2. king of Macedonia, was son of Philip, [*](* There is some discrepancy of statement on this point. Justin (7.4) and Aelian (12.43) call Amyntas the son of Menelaus. See, toe Diod. 15.60, and Wesseling, ad loc.) the brother of Perdiccas II. (Thuc. 2.95.) He succeeded his father in his appanage in Upper Macedonia, of which Perdiccas seems to have wished to deprive him, as he had before endeavoured to wrest it from Philip, but had been hindered by the Athenians. (Thuc. 1.57.)
In the year 429 B. C. Amyntas, aided by Sitalces, king of the Odrysian Thracians, stood forward to contest with Perdiccas the throne of Macedonia itself; but the latter contrived to obtain peace through the mediation of Seuthes, the nephew of the Thracian king (Thuc. 2.101) ; and Amyntas was thus obliged to content himself with his hereditary principality. In the thirtyfifth year, however, after this, B. C. 394, he obtained the crown by the murder of Pausanias, son of the usurper Aeropus. (Diod. 14.89.) It was nevertheless contested with him by Argaeus, the son of Pausanias, who was supported by Bardylis, the Illyrian chief : the result was, that Amyntas was driven from Macedonia, but found a refuge among the Thessalians, and was enabled by their aid to recover his kingdom. (Diod. 14.92 ; Isocr. Archid. p. 125b. c.; comp. Diod. 16.4; Cic. de Off. 2.11.) But before his flight, when hard pressed by Argaeus and the Illyrians, he had griven up to the Olynthians a large tract of territory bordering upon their ownn,--despairing, as it would seen, of a restoration to the throne, and willing to cede the land in question to Olynthus rather than to his rival. (Diod. 14.92, 15.19.) On his return he claimed back what he professed
It appears to have been in the reign of Amyntas, as is perhaps implied by Strabo (Exc. vii. p. 330), that the seat of the Macedonian government was removed from Aegae or Edessa to Pella, though the former still continued to be the burying-place of the kings.
Justin (7.4) relates, that a plot was laid for his 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 (15.71) calls Ptolemy of Alorus the son of Amyntas ; but see Wesseling's note ad loc., and Thirlwall, Gr. Hist. vol. v. p. 162. Amyntas died in an advanced age, B. C. 370, leaving three legitimate sons, Alexander, Perdiccas, and the famous Philip. (Just. l.c. ; Diod. 15.60.)