The Encounter between Alexander and the Carian Ada in the Work of Curtius Rufus? A Thought Experiment

Abstract

Diodorus, Strabo, Plutarch, and Arrian reported in some form that Alexander, in 334 BC, in an unspecified location met the former queen of Caria, Ada, who had been deposed by her own brother, Pixodarus. As a result of the encounter, Alexander helped Ada and eventually reinstated her as queen of Caria. Two of our sources, Plutarch and Arrian, also mentioned that Ada adopted the Macedonian ruler as his son. Among the main "Alexander historians", only Justin and Curtius Rufus do not mention in their works the encounter between Alexander and Ada. Justin consciously decided to omit the description of the Carian events, however, the situation is different in the case of Curtius Rufus. The first two books of his work, in which he may have written about the events of Caria, among others, have been lost. As part of a thought experiment, I am looking to find the answer to the question of whether Curtius Rufus could have included the encounter between Alexander and Ada in the lost part of his work, and if so, what information he could have disclosed about the encounter and what about Ada herself.