Mausolus
Mausolus was a ruler of Caria and a satrap of the Achaemenid Empire. He enjoyed the status of king or dynast by virtue of the powerful position created by his father Hecatomnus, who was the first satrap of Caria from the hereditary Hecatomnid dynasty. Alongside Caria, Mausolus also ruled Lycia and parts of Ionia and the Dodecanese islands. He is best known for his monumental tomb and one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the construction of which has traditionally been ascribed to his wife and sister Artemisia.
Name
Mausolus' name is only known directly in Greek. It is clearly of Carian origin, though, and would have been written as *?????? or similar. This is a compound name perhaps meaning "much blessed". The first part, *Ma-, may mean "much", similar to the same word in Hieroglyphic Luwian. The second part, *-uśoλ, meaning "blessed", is very common in Carian onomastics. Other examples include just Uśoλ, Šaruśoλ, and Pnuśoλ/''Punwśoλ''.Early life
Mausolus was the eldest son of Hecatomnus, a native Carian who became the satrap of Caria shortly after Tissaphernes died, BCE. Mausolus succeeded his father upon Hecatomnus' death in 377 BCE. The two may have shared the rule of Caria in the early 370s BCE, though, shortly before the death of Hecatomnus. Their close relationship is illustrated in the family scenes from the sarcophagus of the tomb of Hecatomnus and Aba. They were also depicted alongside one another in a statue group from Caunos. Whether Mausolus held any real or ceremonial office before the period of his reign proper, however, is speculative.Reign
Mausolus became satrap when his father Hecatomnus died in 377/6 BCE. He ruled alongside his wife, who was also his sister, Artemisia. Because the two had no children, and incest of this type was not otherwise known in Caria, it is thought that their unusual marriage was entirely symbolic. Although only Mausolus was ever referred to as satrap, it is clear that Artemisia had some political authority as joint dynast while the two were still alive.Revolt of the Satraps
Mausolus participated in the Revolt of the Satraps, a long and complex affair in which many satraps in the west of the Achaemenid Empire rebelled against Artaxerxes II Memnon, mostly during the 360s BCE. The Revolt of the Satraps, also called the Great Revolt, was not a coordinated affair, but consisted of multiple separate rebellions throughout Anatolia. Mausolus primarily participated on the side of Artaxerxes, although Greek sources say that he also briefly rebelled against him.Diodorus Siculus includes Mausolus in his list of satraps who rebelled against Artaxerxes II. Also in this list were Tachos of Egypt, Ariobarzanes of Hellespontine Phrygia, Orontes of Mysia, Autophradates of Lydia, and miscellaneous populations of Anatolia and Phoenicia. With the majority of Anatolia, the Levant, and Egypt in revolt, Diodorus said that half of Artaxerxes' revenues were cut off from him. Another participant was King Agesilaus II of Sparta, who was a guest-friend of Mausolus.
The most evidence for Mausolus' participation in the Great Satraps' Revolt, however, is on the side of his nominal sovereign. Mausolus, together with Autophradates the satrap of Lydia, led the siege of Adramyttium in 366 BCE at the request of Artaxerxes. Ariobarzanes had taken refuge there after Autophradates had driven him out of Assos. According to Xenophon, Mausolus was allegedly persuaded to abandon the siege by Agesilaus, whom Mausolus and Tachos of Egypt provided an escort to escape safely. This may be a sign that Mausolus only defied his overlord covertly, as there is no evidence that he actually made war against Artaxerxes.
Diodorus also tells us that Mausolus and Autophradates, who secretly did not pursue Ariobarzanes, assisted Orontes of Mysia in his later rebellion in 362 BCE. Unlike Tachos or Agesilaus, however, Mausolus and Artemisia are mostly absent from narratives of Orontes' revolt, and there is no evidence that they took any concrete action against Artaxerxes II.
Mausolus was not punished for his alleged participation in the Revolt of the Satraps, unlike more flagrant rebels such as Datames or Ariobarzanes. He remained in office after the revolt was squashed in 362/1 BCE and was even rewarded by being given Lycia to govern over.
