HALICARNASSUS, an ancient Greek city on the southwestern coast of Asia Minor, built on a picturesque and advantageous site at the northern end of the Ceramic Gulf or Gulf of Cos. It originally occupied only the small island of Zephyria, close to the shore, but in course of time this island was united to the mainland and the city extended so as to incorporate Salmacis, an older town of the Leleges and Carians. * About the foundation of Halicarnassus various traditions were current; but they agree in the main point as to its being a Dorian colony, and the figures on its coins, such as the head of Medusa or Minerva, the head of Neptune, or the trident, give support to the statement that the mother cities were Troezen and Argos. The inhabitants appear to have accepted as the legendary founder Anthes, mentioned by Strabo, and were proud of the title of Antheadae. At an early period Halicarnassus was a member of the Doric Hexapolis, which included Cos, Cnidus, Lindus, Camirus, and Ialysus; but one of the citizens, Agasicles, having taken home the prize tripod which he had won in the Triopian games instead of dedicating it according to custom to the Triopian Apollo, the city was cut off from the league. In the time of Xerxes we find Halicarnassus under the sway of a certain Artemisia, who made herself famous by the assistance she rendered to the great Persian invader. Pigres, her brother or son, was the reputed author of the Batrachomyomachia. Of Pisindalis, her son and successor in the sovereignty, little is known; but Lygdamis, who next attained to power, is notorious for having put to death the poet Panyasis and caused Herodotus, the greatest of the Halicarnassians, to leave his native city (c. 457 b.c.). About the close of the 5th century b.c., the power of Athens became ...predominant over Halicarnassus and other Dorian cities of Asia, but the peace of Antalcidas in 387 made them subservient to Persia; and it was under Mausolus, a Persian satrap of almost independent authority, that Halicarnassus attained its highest prosperity. Struck by the natural strength and beauty of its position, Mausolus removed thither from Mylasa, and increasing its population by the inhabitants of six towns of the Leleges, devoted himself to its embellishment and defence. On his death he was succeeded by his widow and sister, Artemisia, whose military ability was shown by the stratagem by -which she captured the Rhodian vessels attacking her city, and whose magnificence and taste have been perpetuated to all time by the “Mausoleum,” the monument she erected to her husband’s memory. In the execution of this wonderful enterprise she employed the architects Satyrus and Pythius, and the sculptors Scopas, Leschares, Bryaxis, and Timotheus; and though she died before its completion, they continued it with all the enthusiasm of artists. In the history of Halicarnassus the next important events were connected with the conquests of Alexander the Great. Memnon, satrap of the west coast, having taken refuge within its walls after the battle of Granicus, it was besieged by the Macedonians, captured, and plundered. Not long afterwards we find the citizens receiving the present of a gymnasium from Ptolemy, and building in his honour a stoa or portico; but the city never recovered altogether from the disasters of the siege, and Cicero describes it as almost deserted. The site is now occupied by the town of Budrun, but the ancient walls can still be traced in nearly all their circuit, and the position of several of the temples and public buildings can be fixed with considerable certainty.
From the rains of file Mausoleum sufficient has been recovered by the excavations carried out in 1867 by C. T. Newton to enable a fairly complete restoration of its design. According to Mr Pιιllan, Mr Newton’s collaborator, the building consisted of five parts—a basement or podium, a pteron or enclosure of columns, a pyramid and pedestal, and a chariot group. The basement, probably 51 feet in height, and covering an area of 114 feet by 92, was built of blocks of greenstone and cased with marble, the monotony of the plain-courses being possibly broken by one or more belts of frieze. The pteron, 374 feθt in height, consisted (according to Pliny) of thirty-six columns of the Ionic order, enclosing a square cella, the walls of which were relieved by friezes. From the portions that have been recovered it appears that the principal frieze of the pteron represented combats of Greeks and Amazons. “Throughout,” says Mr Newton, “there is a skilful opposition of nude and draped male and female forms; but the groups and figures are much less intermixed than in the Parthenon and Phigalian friezes. The whole surface was coloured, the ground of the relief being ultramarine and the flesh a dim red, while the drapery and armour were picked out with various hues.” Fragments have been found of two other friezes of doubtful position in the monument, one representing a chariot race and the other a centaur fight. Above the pteron rose the pyramid, approximately 108 feet long and 86 feet wide at the base, and mounting by 24 steps to an apex or pedestal, which possibly had a length of 25 feet 6 inches and a breadth of 20 feet. On this apex stood the quadriga or chariot with the figure of Mausolus himself and an attendant deity acting as his charioteer. The height of the statue of Mausolus—it has happily been preserved and forms part of the treasures of the British Museum —is 9 feet 9⅛ inches without the plinth. The hair rising from the forehead falls in thick waves on each side of the face and descends nearly to the shoulder; the beard is short and close,the face square and massive, the eyes deep set under overhanging brows, the mouth well formed with settled calm about the lips. The drapery, consisting of a chiton and mantle, is grandly composed. Such are the main features of the great Mausoleum which deservedly ranked among the wonders of the world. The minor edifices and sculptural remains of Halicarnassus are of secondary moment. Of well-preserved inscriptions the number is comparatively few; but one or two (such as that containing the names of Lygdamis and Panyasis) are of no small interest to the arcliaeologist.
For further details see Rose, Reise durch den Inseln Griechenlands; Hamilton's Researches in Asia Minor; and Newton’s History of Discoveries at Halicarnassus, 1862-3, and his Travels in the Levant, 1865.
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