Mausolus (Ancient Greek: Μαύσωλος or Μαύσσωλλος, Carian: [𐊪𐊠]𐊲𐊸𐊫𐊦 Mauśoλ) was a ruler of Caria (377–353 BCE) 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 (Carian: 𐊴𐊭𐊪𐊳𐊫 K̂tmño), who was the first satrap of Caria from the hereditary Hecatomnid dynasty.

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.

[10][11][3] 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.

[3][14] 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.

[17] A later trilingual inscription shows that their brother Pixodarus had garrison-commanders in Lycia (Ancient Greek: ἐπιμελητής), which may have been true in Mausolus' time as well.

[17] Mausolus and Artemisia made an alliance with Phaselis, a city at the eastern border of Lycia with Pamphilia, showing the extent of their domain.

[3] Mausolus and Artemisia cooperated with the rebels against Athens in the Social War (357–355 BCE), by which they helped to extend their authority among the Greek islands and cities neighbouring Caria.

[24][23] 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.

[25] 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 Athenians were already weakened after Philip II of Macedon captured Amphipolis; they suffered several naval defeats to the rebels, such as at the Battle of Ecbatana; and the city was nearly bankrupt.

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.

[25] 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.

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.

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.

The Economics attributed to Aristotle tells many stories about the injustice of his rule, in part because he needed to raise funds to pay tribute to the Achaemenid Great King.

While collecting money for Mausolus, Condalos noted that the people of Lycia wore their hair long, unlike the Carians.

[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] The most dramatic is from 355/4 BCE, late in Mausolus' reign, when he survived an assassination attempt by disaffected subjects during the royal procession at the yearly festival at Labraunda.

[33][34] Alongside these attempts on Mausolus' life, he also punished a group of brothers who conspired to desecrate a statue of his father Hekatomnos in Mylasa (361/0 BCE).

[3] Pliny the Elder, who incorrectly[3] attributed the synoecism to Alexander the Great, lists the villages assimilated into Halicarnassus as Theangela, Sibde, Medmasa, Euralium, Pedasus, and Telmissus.

[41][3] The city of Halicarnassus, newly rebuilt by Mausolus and Artemisia, had a number of Greek features, including a large theatre and agora.

Both claimed mythic Dorian ancestry (although the people of Halicarnassus spoke Ionian Greek[43]) and both cities were allied within the Doric Hexapolis in the Archaic period.

[3][47][48][49] All the original construction at Halicarnassus was distinctive of the so-called Ionian Renaissance, which the Hecatomnids sponsored throughout their territories, and which continued in the early Hellenistic Period at sites such as Priene.

[50][49][51] Many cities and religious centres in and around Caria bear features of the Ionian Renaissance following direct sponsorship by Mausolus and his family.

[3] The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was emblematic of the Ionian Renaissance, combining Greek architectural styles with those of Anatolian structures such as the Nereid Monument at Xanthos in Lycia.

The leading craftsmen who designed and built the Mausoleum included famous Greeks and Carians: the architects Satyrus and Pythis, and the sculptors Scopas of Paros, Leochares, Bryaxis and Timotheus.

[3] This coming together of famous and influential Greeks at Halicarnassus on the occasion of Mausolus' death, overseen by Artemisia, may be why she became so renowned for her grief in later tradition.

Centuries after the death of Mausolus, Lucian of Samosata wrote a dialogue between the deceased satrap and the philosopher Diogenes the Cynic, conversing in the afterlife.

[63] Although Mausolus ruled widely as satrap, was rich in his lifetime, and left behind a magnificent tomb in Halicarnassus, Diogenes taunts him, as they both have nothing after their deaths.