Epigraphic Updates on the Karian Magnate Olympichos and his Transactions with Laodike, Wife of Antiochos Hierax
Epigraphic Updates on the Karian Magnate Olympichos and his Transactions with Laodike, Wife of Antiochos Hierax

Summary/Abstract: The Karian dynast Olympichos was formerly said to be of Alinda, though more likely hailed from Mylasa. He entered the historical stage by expelling Ptolemaic garrisons from Mylasa around 244 BC. He acted as an official of Seleukos II (246–225), even though the king was distant and fighting to re-establish his own royal authority in Syria. Olympichos probably acknowledged Antiochos Hierax as king, when Seleukos ceded his brother the Anatolian territories in 242. As of 227, he began to cooperate with Antigonos Doson (229–222), when this one took over Karia. Olympichos maintained his pre-eminence also under Philip V (222–179). Soon after 220, we lose his traces in the historical record, except for a recently discovered inscription, which proves that he was still honoured in the later 2nd century BC. Besides his military and economic resources, his diplomatic skills permitted him to navigate smoothly between the demands of the (not always powerful) kings and queens on the one hand and the needs of the populace on the other. The purchase of estates from queen Laodike, the wife of Antiochos Hierax, probably around 242 and the grant of part of it to the sanctuary of Zeus Osogoa of Labraunda exemplify how he succeeded in establishing bonds of loyalty with the upper and lower levels.

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