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Eurydice I of Macedon

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Eurydice I of Macedon

Eurydice (Greek: Εὐρυδίκη – from ευρύς eurys, "wide" and δίκη dike, "right, custom, usage, law; justice", literally "wide justice") was an Ancient Macedonian queen and wife of king Amyntas III of Macedon.

She was the daughter of Sirras and through her mother, Irra, she was the grand-daughter of the Lynkestian king Arrhabaeus, member of the Doric Greek Bacchiadae family. Eurydice had four children: Alexander II, Perdiccas III, Philip II, all of whom would be crowned kings, a daughter Eurynoe, and through her son Philip, she was the paternal grandmother of Alexander the Great. Literary, inscriptional and archaeological evidence indicates that she played an important public role in Macedonian life and acted aggressively in the political arena.

Eurydice's political activities mark a turning point in Macedonian history. She is the first known royal woman who actively took political action and successfully exerted political influence.

Eurydice was born at approximately 410–407 BC. Her father was the noble Sirras, who was either an Illyrian chieftain or a prince-regent of Lynkestis under king Arrhabaeus. Sirras' origin is disputed, mainly between an Illyrian and a Lynkestian descent, not mutually exclusive. Her mother was the daughter of the Lynkestian king Arrhabaeus, who claimed membership to the Doric Greek Bacchiadae family.

King Amyntas III of Macedon married the young princess Eurydice in about 390 BC, probably in a Macedonian effort to strengthen the alliance with both the Illyrians and Lynkestians, or to detach the Lynkestians from their historical alliance with the Illyrians, after he was defeated by Illyrians or an Illyrian-Lynkestian coalition in 393 BC. Ten years later king Amyntas III was forced to entrust a portion of his kingdom to the Greek Chalcidians, who refused to relinquish it, and by 382 BC had extended their control westward, including Macedon’s capital Pella. Sparta, the most powerful of the Greek states at that time, intervened and restored Amyntas to his capital in 379 BC, but Macedonia had to accept subservience to Sparta.

Amyntas had another wife, a fellow kinswoman named Gygaea, who had three children. At some point during her husband's reign, Eurydice became the dominant wife. Still it cannot be determined whether this development was immediate or gradual, linked with her family and relations, her higher status, the ages of her sons or a combination of these factors. Nevertheless, for the first time events in the life of a royal woman were also central to the political arena of Macedonia in that period and Eurydice was, however, the most important factor in the change.

Eurydice was literate, although she learned to read rather late in life, probably due to being part of a culture that still was heavily oral in nature and where literacy was not fundamental to knowledge, even more in the case of those who had the wealth and leisure to be read to.

Her life career is full of controversy. According to the Roman historian Justin, Eurydice conspired with her son-in-law Ptolemy of Aloros to kill Amyntas, then marry Ptolemy, and then give the throne to her lover. But the queen's daughter, Eurynoe, foiled the plot by revealing it to her father, Amyntas, who, nevertheless, spared Eurydice from punishment because of their common children. Eventually in 370/369 BC, Amyntas III died, and his eldest son, Alexander II succeeded him. In 368 BC, Ptolemy of Aloros killed Alexander II, despite an earlier settlement between them, worked out by Pelopidas, a Theban statesman and general. Then Ptolemy was forced by Pelopidas to agree merely to be regent for Alexander's two younger brothers, Perdiccas III and Philip II.

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