Lycia
After the Satraps' Revolt, Mausolus and Artemisia came to rule Lycia, adding this territory to the southeast of Caria to their satrapy. Lycia had first been conquered by the Achaemenids at the same time as Ionia and Caria, by Harpagus, a general under Cyrus the Great. After the time of Harpagus, however, Achaemenid presence in Lycia was minimal and contested by the Delian League. The country came to be ruled by a series of minor dynasts, such as Kuprlli and Kheriga of Xanthos, Erbbina of Telmessos, and Arppakhu of Phellos. Pericles of Limyra, a dynast based in eastern Lycia, came to dominate all of Lycia in the 370s and 360s BCE, breaking the historical dominance of the western dynasts based in and around Xanthos. He cast himself as a native Lycian fighting for liberation against Persians in western Lycia; one inscription explicitly describes his rival Arttum̃para as a Mede. Arttum̃para may have been one of two Achaemenid officials in Lycia whom Pericles contested, the other being Mithrapata. By rejecting Persian rule in the 370s and 360s BCE, Pericles was participating in the Revolt of the Satraps. Pericles' domination of an independent Lycia was ended by the Autophradates, the satrap of Lydia, at the end of the great revolt. Autophradates ruled Lycia himself for as 'king' and/or 'satrap'. Lycia had returned to the Achaemenid control. Autophradates ruled for only a short period, though, and rule of Lycia was transferred to Mausolus sometime in the period BCE.Mausolus ruled Lycia as satrap in the later part of his reign. From this time onwards, independent Lycian coins were no longer struck, and instead coins of Mausolus and his successors circulated in Lycia. Although he did not conquer Lycia, he may have been militarily active there, as Stephanus of Byzantium tells us that he campaigned in Milyas to the north of Lycia. How Mausolus and Artemisia governed Lycia is not clear. The Pseudo-Aristotelian Economics records that Mausolus had a hyparch active in Lycia, although this account is far from trustworthy. A later trilingual inscription shows that their brother Pixodarus had garrison-commanders in Lycia, which may have been true in Mausolus' time as well.
Mausolus and Artemisia made an alliance with Phaselis, a city at the eastern border of Lycia with Pamphilia, showing the extent of their domain. Theodectes of Phaselis, a tragic poet, wrote a play called Mausolus to honour the satrap at his funeral.
Social War
Mausolus and Artemisia cooperated with the rebels against Athens in the Social War, by which they helped to extend their authority among the Greek islands and cities neighbouring Caria.After the Peace of Antalcidas concluded the Corinthian War in 387 BCE, Artaxerxes II had given control of the Greek cities of Anatolia to his satraps, while guaranteeing the independence of the Greek off the coast of Anatolia. King Agesilaus II of Sparta was deputised to enforce this peace among the Greeks. The Athenians subsequently formed what is called the Second Athenian League as a counterbalance to Spartan hegemony. Among the Greek communities which founded this alliance in 378 BCE were Rhodes, Chios, and Byzantium. All three rebelled against Athens in 357 BCE, after the Athenians had begun to collect financial contributions from their allies and established an aggressive colony on Samos in the 360s BCE.
Demosthenes described the outbreak of the Social War is his speech On the Liberty of the Rhodians: "We were charged by the Chians, Byzantines and Rhodians with plotting against them, and that was why they concerted the last war against us; but... Mausolus the prime mover and instigator in the business". In this speech, our main source for Carian involvement in the Social War, Demosthenes makes clear that Mausolus and Artemisia supported the rebels in naval warfare against Athens. Although the precise causes of the Social War are obscure, it may be the case that Mausolus himself incited it in order to expand his sphere of influence into the neighbouring Greek islands of the Dodecanese.
The Social War ended quickly in 355 BCE. The Athenians were already weakened after Philip II of Macedon captured Amphipolis; they suffered several naval defeats to the rebels, and the city was nearly bankrupt. The intervention of Artaxerxes III set the terms of the peace. Either during or shortly after the Social War, the Carian satraps controlled the Greek islands of Rhodes, Cos, and Chios, in part because they had undermined Athenian authority in the region.
Rhodes, which had previously been governed by a democracy aligned with Athens, came to be ruled instead by an oligarchy backed by a Carian garrison. Vitruvius relates a story about how, when Mausolus died shortly after the end of the Social War, the Rhodian democrats briefly overthrew their Hecatomnid-aligned oligarchy and unsuccessfully rebelled against Artemisia.
Mausolus also invaded parts of Ionia and controlled other
at undetermined points in his reign. As well as their new capital at Halicarnassus, Mausolus and Artemisia had considerable control over the other Greek cities on the coast of Caria, such as Iasos, Miletus, and Cnidus. Part of this control had diplomatic elements. For example, the astronomer Eudoxus of Cnidus, who developed a cosmic model of concentric spheres, lived at the court of Mausolus and may have helped steer the politics of Cnidus as the satrap wished. Mausolus' rule was enforced by violence, though. Polyaenus reports that Mausolus had deputised his brother Idrieus to capture the fortified town of Latmus; later, he pretended to return the Latmian hostages which Idrieus had captured, and after winning the trust of the townspeople, ambushing the city at night after all the inhabitants had left its walls to watch his military procession. Separately, the same author writes how Mausolus' sister and wife Artemisia captured the same town by a similar deception, distracting the Latmians with a religious procession of women, eunuchs, and musicians, instead of soldiers.