Triton XVII, Lot: 138. Estimate $1500. Sold for $4000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Amyntas III. 394/3-370/69 BC. AR Stater (20mm, 8.78 g, 12h). Aigai mint. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / AMY-NTA, horse standing right in linear square within shallow incuse square. Westermark, Remarks, pl. LXX, 32; AMNG III/2, 1; SNG ANS 87–93; SNG Alpha Bank 189–96; SNG München 41–4. Near EF, light cleaning scratches, a couple tiny deposits, small die break on reverse.

From the RAJ Collection.

After the death of Archelaos’ son Amyntas II, the line of male heirs from Perdikkas II came to an end, and the throne passed to the line of Alexander I’s youngest son, Amyntas, and his grandson, Amyntas III. Since the death of Archelaos in 399 BC, the power of the Macedonian kingdom went into a period of decline. Internal and external threats had caused the Argead kings to focus more on retaining power than expanding it. Thankfully, Amyntas III was quite skilled at diplomacy, and maintained his throne by allying his kingdom with whichever power was ascendant at the moment in his region. His greatest external challenge came from the Dardanian king Bardylis, who expanded his Illyrian state throughout the first half of the 4th century BC. Just after assuming the throne, an Illyrian invasion forced Amyntas to flee Macedon. Bardylis placed a puppet king, Argaios, on the throne of Macedonia, who ruled from 393/2-392/1 BC. Amyntas turned to the Aleuadai of Larissa, and the then-ascendant Thessalians restored the Macedonian king to his throne in 391. In the aftermath, Amyntas formed a defensive alliance with the Chalkidian League that was to have lasted for fifty years (Tod., GHI 111). In 383/2 BC, the Illyrians invaded again and defeated Amyntas in battle, forcing him to flee again. The king gave large tracts of land to the Chalkidians, ostensibly in advance of assistance in recovering his kingdom. However, before this assistance materialized, Amyntas recovered his throne through independent means, and the king demanded that the Chalkidians return his lands. The Chalkidians refused, sparking a new conflict. Finding himself at a disadvantage, Amyntas appealed to the Odrysian king Kotys and the then-dominant Greek power, Sparta. The Spartans agreed, and quickly dispatched forces that eventually subdued the Chalkidians in 379 BC. Sparta’s terms of surrender that were given to the Chalkidians, though, were ominous for Amyntas. The League was to disband, but the cities of the Chalkidike were to become dependents of Sparta in matters of foreign policy. It is likely that the Spartans demanded the same of Amyntas in order to receive their help, but over the following years Sparta went into decline following the liberation of Thebes, and Athens regained its leadership over its alliance. Thus, Amyntas revised his foreign ties, and sought out and gained Athenian support. As with previous alliances, this came at the expense of the Macedonian kingdom, as Athens forced Amyntas to agree that Athens had a right to recover Amphipolis. In the final years of his reign, he also sought out an alliance with Jason of Pherai, whose power had become supreme within the northern Greek sphere, even though it was at the expense of Amyntas’ long ally, Larissa. It can be justly stated that Amyntas’ rule was precarious, and only preserved through alliances that slowly cut away parts of his kingdom. He died of old age in 370/69 BC, leaving an even weaker state for his heir.