Orontobates (

Old Persian Old Persian is one of two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of the Sasanian Empire). Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native speakers as (I ...

: ,

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

: ; lived 4th century BC) was a Persian, who married the daughter of Pixodarus, the usurping

satrap A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median kingdom, Median and Achaemenid Empire, Persian (Achaemenid) Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic period, Hellenistic empi ...

Caria Caria (; from Greek language, Greek: Καρία, ''Karia''; ) was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia (Mycale) south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Carians were described by Herodotus as being Anatolian main ...

, and was sent by the king of

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

to succeed him.

Biography

On the approach of

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

of Macedon, (334 BC) Orontobates and Memnon of Rhodes entrenched themselves in

Halicarnassus Halicarnassus ( ; Latin: ''Halicarnassus'' or ''Halicarnāsus''; ''Halikarnāssós''; ; Carian language, Carian: 𐊠𐊣𐊫𐊰 𐊴𐊠𐊥𐊵𐊫𐊰 ''alos k̂arnos'') was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek city in Caria, in Anatolia.

(modern Bodrum). But at last, despairing of defending it, they set fire to the town, and under cover of the conflagration crossed over to Cos, whither they had previously removed their treasures. In addition to the island of Cos, Orontobates, retained control of the citadel at Salmacis, and the towns Myndus, Caunus, Thera and Callipolis together with Triopium. Next year, while at Soli, Cilicia, Alexander learnt that Orontobates had been defeated in a great battle by

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

and Asander. It is natural to infer that the places which Orontobates held did not long hold out after his defeat. Arrian, '' Anabasis Alexandri''
i. 18ii. 5
Curtius Rufus, ''Historiae Alexandri Magni''
iii. 7
/ref> An officer of the name of Orontobates was present in the army of Darius III at the battle of Gaugamela (331 BC), being one of the commanders of the troops drawn from the shores of the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

.Arrian
iii. 8
/ref> Whether he was the same or a different person from the preceding, we have no means of knowing. We are not told that the latter was killed as well as defeated. It is likely that Alexander the Great knew Orontobates intimately as there was a princess between the two. In his youth Alexander wanted to marry Ada II, the daughter of Pixodarus but this was negated by his father. Incidentally Orontobates married a daughter of Pixodarus, who was also called Ada and probably the same as Ada II. Thus, the relation between the two may have been far more complex than what Justin or even Plutarch knew.

References

Sources

* Smith, William (editor); '' Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', ,

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, (1867) * {{Achaemenid rulers Opponents of Alexander the Great 4th-century BC Iranian people Achaemenid satraps of Caria