Editing Amyntas III of Macedon (section)

== 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.<ref name=":1">Carney, Elizabeth (2000). ''Women and Monarchy in Macedonia''. University of Oklahoma Press, p.19. {{isbn|0-8061-3212-4}}.</ref> Consequently, Amyntas took two wives: [[Eurydice I of Macedon|Eurydice]] and [[Gygaea of Macedon|Gygaea]]. He first married Eurydice, daughter of [[Sirras]] and maternal granddaughter of the [[Lynkestis|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.<ref>{{harvnb|Carney|2019|pp=27–28}}; {{harvnb|Heckel|Heinrichs|Müller|2020|pp=87, 273}}; {{harvnb|King|2017|pp=57, 64}}; {{harvnb|Carney|Müller|2020|p=391}}; {{harvnb|Müller|2021|p=36}}.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Roisman |first1=Joseph |last2=Worthington |first2=Ian |title=A Companion to Ancient Macedonia |date=7 July 2011 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-4443-5163-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QsJ183uUDkMC |pages=74, 152}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Worthington |first=Ian |title=Philip II of Macedonia|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-300-12079-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CZsTAQAAIAAJ |page=15}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Psoma|first=S.|chapter=The Kingdom of Macedonia and the Chalcidic League|title=Brill's Companion to Ancient Macedon: Studies in the Archaeology and History of Macedon, 650 BC – 300 AD |location=Leiden |publisher=Brill |year=2011 |isbn=978-90-04-20650-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kjLPBsB2dIkC|editor-last1=Lane Fox|editor-first=R.|page=117}}</ref> Through Eurydice, Amyntas had three sons, all of whom became kings of Macedonia one after the other, and a daughter: [[Alexander II of Macedon|Alexander II]], [[Perdiccas III of Macedon|Perdiccas III]], [[Philip II of Macedon|Philip II]], and Eurynoe.

The Roman historian [[Justin (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.<ref>Justin. "[http://www.attalus.org/info/justinus.html Epitome of Pompeius Trogus' ''Philippic Histories'']". Translated by Watson, John Selby (1853), [http://www.attalus.org/translate/justin10.html#7.1 7.4.7].</ref> 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.<ref name=":1" /><ref>Hammond, N.G.L. (1979). ''A History of Macedonia Volume II: 550-336 B.C''. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 183.</ref> 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.<ref>Justin [https://www.attalus.org/translate/justin10.html#7.5 7.5.4-6]</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Greenwalt |first=William |title=Ancient Historiography on War and Empire |publisher=Oxbow Books |year=2016 |editor-last=Howe |editor-first=Timothy |pages=87–89 |chapter=Alexander II of Macedon |editor-last2=Müller |editor-first2=Sabine |editor-last3=Stoneman |editor-first3=Richard}}</ref> Perdiccas, on the other hand, assassinated Ptolemy in 365 BC only to be killed in battle by the [[Illyrians]] in 359 BC.<ref>Hammond 1979, p. 185-188.</ref>

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.<ref>Carney 2000, p. 47.</ref> Additionally, both [[Diodorus Siculus|Diodorus]] and Justin call Alexander II the eldest son of Amyntas.<ref>Diodorus Siculus. "[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0084%3Abook%3D9%3Achapter%3D1%3Asection%3D1 Library]". ''Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes''. Vol. 4–8. Translated by Oldfather, C.H. Harvard University Press, [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0084%3Abook%3D16%3Achapter%3D2%3Asection%3D4 16.2.4].</ref><ref>Justin [https://www.attalus.org/translate/justin10.html#7.4 7.4.9]</ref> Through Gygaea, Amyntas had three more sons: [[Archelaus (son of Amyntas III)|Archelaus]], Arrhidaeus, and [[Menelaus (son of Amyntas III)|Menelaus]]. Unlike Eurydice's children, none of Gygaea's sons ascended to the throne and were all killed by their half-brother Philip II.<ref name=":2">Carney 2000, p. 39-42.</ref>

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 (Odrysian)|Cotys I]].<ref>Borza 1990, p. 183.</ref>