King Mausolus

Halicarnassus lived its brightest years during the reign of Mausolus (377-353 BC). During his reign Mausolus transferred his capital from Mylasa (today Milas) to Halicarnassus.

In the fourth century B.C. great changes took place in Caria. After it came again under Persian dominion, it was ruled by the satrap Hecatomnos of Mylasa, from his death on in 377 by his son Mausolus. The kingdom of Caria in the western part of Asia Minor (Turkey) was so far from the Persian capital that it was practically autonomous.

Hecatomnus had been ambitious and had taken control of several of the neighboring cities and districts. Mausolus extended the territory even further so that it finally included most of southwestern Asia Minor.

Halicarnassus lived its brightest years during the reign of Mausolus (377-353 BC). During his reign Mausolus transferred his capital from Mylasa to Halicarnassus. Until then Halicarnassus was a comparatively small city, but Mausolus, observing her natural advantages for fortification and commerce from sea. His ideas were never on a niggardly scale, and he set out to create a worthy capital city.

He transplanted the inhabitants of six of the eight Lelegian cities from the surrounding area, the peninsula. These were of varying size, but some at least, if we may judge by the tribute they paid to Athens in the fifth century, seem to have been comparable to Halicarnassus herself, and the population of the new city must have been four or five times that of the old.

Mausolus was well established in his new capital by 367 BC, and before the end of his reign he ruled from here over a kingdom that included all of Caria and considerable portions of Ionia and Lycia, as well as the islands of Rhodes, Cos, and Chios. Mausolus enclosed his capital at Halicarnassus with a great circuit of powerful defense walls studded with watch-towers at regular intervals, along with three separately walled citadels, some three and a half miles long, of which parts are standing today (recently brought into shape by Ericsson-Türkcell, see Myndos Gate).

Mausolos taxed his inhabitants heavily to pay for these and other grand scale projects, and it is said that he even imposed a levy on hair longer then shoulder length.

Mausolus, with his queen Artemisia, ruled over Halicarnassus and the surrounding territory for 24 years. For his own residence Mausolus built a palace with walls of dried brick, finished in all parts with marble from the Sea of Marmara. Nothing of this palace survives today, and its position has been the subject of much discussion.

Then in 353 BC. Mausolus died, leaving his queen Artemisia, who was also his sister (It was the custom in Caria for rulers to marry their own sisters), broken-hearted. It is not certain that Mausolos initiated the construction of the monument of moussoleion later, but as a tribute to him, Artemisia decided to build him the most splendid tomb in the known world. It became a structure so famous that it was called one of the Seven Wonders of the world. Mausolus's name is now associated with all stately tombs through our modern word.