1. An Illyrian princess, wife of Amyntas II., king of Macedonia, and mother of the famous Philip.
According to Justin (7.4
), she engaged in a conspiracy with a paramour against the life of her husband; but though the plot was detected, she was spared by Amyntas out of regard to their common offspring.
After the death of the latter (B. C. 369), his eldest son, Alexander, who succeeded him on the throne, was murdered after a short reign by Ptolemy Alorites, and it seems probable that Eurydice was concerned in this plot also. From a comparison of the statements of Justin (7.5
) and Diodorus (15.71
), it would appear that Ptolemy was the paramour at whose instigation Eurydice had attempted the life of her husband; and she certainly seems to have made common cause with him after the assassination of her son. (Thirlwall's Greece,
vol. v. p. 164.)
But the appearance of another pretender to the throne, Pausanias, who was joined by the greater part of the Macedonians, reduced Eurydice to great difficulties, and led her to invoke the assistance of the Athenian general Iphicrates, who readily espoused her cause, drove out Pausanias, and reinstated Eurydice and Ptolemy in the full possession of Macedonia, the latter being declared regent for the young king Perdiccas. (Aeschin. de Fals. Leg.
§§ 8, 9; Corn. Nep. Iphicrat.
3; Suidas, s. v. Κάρανος
.) Justin represents Eurydice as having subsequently joined within Ptolemy in putting to death Perdiccas also; but this is certainly a mistake. On the contrary, Perdiccas in fact put Ptolemy to death, and succeeded him on the throne: what part Eurydice took in the matter we know not, any more than her subsequent fate. (Diod. 16.2
; Syncell. p. 263b.)