Reign 340–335 BC House Hecatomnids Parents Hecatomnus Consort Idrieus Spouse Idrieus Name Pixodarus Pixodarus | Successor Orontobates Died 335 BC, Halicarnassus Predecessor Ada Father Hecatomnus | |
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Pixodarus (in Greek Πιξώδαρoς; ruled 340–335 BC), was a ruler of Caria, nominally the Persian Satrap, who enjoyed the status of king or dynast by virtue of the powerful position his predecessors of the House of Hecatomnus (the Hecatomnids) created when they succeeded the assassinated Persian Satrap Tissaphernes in the Carian satrapy.
Biography
He was the youngest of the three sons of Hecatomnus, all of whom successively held the sovereignty of their native country. Pixodarus obtained possession of the throne by the expulsion of his sister Ada, the widow and successor of their brother Idrieus, and held it without opposition for a period of five years, 340–335 BC. He cultivated the friendship of Persia, gave his daughter in marriage to a Persian named Orontobates, whom he even seems to have admitted to some share in the sovereign power during his own lifetime. But he did not neglect to court the alliance of other powers also, and endeavoured to secure the powerful friendship of Philip II, king of Macedonia, by offering the hand of his eldest daughter in marriage to Arrhidaeus, the illegitimate son of the Macedonian monarch. The discontent of the young Alexander at this period led him to offer himself as a suitor for the Carian princess instead of his natural brother — an overture which was eagerly embraced by Pixodarus, but the indignant interference of Philip put an end to the whole scheme. Pixodarus died — apparently a natural death — some time before the landing of Alexander in Asia, 334 BC: and was succeeded by his son-in-law Orontobates.