Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/173

Rh AMYNTAS. fessed to h.ivn entrusted to tliem as a deposit, and as they refused to restore it, he aj)plied to Sparta for aid. (Diod. xv. 19.) A similar application was also made, B. c. 382, by the towns of Acanthus and Apollonia, which had been threatened by Olvnthus for declining to join her confederacv. (Xen. Hell. v. 2. § 11, &c.) With the consent of the allies of SpartJi, the required succour was given, under the conmiand successively of Euda- midas (with whom his brother Phoebidas was associated), Teleutias, Agesipolis, and Poly blades, by the last of whom Olvnthus was reduced, B. c. 379. (Diod. XV. 19—23 ; Xen. Hell. v. 2, 3.) Throughout the war, the Spartans were vigorously seconded by AmynUis, and by Derdas, his kins- man, prince of Elymia. Besides this alliance with Sparta, which he appears to have preserved with- out interruption to his death, Amyntas united himself also with Jason of Pherae (Diod. xv. 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 pro- bably also of Thebes. Of his friendship towards the Athenians he gave proof, 1st, by advocating their claim to the possession of Amphipolis (Aesch. Ilepl TlapaiTp. 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 {Eac vii. p. 330), that the seat of the oSIacedonian government was removed from Aegae or Edessa to Pella, though the former still continued to be the bm-ying-place of the kings. Justin (viL 4) relates, that a plot was laid for liis 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 (xv. 71) calls Ptolemy of Alorus the son of Arayn- tiis ; but see Wesseling's note ad he, and Thirl- wall, 6V. Hist. vol. v. p. 162. Amyntas died in an advanced age, B.C. 370, leaving three legitimate Bons, Alexander, Perdiccas, and the famous Philip. (Just. /. c. ; Diod. xv. 60.) AMYNTAS. 155 COIN OF AMYNTAS II. 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 against the lUyrians, B. c. 360. (Diod. xvi. 2.) He was quietly excluded from the kingly power by his uncle Philip, B. c. 359, who had at first acted mereh' as regent (Just. vii. 5), and who felt him- self 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 ref«;rs ; Just. xiL 6, and Freinsheim, ad Curt. vi. 9, 17.) 4. A Macedonian officer in Alexander's anuy, son of Andromenes. (Diod. xvii. 45; Curt. v. 1. § 40; Arrian, iii. p. 72, f., ed. Stcph.) 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. 17, c ; Freinsh. Sup. in Curt. ii. 6. § 12.) Two years after, 332, we again hear of him as being sent into Ma- cedonia 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. 64, c. ; Curt. iv. 6. § 30, V. 1. § 40, vii. 1. § 38.) After the execution of Philotas on a charge of treason, B. c. 330, Amyntas and two other sons of Andromenes (Attains 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 Polemo had fled from the camp when the latter was apprehended (Arr. iii. pp. 72, f., 73, a.), or according to Curtius (vii. 1. § 10), when he was given up to the torture. Amyntas defended himself and his brothers ably (Curt. vii. 1. § 18, &c.), and their innocence being further established by Polemo's re-appearance (Curt. vii. 2. § 1, &c.; Arr, iii. p. 73, a.), they were acquitted. Some little time after, Amyntas was killed by an arrow at the siege of a village. (Arr. iii. /. c.) It is doubtful whether the son of Andromenes is the Amyntas mentioned by Curtius (iii. 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 lead- ing a brigade at the forcing of the "Persian Gates," B. c. 331. (Curt. v. 4. §20.) But "Amyntas" appears to have been a common name among the Macedonians. (See Curt. iv. 13. § 28, v. 2. § 5, viii. 2. § 14, 16, vi. 7. $ 15, vi. 9. § 28.) 5. The Macedonian fugitive and traitor, son of Antiochus. Arrian (p. 17, f.) ascribes his flight from Macedonia to his hatred and fear of Alexander the Great ; the ground of these feel- ings is not stated, but Mitford (ch. 44. sect. 1) connects him with the plot of Pausitnias 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. /. 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, in which Amyntas was implicated. He ap- pears to have acted as the channel through whom Dareius had been negotiating with Alexander the Lyncestian, and had promised to aid him in mount- ing the throne of ^lacedonia on condition of his assassinating his master. The design was disco- vered through the confession of Asishies, a Persian, whom Dareius had despatched on a secret mission to the Lyncestian, and who was apprehended by Pannenio in Phrygia. (Arr. i. pp. 24, e., 25, b.) At the battle of Issus we hear again of Amyiitas as a commander of Greek mercenaries in the Per- sian service (Curt. iii. 11. $ 18; comp. Arr. ii. p. 40, b.) ; and Plutarch and Arrian mention his ad- vice vainly given to Darius shortly before, to await Alexander's approach in the large open plains to the westward of Cilicia. (Plut. Alea. p. 675, b., An-, ii. pp. 33, e., 34, a.)