib. 297.—
• II Name of a shepherd, Verg. E. 3, 66.

Amyntās, ae, Akk. am, Vok. a, m. (Ἀμύντας), griech. Männername, bes. mehrerer mazedonischen Könige (s. Iustin. 7, 2 sqq.), unter denen bekannt ist »Amyntas III.«, Sohn des Arridäus, Vater Philipps von Mazedonien, Großvater Alexanders des Gr., Nep. de regg. 2, 1. Iustin. 7, 4. – Dav. Amyntiadēs, ae, m., der Amyntiade (Nachkomme des Amyntas), d.i. Philipp von Mazedonien, Ov. art. am. 1, 337; Ib. 297.

Ămyntās, (10) æ, m. , (Ἀμύντας), roi de Macédoine, père de Philippe : Nep. Reg. 2, 1 ; Just. 7, 4, 1 || -tĭădēs, æ, m. , fils dʼAmyntas : Ov. Ib. 297 || nom dʼun berger : Virg. B. 3, 66.

Amyntas I.

(Ἀμύντας) , king of Macedonia, son of Alcetas, and fifth in descent from Perdiccas, the founder of the dynasty. (Hdt. 8.139 ; comp. Thuc. 2.100; Just. 7.1, 33.2 ; Paus. 9.40.)

It was under him that Macedonia became tributary to the Persians. Megabazus, whom Darius on his return from his Scythian expedition had left at the head of 80,000 men in Europe (Hdt. 4.143), sent after the conquest of Paeonia to require earth and water of Amyntas, who immediately complied with his demand. The Persian envoys on this occasion behaved with much insolence at the banquet to which Amyntas invited them, and were murdered by his son Alexander. (See p. 118b.) After this we find nothing recorded of Amyntas, except his offer to the Pcisistratidae of Anthemus in Chalcidice, when Hippias had just been disappointed in his hope of a restoration to Athens by the power of the Spartan confederacy. (Hdt. 5.94; Müll. Dor. App. 1.16; Wasse, ad Thuc. 2.99.) Amyntas died about 498 B. C. leaving the kingdom to Alexander. Herodotus (8.136) speaks of a soil of Bubares and Gygaea, called Amyntas after his grandfather.

Amyntas II.

2. king of Macedonia, was son of Philip, * There is some discrepancy of statement on this point. Justin (7.4) and Aelian (12.43) call Amyntas the son of Menelaus. See, toe Diod. 15.60, and Wesseling, ad loc. the brother of Perdiccas II. (Thuc. 2.95.) He succeeded his father in his appanage in Upper Macedonia, of which Perdiccas seems to have wished to deprive him, as he had before endeavoured to wrest it from Philip, but had been hindered by the Athenians. (Thuc. 1.57.)

In the year 429 B. C. Amyntas, aided by Sitalces, king of the Odrysian Thracians, stood forward to contest with Perdiccas the throne of Macedonia itself; but the latter contrived to obtain peace through the mediation of Seuthes, the nephew of the Thracian king (Thuc. 2.101) ; and Amyntas was thus obliged to content himself with his hereditary principality. In the thirtyfifth year, however, after this, B. C. 394, he obtained the crown by the murder of Pausanias, son of the usurper Aeropus. (Diod. 14.89.) It was nevertheless contested with him by Argaeus, the son of Pausanias, who was supported by Bardylis, the Illyrian chief : the result was, that Amyntas was driven from Macedonia, but found a refuge among the Thessalians, and was enabled by their aid to recover his kingdom. (Diod. 14.92 ; Isocr. Archid. p. 125b. c.; comp. Diod. 16.4; Cic. de Off. 2.11.) But before his flight, when hard pressed by Argaeus and the Illyrians, he had griven up to the Olynthians a large tract of territory bordering upon their ownn,--despairing, as it would seen, of a restoration to the throne, and willing to cede the land in question to Olynthus rather than to his rival. (Diod. 14.92, 15.19.) On his return he claimed back what he professed to have entrusted to them as a deposit, and as they refused to restore it, he applied to Sparta for aid. (Diod. 15.19.) A similar application was also made,B. C. 382, by the towns of Acanthus and Apollonia, which had been threatened by Olynthus for declining to join her confederacy. (Xen. Hell. 5.2.11, &c.) With the consent of the allies of Sparta, the required succour was given, under the command successively of Eudamidas (with whom his brother Phoebidas was associated), Teleutias, Agesipolis, and Polybiades, by the last of whom Olynthus was reduced, B. C. 379. (Diod. 15.19-23; Xen. Hell. 5.2, 3.) Throughout the war, the Spartans were vigorously seconded by Amyntas, and by Derdas, his kinsman, prince of Elymia. Besides this alliance with Sparta, which he appears to have preserved without interruption to his death, Amyntas united himself also with Jason of Pherae (Diod. 15.60), and carefully cultivated the friendship of Athens, with which state he would have a bond of union in their common jealousy of Olynthus and probably also of Thebes. Of his friendship towards the Athenians he gave proof, 1st, by advocating their claim to the possession of Amphipolis (Aesch. Περὶ Παραπρ. p. 32); and, 2ndly, by adopting Iphicrates as his son. (Id. p. 32.)

