Hecatomnids
The Hecatomnids were a dynasty named after their founder, Hekatomnos of Mylasa , which began in the 390s BC. Until a time between Alexander the Great's conquest and death ruled the Persian satrapy in Caria (on the southwest coast of today's Turkey ).
In addition to Hekatomnos (satrap 392–377), she also owned his sons Maussolos (377–353, known for his mausoleum of Halicarnassus ), Idrieus (351–344) and Pixodaros (341–336) and his daughters Artemisia II. (353–351) and Ada (344-341 and 334- before 323).
The Hecatomnids succeeded temporarily in gaining political influence over some Greek cities in Asia Minor such as Milet , Erythrai , Priene , Knidos and Greek islands such as Rhodes , Chios or Kos , expanding their territory to Lycia and becoming an important opponent of Athens in the war of alliances . The Hecatomnids worked in Caria and Greece as promoters of Greek art and culture .
history
From 392 B.C. Hekatomnos, the dynast of Mylasa, is secured as a satrap. In that year Artaxerxes II used him as the leader of the fleet in the fight against Euagoras I of Cyprus . It is unclear whether this award of far-reaching military competencies was also accompanied by the establishment of Karien as an independent satrapy, or whether this took place a few years earlier. According to epigraphic sources, Hekatomnos' father Hyssaldomos may have held the position of satrap. According to a single inscription , Hyssaldomos also had a daughter named Aba. It is not certain whether she was also Hekatomnos' sister-wife and mother of his children in analogy to the younger Hecatomnids. After the death of the founder of the dynasty, the office of satrap passed to his eldest son Maussollos. Initially together with him, after his death alone, his eldest sister and wife Artemisia also ruled. It was only after she died that Hekatomnos' second son Idrieus became a Carian satrap, also together with his sister and wife Ada. After the death of her husband, she was ousted from office by her last brother, Pixodaros. He was followed as satrap by the Persian nobleman Orontopates , whom he married to his daughter Ada. After the conquest of Caria by Alexander the Great in 334, he reinstated the elder Ada and allowed her to adopt him. Thus Alexander legally succeeded the Hecatomnids. The last hecatomnidine died at an unknown time before his death.
Legal Status
The position of power of the native dynasty within Caria was based on the hereditary office of the head of the Carian League , a priestly kingdom that had political but above all ritual functions. How long was the Mylasa dynasty before the 4th century BC? Already held is not known. Due to the fact that the members of the dynasty had the same name as the older Carian rulers, a longer tradition can be assumed. When the Hecatomnids were also given the office of satrap, the result was an autonomy and power that was unusual under Persian rule. The resulting independence made itself felt several times in the Hekatomnidischen foreign policy.
Position of wife and sibling marriage
The female members of the dynasty had an unusually strong position for antiquity, but not completely on an equal footing. Many inscribed laws of the Hecatomnids were passed in the name of the ruling couple, some only in the name of the man. Only the male hecatomnids minted their own coins. Nevertheless, the women had their own decision-making power. It is noteworthy that Artemisia and Ada each inherited their husbands, although there was also a possible male heir. This suggests that remnants of matrilineal structures were preserved in the dynasty , which is also directly related to the rare practice of sibling marriage. Because where daughters are inherited, male family members can only gain power and wealth through marriage to close relatives. Since both pairs of siblings remained childless, the main reason for the sibling marriage is not to be seen in the preservation of dynastic power, but, as is also the case with the Ptolemies , is to be understood as part of the dynastic representation, which puts the ruling couples in a supernatural, godlike position should move.
Promotion of Greek culture
During the rule of the Hecatomnids, Caria was increasingly Hellenized . The dynasts actively promoted Greek scientists such as the doctor Deixippos of Kos or the astronomer Eudoxos of Knidos . Theompompos of Chios , Theodectes of Phaselis and Naukrates of Erythrai were important Greek authors at their court . They commissioned extensive building projects from the most important Greek artists of their time. For example, Pytheos and Satyros were involved as architects and Skopas , Bryaxis , Leochares and Timotheos as sculptors in the construction of the Maussolleion . Pytheos was probably also the architect of the temple of Zeus Labraundos donated by Idrieus in Labraunda , which the Hecatomnids as well as other smaller Carian shrines such as Amyzon , Sinuri or an Artemis shrine near Latmos expanded. Hekatomnid foundations can also be found in important Greek shrines at Delphi and Tegea . In Hekatomnid coinage , Greek inscriptions replaced the previously Carian ones under Hekatomnos .
literature
- Gabriele Bockisch : The Carians and their dynasts. In: Klio. Contributions to ancient history. Volume 51, 1969, pp. 117-175.
- Elisabeth Carney: Women and Dunasteia in Caria. In: American Journal of Philology . Volume 126, 2005, ISSN 0002-9475 , pp. 65-91.
- Simon Hornblower: Mausolus. Clarendon, Oxford 1982, ISBN 0-19-814844-5 .
- Hilmar Klinkott : On political acculturation among the Achaimenids. The test case Caria. In: Hartmut Blum (Ed.): Anatolien Bridge Country? Causes, extensiveness and modes of cultural exchange between Anatolia and its neighbors. Tübingen 2002, ISBN 3-89308-346-4 , pp. 173-204.
- Stephen Ruzicka: Politics of a Persian Dynasty. The Hecatomnids in the Fourth Century BC ( Oklahoma Series in Classical Culture. Volume 14). Norman, London 1992.
- Violaine Sebillotte Cuchet: The Warrior Queens of Caria (Fifth to Fourth Centuries BCE). In: Jacqueline Fabre-Serris, Alison Keith (Eds.): Women & War in Antiquity. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2015, ISBN 978-1-4214-1762-2 , pp. 228-246
Web links
- Jona Lendering: Hecatomnid dynasty . In: Livius.org (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Louis Robert : Le Sanctuaire de Sinuri pres de Mylasa. Les insriptions greques. Paris 1945, no.99; compare also Gabriele Bockisch : The Carians and their dynasts. In: Klio. Contributions to ancient history. Volume 51, 1969, p. 134.
- ^ Louis Robert: Le Sanctuaire de Sinuri pres de Mylasa. Les insriptions greques. Paris 1945, No. 100.
- ↑ Hilmar Klinkott : On political acculturation among the Achaimenids. The test case Caria. In: Hartmut Blum (Ed.): Anatolien Bridge Country? Causes, extensiveness and modes of cultural exchange between Anatolia and its neighbors. Tübingen 2002, pp. 196-197.
- ↑ Simon Hornblower: Mausolos. Clarendon, Oxford 1982, p. 358.
- ^ Elisabeth Carney: Women and Dunasteia in Caria. In: American Journal of Philology. Volume 126, 2005, pp. 82-85.