Ada of Caria
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Ada of Caria (4th century BC) came to power as the ruler of the large and profitable provincial capital city of Halicarnassus in Caria, a satrapy of the Persian Empire at a time when Darius was actively seeking to conquer it. Ada's armies put up little resistance and were quickly dispatched, leaving the port city under Persian occupation.
Upon Alexander the Great's conquest of Asia Minor, and his arrival at the border of Caria in 334 BC, Ada offered to adopt and pronounce Alexander as her rightful heir if he would take back the city and reinstate her. This the conqueror did after a difficult siege. Ada was then reinstated as queen and grew close to Alexander. In his time with her, he would eventually refer to her as "mother", however Ada can be juxtaposed with Alexander's actual mother, Olympias, in that she was purportedly even-tempered and relatively emotionally stable.
When Alexander finally abandoned the city to continue his conquests, he granted the queen a garrison to clean up what was left of the defeated Persian army.
External links
- Wiki Classical Dictionary: Ada (http://www.ancientlibrary.com/wcd/Ada)
