Derdas II (

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 peri ...

: Δέρδας) was the ruler of the region of

Elimiotis Elimiotis or Elimeia ( grc, Ἐλιμιώτις or Ἐλιμία or Ἐλίμεια) was a region of Upper Macedonia that was located along the Haliacmon river. The capital of Elimiotis was Aiani, located in the modern municipality of Kozani, ...

(Ἐλιμιώτις), also rendered as Elymia (Ἐλιμία) and Elimeia (Ἐλίμεια), in the early 4th century BCE. Elimiotis was a client state of

Macedon Macedonia (; grc-gre, Μακεδονία), also called Macedon (), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by ...

. The year 394/3 was a time of dynastic uncertainty in

. The Macedonian king Aëropus, who had usurped the throne in 398/7 died this year of an illness and was succeeded by his son Pausanias. His reign was short, as we learn from

Diodorus Siculus Diodorus Siculus, or Diodorus of Sicily ( grc-gre, Διόδωρος ; 1st century BC), was an ancient Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which su ...

Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to: *Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium'' *Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC *Pausanias of Sicily, physician of th ...
too, the king of the Macedonians, died after a reign of one year, being assassinated by Amyntas, who seized the kingship and reigned twenty-four years.

In this report Diodorus missed a step. Pausanias was, indeed, killed by "Amyntas", but not the man who reigned for twenty-four years.

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

, in a discussion of royal assassinations, said in his ''Politics'':

Any sort of insult (and there are many) may stir up anger, and when men are angry, they commonly act out of revenge, and not from ambition. For example… Amyntas the Little as killedby Derdas, because he boasted of having enjoyed his youth.

Scholars today give Aristotle credit for knowing the order events better than Diodorus, primarily because he lived at the Macedonian court only a few years after these events and would have known many of the witnesses. The accepted conclusion is that Amytas the Little (who was the son of either the rebellious Philip discussed above or his brother Menelaus) was, in turn, eliminated by Amyntas, son of

Arrhidaeus Arrhidaeus or Arrhidaios ( el, Ἀρριδαῖoς lived 4th century BC), one of Alexander the Great's generals, was entrusted by Ptolemy to bring Alexander's body to Egypt in 323 BC, contrary to the wishes of Perdiccas who wanted the body sent t ...

, from another branch of the royal family (who became

Amyntas III Amyntas III (Greek: Αμύντας Γ΄ της Μακεδονίας) (420 – 370 BC) was king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia in 393 BC and again from 392 to 370 BC. He was the son of Arrhidaeus and grandson of Amyntas, one of the sons ...

). Rather than do the deed himself, Amyntas III prevailed upon Derdas, a scion of the ruling family of Elimiotis, and probably either the son or grandson of Derdas I to act for him. Aristotle's comment suggests that Derdas already had reasons to resent Amyntas the Little. Derdas II was later an active participant in a four-year campaign (382–379) waged by

Sparta Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referre ...

against

Olynthus Olynthus ( grc, Ὄλυνθος ''Olynthos'', named for the ὄλυνθος ''olunthos'', "the fruit of the wild fig tree") was an ancient city of Chalcidice Chalkidiki (; el, Χαλκιδική , also spelled Halkidiki, is a peninsula and ...

, the leading city of the Chalcidike, which was attempting to build a league of cities on that peninsula. Two cities under pressure to join, Akanthos and Apollonia, sought help from Sparta in resisting this threat. Sparta, having assumed responsibility for keeping the peace throughout Greece since defeating Athens in the

Peloponnesian War The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) was an ancient Greek war fought between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies for the hegemony of the Greek world. The war remained undecided for a long time until the decisive intervention of th ...

, committed to the project of reining in Olynthus. During the next four summers, Sparta repeatedly sent armies north to the region to attack Olynthus. In this effort, they sought troops from within the Peloponnese,

Boeotia Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia ( el, Βοιωτία; modern: ; ancient: ), formerly known as Cadmeis, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, and its lar ...

Thessaly Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thes ...

and Macedon. Among those from the last was a four-hundred man cavalry under the command of Derdas, “ruler of Elimeia”. In the first summer, it appears that Derdas' participation was somewhat reluctant. When mounting an attack on Olynthus, the Spartan commander

Teleutias Teleutias ( el, Τελευτίας) was the brother of the Spartan king Agesilaus II, and a Spartan naval commander in the Corinthian War. He first saw action in the campaign to regain control of the Corinthian Gulf after the Spartan naval disas ...

stationed Derdas and his cavalry:

next to himself on the left… He did this both because he admired this cavalry unit and because he wished to honor Derdas, so that he would be glad he had joined the expedition.

The attack faltered at one point and

the entire force would probably been defeated if Derdas had not immediately advanced toward the gates of the city with his entire cavalry force… The Olynthian cavalry realized what was happening and, becoming afraid they would be cut off from the gates, turned about and returned to the city in great haste. And that is where Derdas killed a great number of the cavalry as they attempted to pass by him…

Olynthos was not defeated, however, and the next summer (381) Derdas anticipated the renewal of campaign by taking his cavalry to Apollonia in the spring. The Olynthians chose to attack the city before the Spartan army arrived, but as they approached the gates, Derdas counterattacked, routing them and chasing them all the way back to Olynthos itself. After this, the Olynthians kept close to home. The campaign went on for another two summers, but eventually the Olynthians sued for peace (379) and made a formal alliance with Sparta.Xen., v.3.26.

Notes

{{Reflist 4th-century BC Greek monarchs Ancient Elimiotes