Idrieus, satrap of Caria and second son…
October 334 BCE
Idrieus, satrap of Caria and second son of the late Mausolus and Artemisia II, had died in 344; his sister Ada had succeeded him, ruling until 341.
Pixodarus, the youngest on Mausolus’s sons, has ruled from 341.
The city of Halicarnassus has good defenses, both natural and artificial, and has been chosen as the local Persian military headquarters under Memnon of Rhodes, the competent Greek commander of the Persian fleet.
The siege of Halicarnassus is a far tougher operation than that of Miletus.
The fighting is severe (though in the apologetic tradition used by Arrian, the severity is minimized).
At one moment, Alexander is forced to the extremity of having to send a herald to ask for the bodies of some Macedonians who had fallen in front of the walls.
After the city is taken—the citadels will hold out for another year or two—Alexander reappoints the native princess Ada as satrap (his earlier satrapal appointees had been Macedonians) after expelling her brother Pixodarus.
Her reinstatement prefigures Alexander's shrewd subsequent policy of allowing local men and women to remain in post (though usually, like Ada herself, under the superintendence of a Macedonian troop commander).
A romantic story makes her “adopt” Alexander as her son, a gesture graciously accepted by Alexander.
This gesture of conciliation toward the native population is good politics.