Amyntas I (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: Ἀμύντας Aʹ; 498 BC) was king of the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

kingdom of

Macedonia Macedonia most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a traditional geographic reg ...

(c. 547 – 512 / 511 BC) and then a

vassal A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain. ...

Darius I Darius I ( peo, 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁 ; grc-gre, Δαρεῖος ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was a Persian ruler who served as the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his ...

from 512/511 to his death 498 BC, at the time of Achaemenid Macedonia. He was a son of Alcetas I of Macedon. He married Eurydice and they had a son

Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

. Amyntas was a

, king of the Persian

Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest em ...

, from 512/511 BC. Amyntas gave the present of " Earth and Water" to

Megabazus Megabazus (Old Persian: ''Bagavazdā'' or ''Bagabāzu'', grc, Μεγαβάζος), son of Megabates, was a highly regarded Persian general under Darius, to whom he was a first-degree cousin. Most of the information about Megabazus comes from ...

, which symbolised submission to the Achaemenid Emperor. One of the daughters of Amyntas, named Gygaea, was married to the Persian General, called

Bubares Bubares ( el, Βουβάρης, died after 480 BC) was a Persian nobleman and engineer in the service of the Achaemenid Empire of the 5th century BC. He was one of the sons of Megabazus, and a second-degree cousin of Xerxes I. Marriage to the s ...

, possibly as a way of reinforcing the alliance. The history of Macedonia may be said to begin with Amyntas' reign. He was the first of its rulers to have diplomatic relations with other states. In particular, he entered into an alliance with

Hippias Hippias of Elis (; el, Ἱππίας ὁ Ἠλεῖος; late 5th century BC) was a Greek sophist, and a contemporary of Socrates. With an assurance characteristic of the later sophists, he claimed to be regarded as an authority on all subjects, ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh List ...

, and when Hippias was driven out of Athens he offered him the territory of Anthemus on the

Thermaic Gulf The Thermaic Gulf (), also called the Gulf of Salonika and the Macedonian Gulf, is a gulf constituting the northwest corner of the Aegean Sea. The city of Thessaloniki is at its northeastern tip, and it is bounded by Pieria Imathia and Lariss ...

with the object of taking advantage of the feuds between the Greeks. Hippias refused the offer and also rejected the offer of

Iolcos Iolcus (; also rendered ''Iolkos'' ; grc, Ἰωλκός and Ἰαωλκός; grc-x-doric, Ἰαλκός; ell, Ιωλκός) is an ancient city, a modern village and a former municipality in Magnesia, Thessaly, Greece. Since the 2011 local gove ...

, as Amyntas probably did not control Anthemous at that time, but was merely suggesting a plan of joint occupation to Hippias.Miltiades V. Chatzopoulos ''Macedonian Institutions Under the Kings: A historical and epigraphic study'', p. 174, .

References

;Attribution *

Sources

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known for ...

v. 17, 94 * Justin vii. 2 *

Thucydides Thucydides (; grc, , }; BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His '' History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of " scient ...

ii. 100 * Pausanias ix. 40 {{DEFAULTSORT:Amyntas 01 Of Macedon 6th-century BC births 498 BC deaths 6th-century BC Macedonian monarchs 5th-century BC Macedonian monarchs Argead kings of Macedonia 5th-century BC rulers 6th-century BC rulers Achaemenid Macedon Rulers in the Achaemenid Empire Iolcus