Amyntas III of Macedon seeks Spartan aid…

Amyntas III of Macedon seeks Spartan aid against the growing threat of Olynthus, seat of the Chalcidian League, and the Spartans eagerly respond.

That Olynthus is backed by Athens and Thebes, rivals to Sparta for the control of Greece, provides them with an additional incentive to break up this growing power in the north.

Amyntas thus concludes a treaty with the Spartans, who assist him in reducing Olynthus (379).

He also enters into a league with Jason of Pherae, and assiduously cultivates the friendship of Athens.

Aat a Panhellenic congress of the Lacedaemonian allies in 371 BCE, he votes in support of the Athenians' claim and joins other Greeks in voting to help Athens to recover possession of Amphipolis.

With Olynthus defeated, Amyntas is now able to conclude a treaty with Athens and keep the timber revenues for himself.

Amyntas ships the timber to the house of the Athenian Timotheus, in the Piraeus.

By his wife, Eurydice, he has three sons: Alexander II, Perdiccas III and the youngest of whom is the famous Philip II of Macedon.

Amyntas dies at an advanced age, leaving his throne to his eldest son, Alexander, who is very young in 371 when he ascends to the throne.

This causes immediate problems for the new king as enemies to the dynasty resume war.

Alexander is simultaneously faced with an Illyrian invasion from the northwest and an attack from the east by the pretender Pausanias.

Pausanias quickly captures several cities and threatens the queen mother, who is at the palace in Pella with her young sons.

Alexander defeats his enemies with the help of the Athenian general Iphicrates, who had been sailing along the Macedonian coast on the way to recapture Amphipolis.