'Ada of Caria' (
4th century BC) came to power as the ruler of the large and profitable provincial capital 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, which Ada personally handled. 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, unlike Alexander's actual mother,
Olympias, Ada 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.
References
★ Salmonson, Jessica Amanda.(1991)
The Encyclopedia of Amazons. Paragon House. Page 1. ISBN 1-55778-420-5
External links
★
Wiki Classical Dictionary: Ada
★
Livius,
Ada by Jona Lendering