page_title: Hecatomnus
section_title: Alleged collusion with Evagoras
hierarchical_section_title: Hecatomnus / Alleged collusion with Evagoras
caption_attribution_description: Moneta di hekatomnos, 392-377 ac.
context_page_description: Hecatomnus of Mylasa or Hekatomnos was an early 4th-century BC ruler of Caria. He was the satrap of Caria for the Persian Achaemenid king Artaxerxes II. However, the basis for Hecatomnus' political power was twofold: he was both a high appointed Persian official and a powerful local dynast, who founded the hereditary dynasty of the Hecatomnids. The Hecatomnids followed the earlier autochthonous dynasty of the Lygdamids in Caria.
context_section_description: Two ancient sources, Diodorus  and Isocrates, report that Hecatomnus secretly supplied Evagoras with sums of money to raise mercenary troops and was in fact ready to rise against the Persian King. However, Ruzicka strongly doubts the veracity of these reports. Indeed, Hecatomnus had not shown at any other time insubordination or disaffection towards the Persian monarchy. Unlike other rebellious satraps (Cyrus the Younger or Pissuthnes, for example) Hecatomnus was not a Persian of noble or royal blood and could not hope to win the allegiance of other Persian officials. Thus, it seems highly unlikely that he would have engaged in treasonous activity without any tangible hope to benefit from it.
  Ruzicka offers two possible explanations for the reports by Diodorus and Isocrates, which must have been based on some contemporary rumours. In both cases he names Evagoras as the likely source of the rumours.
  (i) Evagoras might have wanted to compromise Hecatomnus in the eyes of his master, Artaxerxes. Later, he managed to engineer the recall and disgrace of another satrap (Orontes) who was campaigning against him.
  (ii) Evagoras might have wanted to create the impression that Hecatomnus was his secret ally in order to impress the Egyptian king Hakor with whom he was negotiating for support against Artaxerxes. From Egypt the rumour could have filtered to Athens through the Athenian general Chabrias who was then serving with Hakor as a military adviser.
caption: Hecatomnus coin, with legend EKATOMNΩ. Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology.
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