Amyntas (son of Antiochus)

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

Amyntas was in all likelihood a childhood companion ( syntrophos ) of the king Amyntas IV, who had been displaced by Philip II of Macedon in the rule. Both were receiving BC awarded the honorary citizenship of the city Oropus, which are documented in two preserved inscriptions from the Amphiaraostempel the city before the year 338.

In 336 BC Philip II was assassinated and his son, Alexander the Great, succeeded him on the Macedonian throne. Alexander left shortly afterwards eliminate Amyntas IV, allegedly because he tried to take advantage of the unclear situation of the time for the recovery of the throne. Amyntas, son of Antiochus fled to Asia, probably because he had feared IV as a friend Amyntas for his life. In the year 334 BC, he is named as a member of the Greek mercenary garrison of Ephesus, when Alexander began his Asian campaign. After his victory in the Battle of the Granicus Amyntas moved his troops to Syria and joined the army of the Great King Darius III. of. This he was to move the Lynkesten a betrayal of Alexander the Great as an agent in an attempt to Alexander.

When Darius III. with his army before the battle of Issus (333 BC) was stored in a Syrian plane at Sochoi, he advised in a council of war, whether he here expect the Macedonian troops or seek to prevent pull Alexander. Amyntas stood for the former possibility, since Alexander will certainly advance soon and the plain of Sochoi also the Persian army with its great numerical superiority offered great opportunities for development of soldiers. But he could not prevail with this view against Persian counselor of the king, and Darius III. decided to advance to Cilicia. In the ensuing battle of Issus Amyntas fought as commander of part of Darius ' Greek mercenaries. After the defeat of the Persians, he fled with his 4,000 soldiers from the battlefield.

In the Phoenician Tripoli took possession of Amyntas of a Persian fleet, with which he translated first to Cyprus and on this island took more soldiers into his service. The historian Werner Huss considers the report of the Alexander historian Curtius Rufus, that Amyntas acted from now on on your own, to be more credible than the assertion of Diodorus, that Amyntas had continued fighting even after the battle of Issus for the Persians. 332 BC Amyntas sailed from Cyprus to the Egyptian Pelusium. Here he claimed to Mazakes the governorship of Egypt as a successor to the fallen at Issus Sabakes by falsely claiming to have been authorized by the United Kingdom to do so. In Pelusium he was admitted and then went with his troops up the Nile to Memphis. He wanted this Persian power center of Egypt and took possession of it should have had support Egyptian circles. At first he seems to have repulsed a sortie Persian soldiers from Memphis. But when he went about with his mercenaries plundering, he was trounced in a second battle of Mazakes and even killed.