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He transplanted the inhabitants of six of the eight Lelegian cities from the surrounding
area, the peninsula. These were of varying size, but some at least, if we may judge by the tribute they paid to
Athens in the fifth century, seem to have been comparable to Halicarnassus herself, and the population of the new
city must have been four or five times that of the old.
Mausolus was well established in his new capital by 367 BC, and before the end of his reign he ruled from here
over a kingdom that included all of Caria and considerable portions of Ionia and Lycia, as well as the islands
of Rhodes, Cos, and Chios. Mausolus enclosed his capital at Halicarnassus with a great circuit of powerful defense
walls studded with watch-towers at regular intervals, along with three separately walled citadels, some three and
a half miles long, of which parts are standing today (recently brought into shape by Ericsson-Türkcell, see
Myndos Gate).
Mausolos taxed his inhabitants heavily to pay for these and other grand scale projects, and it is said that he
even imposed a levy on hair longer then shoulder length.
Mausolus, with his queen Artemisia, ruled over Halicarnassus and the surrounding
territory for 24 years. For his own residence Mausolus built a palace with walls of dried brick, finished in all
parts with marble from the Sea of Marmara. Nothing of this palace survives today, and its position has been the
subject of much discussion.
Then in 353 BC. Mausolus died, leaving his queen Artemisia, who was also his sister (It was the custom in Caria
for rulers to marry their own sisters), broken-hearted. It is not certain that Mausolos initiated the construction
of the monument of moussoleion later, but as a tribute to him, Artemisia decided to build him the most splendid
tomb in the known world. It became a structure so famous that it was called one of the Seven Wonders of the world.
Mausolus's name is now associated with all stately tombs through our modern word Mausoleum.
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Halicarn'assus,
altgriech. Stadt in Klein-Asien an der Stelle des heutigen Bodrum, Hauptstadt der Könige von Karien mit Resten
des "Mausoleums", wurde 334 v.Chr. von Alexander d. Gr. belagert und erobert; Heimat Herodots.
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