Amyntas (son of Antiochus)

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Amyntas ( Greek  Ἀμύντας ; † 332 BC ), son of Antiochus, was a Macedonian nobleman and mercenary leader in the 4th century BC.

Amyntas was in all probability a youth companion (syntrophos) of King Amyntas IV , who had been ousted from rule in Macedonia by Philip II . Both received before 338 BC. The honorary citizenship of the city of Oropos , which are documented in two preserved inscriptions from the amphiara temple of the city.

In 336 BC In BC Philip II was murdered and his son, Alexander the Great , succeeded him on the Macedonian throne. Shortly afterwards, Alexander had Amyntas IV eliminated, allegedly because he wanted to take advantage of the unclear situation at that time to regain the throne. Amyntas, son of Antiochus, fled to Asia, probably because as a friend of Amyntas IV he had to fear for his life. In 334 BC He is mentioned as a member of the Greek mercenary garrison of Ephesus when Alexander began his campaign in Asia. After his victory in the Battle of Granikos , Amyntas moved with his troops to Syria and joined the army of the Great King Darius III. on. He served this as an agent in an attempt to move Alexander the Lynkesten to betray Alexander the great.

As Dareios III. Camped with his army in a Syrian plain near Sochoi before the battle of Issus (333 BC) , he advised in a council of war whether he should expect the Macedonian troops here or move against Alexander. Amyntas advocated the first option, since Alexander would certainly approach soon and the plain near Sochoi also offered the Persian army, with its great numerical superiority in soldiers, great opportunities for development. But with this view he could not prevail against the king's Persian advisors and Dareios III. decided to advance to Cilicia . In the following battle at Issus Amyntas fought as the commander of some of Darius' Greek mercenaries. After the defeat of the Persians, he fled the battlefield with 4,000 of his mercenaries.

In the Phoenician Tripoli , Amyntas seized a Persian fleet, with which he first translated to Cyprus and took other soldiers into his service on this island. The ancient historian Werner Huss considers the report of the Alexander historian Curtius Rufus , that Amyntas acted from now on on his own initiative, to be more credible than Diodor's claim that Amyntas continued to fight for the Persians even after the battle of Issus. 332 BC Amyntas sailed from Cyprus to the Egyptian Pelusium . Here he claimed against Mazakes the governorship of Egypt as the successor of Sabakes , who fell at Issus , by falsely claiming to have been authorized by the great king to do so. He was admitted in Pelusium and then drove up the Nile with his troops to Memphis . He wanted to seize this Persian power center from Egypt and should have had the support of Egyptian circles. At first he seems to have repulsed a failure of Persian soldiers from Memphis. But when he went about plundering with his mercenaries, he was defeated in a second battle by Mazakes and killed himself.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Inscriptiones Graecae VII 4250 and 4251 .
  2. ↑ Diodorus 17.48.2; Curtius Rufus November 3, 2018.
  3. ↑ Arrian , Anabasis 1.17.9; Curtius Rufus 3.8.1.
  4. ↑ Arrian, Anabasis 1.25.3.
  5. ↑ Persian Council of War: Arrian, Anabasis 2.6.1-7; Curtius Rufus 3.8.2-12; Diodorus 17.32.2-3; Plutarch , Alexander 20.1-3; on this Siegfried Lauffer : Alexander the Great . dtv, Munich 1978, 3rd edition 1993, ISBN 3-423-04298-2 , p. 75.
  6. ↑ Diodorus 17.48.2.
  7. ↑ Arrian, Anabasis 2.13.2f .; Curtius Rufus 4.1.27-32; Diodorus 17.48.3-5; on this Werner Huss: Egypt in the Hellenistic Period 332–30 BC Chr . CH Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-47154-4 , p. 59-60 .
personal data
SURNAME Amyntas, son of Antiochus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ἀμύντας
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Macedonian nobleman and mercenary leader
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 332 BC Chr.