Hecatomnus

Hekatomnos of Mylasa was an ancient ruler of Caria ( on the southwest coast of modern Turkey). He reigned 392-377 BC and was the founder of the dynasty of Carian Hekatomniden. His sons were mouse solos, Idrieus and Pixodaros, his daughters, Artemisia II and Ada; his wife is not known.

Hekatomnos was the son of Hyssaldomos, the priest-king of the Carian city Mylasa. To 392 BC the Persian king Artaxerxes II elevated him to the satrap over a part of the empire and ordered him to form an army. Along with the neighboring Lydia Autophradates he should now draw against the rebel leader Evagoras, who sought a united Cyprus. But the battle was not successful. Rumor has it that Hekatomnos to have his enemy offered financial support.

Nevertheless Hekatomnos was passed by Artaxerxes control of Miletus, the largest Greek settlement in Asia Minor. Like his son mouse solos, Hekatomnos was very impressed with the culture of the Greeks and sent his youngest son Pixodaros to Athens. But his religion was always the Carians. On coins he minted, there are pictures of the main Carian Zeus Labraundos, whose shrine stood in Labraunda.

The Athenian rhetorician Isocrates, according Hekatomnos should have planned a rebellion against the Achaemenid king. However, he died around 376 BC, before he could carry out his plans, and was succeeded by his eldest son mouse solos of his one year older sister Artemisia II married in one of the then usual sibling marriages.

The dynasty founded by Hekatomnos should Caria govern more than half a century.