A kingdom of south west Asia Minor, its major cities being Knidos, Halicarnassus and Mylasa. It was heavily hellenized from the 8th century BC on, and retained a degree of independence under Persian rule, when its king Mausolus was an important patron of Greek art, his tomb (the Mausoleum) being built and decorated by Greek artists. In the late Hellenistic and Roman period Aphrodisias, inland, was the major centre and source of a great deal of sub-Hellenistic sculpture.
Above: Map of Greece and the Aegean © Beazley Archive, Ian Hiley