It appears to have been in the reign of Amyntas, as is perhaps implied by Strabo (Exc. vii. p. 330), that the seat of the Macedonian government was removed from Aegae or Edessa to Pella, though the former still continued to be the burying-place of the kings.

Justin (7.4) relates, that a plot was laid for his assassination by his wife Eurydice, who wished to place her son-in-law and paramour, Ptolemy of Alorus, on the throne, but that the design was discovered to Amyntas by her daughter. Diodorus (15.71) calls Ptolemy of Alorus the son of Amyntas ; but see Wesseling's note ad loc., and Thirlwall, Gr. Hist. vol. v. p. 162. Amyntas died in an advanced age, B. C. 370, leaving three legitimate sons, Alexander, Perdiccas, and the famous Philip. (Just. l.c. ; Diod. 15.60.)

Amyntas

3. Grandson of Amyntas II., was left an infant in nominal possession of the throne of Macedonia, when his father Perdiccas III. fell in battle agains the Illyrians, B. C. 360. (Diod. 16.2.) He was quietly excluded from the kingly power by his uncle Philip, B. C. 359, who had at first acted merely as regent (Just. 7.5), and who felt himself so safe in his usurpation, that he brought up Amyntas at his court, and gave him one of his daughters in marriage In the first year of the reign of Alexander the Great, B. C. 336, Amyntas was executed for a plot against the king's life. (Thirlw. Gr. Hist. vol. v. pp. 165, 166, 177, vol. vi. p. 99, and the authorities to which he refers ; Just. 12.6, and Freinsheim, ad Curt. 6.9, 17.)

Amyntas

4. A Macedonian officer in Alexander's army, son of Andromenes. (Diod. 17.45; Curt. 5.1.40; Arrian, iii. p. 72f., ed. Steph.) After the battle of the Granicus, B. C. 334, when the garrison of Sardis was quietly surrendered to Alexander, Amyntas was the officer sent forward to receive it from the commander, Mithrenes. (Arr. i. p. 17c. Freinsh. Sup. in Curt. 2.6.12.) Two years after, 332, we again hear of him as being sent into Macedonia to collect levies, while Alexander after the siege of Gaza advanced to Egypt; and he returned with them in the ensuing year, when the king was in possession of Susa. (Arr. iii. p. 64c.; Curt. 4.6.30, 5.1.40, 7.1.38.)

After the execution of Philotas on a charge of treason, B. C. 330, Amyntas and two other sons of Andromenes (Attalus and Simmias) were arrested on suspicion of having been engaged in the plot. The suspicion was strengthened by their known intimacy with Philotas, and by the fact that their brother Polerno had fled from the camp when the latter was apprehended (Arr. iii. pp. 72, f., 73, a.), or according to Curtius (7.1.10), when he was given up to the torture. Amyntas defended himself and his brothers ably (Curt. 7.1.18, &c.), and their innocence being further established by Polemo's re-appearance (Curt. 7.2.1, &c.; Arr. iii. p. 73a.), they were acquitted. Some little time after, Amyntas was killed by an arrow at the siege of a village. (Arr. iii. l.c.) It is doubtful whether the son of Andromenes is the Amyntas mentioned by Curtius (3.9.7) as commander of a portion of the Macedonian troops at the battle of Issus, B. C. 333; or again, the person spoken of as leading a brigade at the forcing of the "Persian Gates," B. C. 331. (Curt. 5.4.20.) But " Amyntas" appears to have been a common name among the Macedonians. (See Curt. 4.13.28, 5.2.5, 8.2.14, 16, 6.7.15, 6.9.28.)

Amyntas

5. The Macedonian fugitive and traitor, son of Antiochus. Arrian (p. 17f.) ascribes his flight from Macedonia to his hatred and fear of Alexander the Great; the ground of these feelings is not stated, but Mitford (ch. 44. sect. 1) connects him with the plot of Pausanias and the murder of Philip. He took refuge in Ephesus under Persian protection; whence, however, after the battle of the Granicus, fearing the approach of Alexander, he escaped with the Greek mercenaries who garrisoned the place, and fled to the court of Dareius. (Arr. l.c.) In the winter of the same year, B. C. 333, while Alexander was at Phaselis in Lycia, discovery was made of a plot against his life, ill which Amyntas was implicated. He appears to have acted as the channel through whom Dareius had been negotiating with Alexander the Lyncestian, and had promised to aid him in mounting the throne of Macedonia on condition of his assassinating his master. The design was discovered through the confession of Asisines, a Persian, whom Dareius had despatched on a secret mission to the Lyncestian, and who was apprehended by Parmenio in Phrygia. (Arr. i. pp. 24, e., 25, b.)

