Amphoteros (Admiral)

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Amphoteros ( Greek  Ἀμφοτερός ; † after 331 BC), son of Alexandros and brother of Krateros , was a Macedonian naval commander ( nauarchos ) of Alexander the great .

Amphoteros took from 334 BC In the Asian campaign. In winter to the year 333 BC. He was sent by Alexander von Phaselis to the general Parmenion in Gordion , with instructions for the arrest of the traitor Alexander the Lynkesten . A few months later he was commissioned with Hegelochus to return to the Hellespont in order to build a fleet there with which the Aegean should be brought under control. Together they conquered the islands of Mytilene , Tenedos and Chios the following year , where they captured the Persian admiral Pharnabazos . With sixty ships, Amphoteros took the island of Kos independently .

Amphoterus and Hegelochus came across with their fleet in the winter of 332 BC. In Egypt again to Alexander, where Amphoteros in the spring of 331 BC. Took sole command of the fleet. After Arrian he was then sent by Alexander with his fleet, reinforced by a hundred Phoenician ships, to the Peloponnese to defeat those Greek cities that were loyal to the Macedonian cause against the Spartans of King Agis III. to support. This information is considered problematic in the specialist literature, since it is assumed that Alexander did not exist until the late year 331 BC at the earliest. When he was already in Susa , from the war of Agis III. have experienced. Curtius Rufus, however, noted that Amphoteros was born in the spring of 331 BC. BC was sent from Tire with his fleet against Crete to liberate the island and then to fight the pirate disaster. It is possible that Amphoteros was first sent by Alexander to Crete, but then turned from there on his own initiative against the Peloponnese after he learned of the battles Antipater against Sparta.

Presumably Amphoteros still transported in 331 BC. After the end of the war against Sparta, the Amyntas troop contingent from Macedonia to Syria. In any case, like Alexander's other naval operations in the Mediterranean , he will no longer be mentioned after this year.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Arrian, Anabasis 1.25.9-10.
  2. ↑ Curtius Rufus 3.1.19.
  3. ↑ Arrian, Anabasis 3.2.3–5; Curtius Rufus 4.5.14-22.
  4. ↑ Arrian, Anabasis 3.2.6.
  5. ↑ Arrian, Anabasis 3.6.3.
  6. ↑ Curtius Rufus August 4, 15.

literature

  • AB Bosworth: The Mission of Amphoterus and the Outbreak of Agis' War , in: Phoenix , Vol. 29, No. 1 (1975), pp. 27-43
personal data
SURNAME Amphoteros
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ἀμφοτερός
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Son of Alexandros and brother of Krateros, naval commander of Alexander the great
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH after 331 BC Chr.