Amphoterus (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: ) the brother of Craterus, was appointed by

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

to be his commander of the fleet in the

Hellespont The Dardanelles ( ; ; ), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli (after the Gallipoli peninsula) and in classical antiquity as the Hellespont ( ; ), is a narrow, natural strait and internationally significant waterway in northwestern Turkey t ...

in 333 BC. Amphoterus' appointment recognized his successful attempts to subdue the islands between

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

and

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

which had not acknowledged Alexander. Amphoterus cleared

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

of the

Persians Persians ( ), or the Persian people (), are an Iranian ethnic group from West Asia that came from an earlier group called the Proto-Iranians, which likely split from the Indo-Iranians in 1800 BCE from either Afghanistan or Central Asia. They ...

and pirates. He then sailed to the

Peloponnese The Peloponnese ( ), Peloponnesus ( ; , ) or Morea (; ) is a peninsula and geographic region in Southern Greece, and the southernmost region of the Balkans. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridg ...

in 331 BC, where he put down an uprising against

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

ian control. Alexander sent Cypriot and Phoenician ships to help Amphoterus.

Rebellion in the Peloponnese

There is disagreement among historical sources concerning Amphoterus' efforts to quash the rebellion in the Peloponnese. The Roman historian

Quintus Curtius Rufus Quintus Curtius Rufus (; ) was a Ancient Rome, Roman historian, probably of the 1st century, author of his only known and only surviving work, ''Historiae Alexandri Magni'', "Histories of Alexander the Great", or more fully ''Historiarum Alex ...

claims that in 331 BC Amphoterus was sent from the Palestinian coast to Crete with orders to attack the Persians who were blockading the island. His contemporary, the Roman historian

Arrian Arrian of Nicomedia (; Greek: ''Arrianos''; ; ) was a Greek historian, public servant, military commander, and philosopher of the Roman period. '' The Anabasis of Alexander'' by Arrian is considered the best source on the campaigns of ...

, claims that Amphoterus was already stationed in the vicinity of Crete, and was ordered to sail for the Peloponnese coast. A. B. Bosworth, Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Western Australia, believes that the conflict between the two accounts reflects different views as to the geographic location of Crete. He mentions that in the ''

Periplus A periplus (), or periplous, is a manuscript document that lists the ports and coastal landmarks, in order and with approximate intervening distances, that the captain of a vessel could expect to find along a shore. In that sense, the periplus wa ...

'', a work attributed to Scylax of Caryanda, it appears that Crete was considered part of the Peloponnese at the time. As a result, Bosworth argues, both Roman historians are actually referring to the same general area when describing Amphoterus' military activities.

References

*{{SmithDGRBM, title= Amphoterus Admirals of Alexander the Great Ancient Macedonian admirals Ancient Orestians 4th-century BC Macedonians