At the battle of Issus we hear again of Amyntas as a commander of Greek mercenaries in the Persian service (Curt. 3.11.18; comp. Arr. ii. p. 40b.); and Plutarch and Arrian mention his advice vainly given to Darius shortly before, to await Alexander's approach in the large open plains to the westward of Cilicia. (Plut. Alex. p. 675b., Arr. ii. pp. 33, e., 34, a.)

Or the defeat of the Persians at the battle of Issus, Amyntas fled with a large body of Greeks to Tripolis in Phoenicia. There he seized some ships, with which he passed over to Cyprus, and thence to Egypt, of the sovereignty of which--a double traitor--he designed to possess himself. The gates of Pelusium were opened to him on his pretending that he came with authority from Dareius : thence he pressed on to Memphis, and being joined by a large number of Egyptians, defeated in a battle the Persian garrison under Mazaces. But this victory made his troops over-confident and incautious, and, while they were dispersed for plunder, Mazaces sallied forth upon them, and Amyntas himself was killed with the greater part of his men. (Diod. 17.48; Arr. ii. p. 40c; Curt. 4.1.27, &c., 4.7.1, 2.)

It is possible that the subject of the present article may have been the Amyntas who is mentioned among the ambassadors sent to the Boeotians by Philip, B. C. 338, to prevent the contemplated alliance of Thebes with Athens. It may also have been the son of Andromenes. (Plut. Dem. pp. 849, 854; Diod. 16.85.)

Amyntas

6. A king of Galatia and several of the adjacent countries, mentioned by Strabo (xii. p.569) as contemporary with himself. He seems to have first possessed Lycaonia, where he maintained more than 300 flocks. (Strab. xii. p.568.) To this he added the territory of Derbe by the murder of its prince, Antipater, the friend of Cicero (Cic. Fam. 13.73), and Isaura and Cappadocia by Roman favour. Plutarch, who enumerates him among the adherents of Antony at Actium (Ant. p. 944c.), speaks probably by anticipation in calling him king of Galatia, for he did not succeed to that till the death of Deiotarus (Strab. xii. p.567); and the latter is mentioned by Plutarch himself (Ant. p. 945b.) as deserting to Octavius, just before the battle, together with Amyntas.

While pursuing his schemes of aggrandizement, and endeavouring to reduce the refractory highlanders around him, Amyntastas made himself master of Homonada (Strab. xii. p.569), or Homona (Plin. Nat. 5.27), and slew the prince of that place; but his death was avenged by his widow, and Amyntas fell a victim to an ambush which she laid for him. (Strab. l.c.)

[E.E]

Amyntas

(Ἀμύντας), a Greek writer of a work entitled Σταθμοί, which was probably an account of the different halting-places of Alexander the Great in his Asiatic expedition. He perhaps accompanied Alexander. (Näke, Choerilus, p. 205.) From the references that are made to it, it seems to have contained a good deal of historical information. (Athen. 2.67a., x. p. 442b., xi. p. 500. d., xii. pp. 514, f., 529, c.; Aelian, Ael. NA 5.14, 17.17.)

Amyntas

surgeon. [Amentes.]

Amyntas

(Ἀμύντας). (1) A king of Macedonia, who reigned from about B.C. 540 to 500, and was succeeded by his son Alexander I.

(2) King of Macedonia, son of Philip, the brother of Perdiccas II., reigned B.C. 393-369, and obtained the crown by the murder of the usurper Pausanias. He carefully cultivated the friendship of Athens. He left by his wife Eurydicé three sons, Alexander, Perdiccas, and the famous Philip, hence called by Ovid, Amyntiades.

Amyntas Amyntas, a Persian

• son of Bubares and grandson of Amyntas of Macedonia: Hdt. 8.136

Amyntas(2), father of Philip of Macedon

• Paus. 1.6.8
• statue at Olympia: Paus. 5.20.10

Amyntas(3), king of Macedonia

• father of Alexander: Hdt. 5.94, Hdt. 7.173, Hdt. 8.136, Hdt. 8.139, Hdt. 9.44
• Persian envoys sent to him: Hdt. 5.17-19

Amyntas(4), son of Hellanicus

• an Ephesian, Olympic victor: Paus. 6.4.5