Hecatomnids
[3] The reuse of those names by later members of the Hecatomnid dynasty suggests that the same family which ruled Mylasa at the start of the fourth century BCE previously ruled Kindye at the start of the fifth, and moved from the smaller town to the larger city at some point before they became satraps of Caria.
[4][5] If Hecatomnus did not become satrap immediately upon the death of Tissaphernes, he was in office by 392 BCE, when he made war on Evagoras of Salamis on the orders of Artaxerxes.
Because neither pair of sibling-spouses were known to have had children, it is thought that their marriages were symbolic, and helped to preserve royal power within the family.
[8] The parents of this second generation of satraps may themselves have been siblings, if Aba was the wife of Hecatomnus as well as his sister, although the evidence that this was the case is inconclusive.
[10] During the government of the Hecatomnids, both wife and husband ruled alongside one another, although only men are ever called satrap or issue coinage in their own names.
[11][2] Of the two of them, Mausolus was the only one to put his name on coinage or ever be referred to as satrap; nonetheless, Artemisia had a limited amount of power while her brother was still alive.
Early in their joint reign, Mausolus and Artemisia moved the Hecatomnid capital to Halicarnassus, the former seat of the Lygdamids.
[12] The best-known monument of the Hecatomnids is the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the grand tomb of Mausolus, which became famous as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Alongside building projects, Mausolus and Artemisia expanded their political authority in the region of Caria, gaining control of Lycia after the Revolt of the Satraps and Greek islands of the Dodecanese such as Rhodes after their participation in the Social War against Athens.
[11][2] During her short reign, she suppressed a revolt by the Rhodians, personally leading a fleet to the island and installing a statue of herself in their capital city.
For example, Idrieus and Ada were depicted either side of Zeus Labraundeus, the chief god of the Hecatomnid dynasty, in a relief from Tegea in the Peloponnese.
[21] Pixodarus is best known for the Letoon trilingual, a decree of his establishing the civic cult of Caunus throughout Lycia, which was inscribed in three languages: Greek, Lycian, and Aramaic.
After a victory at the Battle of the Granicus in Northwestern Anatolia, the Greco-Macedonian army moved down the Aegean coast, capturing key sites such as Sardis and Miletus, before coming to Caria.
Tradition purports that Ada I then came to Alexander from her fortress in Alinda and adopted him as her son, so that he would succeed to the rule of Caria.
[2] Asander, a Macedonian, became satrap of Caria after the Partition of Babylon, the division of Alexander's empire upon his death in 323 BCE.
