Amyntas of Galatia
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Amyntas was a king of Galatia and several of the adjacent countries, mentioned by Strabo[1] as contemporary with himself. He seems to have first possessed Lycaonia, where he maintained more than 300 flocks.[2] To this he added the territory of Derbe by the murder of its prince, Antipater of Derbe, the friend of Cicero[3], and Isaura and Cappadocia by Roman favour. Originally he had been the king of Cappadocia Deiotarus secretary (γραμματευς), and was made by Amyntas commander in chief (στρατηγoς) of the Galatian auxiliaries sent to help Brutus and Cassius against the Triumvires, but deserted to Mark Anthony just before the battle of Philippi (42 BC).
After the death of Deiotarus[4], he was made king of Cappadocia in 37 BC as a client ruler of Mark Anthony. Plutarch enumerates him among the adherents of Mark Antony at Actium and is mentioned as deserting to Octavian, just before the battle (31 BC).[5]
While pursuing his schemes of aggrandizement, and endeavouring to reduce the refractory highlanders around him, Amyntas made himself master of Homonada[6], or Hoinona[7], and slew the prince of that place; but his death was avenged by his widow, and Amyntas fell a victim in 25 BC to an ambush which she laid for him.[8] On his death Galatia became a Roman province.
[edit] References
- Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, "Amyntas (6)", Boston, (1867)
- Head, Barclay; Historia Numorum, "Galatia", (1911)
[edit] Notes
- ^ Strabo, Geographia, xii
- ^ Ibid.
- ^ Cicero, Ad Familiares, xiii. 73
- ^ Strabo, ibid.
- ^ Plutarch, Parallel Lives, "Mark Anthony", 61, 63
- ^ Strabo, ibid.
- ^ Pliny, Naturalis Historia, v. 27
- ^ Strabo, ibid.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1867).
