Ancient Women Warriors
Ancient queens and other women who led their people into battle: Amazons, Queen Artemisia, Queen Boudicca, Queen Samsi, Queen Tomyris, Trung Sisters, Queen Zenobia.
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Amazons
The Amazons are credited with helping the Trojans against the Greeks in the Trojan War. They are also said to have been fierce women archers who cut off a breast to aid them in shooting, but recent archaeological evidence suggests the Amazons were real, important, powerful, two-breasted, warrior women, possibly from the Steppes.• Amazons
Queen Tomyris
Tomyris became queen of the Massegetai upon the death of her husband. Cyrus of Persia wanted her kingdom and offered to marry her for it, but she declined, so, of course, they fought each other, instead. Cyrus tricked the section of Tomyris' army led by her son, who was taken prisoner and committed suicide. Then the army of Tomyris ranged itself against the Persians, defeated it, and killed King Cyrus.• Tomyris
• King Cyrus of Persia
Queen Artemisia
Artemisia, queen of Herodotus' homeland of Halicarnassus, gained renown for her brave, manly actions in the Greco-Persian Wars' Battle of Salamis. Artemisia was a member of the Persian Great King Xerxes' multi-national invading force.• Artemisia of Halicarnassus
• PBS Artemisia - Warrior Queen of Halicarnassus
Queen Boudicca
When her husband Prasutagus died, Boudicca became queen of the Iceni in Britain. For several months during A.D. 60-61 she led the Iceni in revolt against the Romans in response to their treatment of her and her daughters. She burned three major Roman towns, Londinium (London), Verulamium (St. Albans), and Camulodunum (Colchester). In the end, the Roman military governor Suetonius Paullinus suppressed the revolt.• Boudicca
• Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni
Queen Zenobia
Third century queen of Palmyra (in modern Syria), Zenobia claimed Cleopatra as ancestor. Zenobia started as a regent for her son, but then claimed the throne, defying the Romans, and rode into battle against them. She was eventually defeated by Aurelian and probably taken prisoner.• Zenobia of Palmyra
Queen Samsi
In 732 B.C. Queen Samsi (Shamsi) of Arabia rebelled against Assyrian King Tiglath Pileser III (745 - 727 B.C.) by refusing to pay tribute and perhaps by giving aid to an unsuccessful fight against Assyria by the king of Damascus. The Assyrian king captured her cities and she was forced to flee to the desert where thirst/starvation got the best of her. She surrendered and was forced to pay tribute to the king. Although an officer of Tiglath Pileser III was stationed at her court, Samsi was allowed to continue to rule. 17 years later, she was still sending tribute to Sargon II.• Tiglath Pileser
• A Short History of the Tribes of Ancient North Arabia
• Women as Warriors in Prehistory, the Ancient World and up to the 7th Century outside Europe
• "Pre-Islamic Arab Queens," by Nabia Abbott. The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, Vol. 58, No. 1. (Jan., 1941), pp. 1-22.
Trung Sisters
After two centuries of Chinese rule, the Vietnamese rose up against them under the leadership of two sisters, Trung Trac and Trung Nhi, who gathered an army of 80,000. They trained 36 women to be generals and drove the Chinese out of Viet Nam in A.D. 40. Trung Trac was then named ruler and renamed "Trung Vuong" or "She-king Trung." They continued to fight the Chinese for three years, but eventually, unsuccessful, they committed suicide.The URL for this feature is
http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa032703a.htm
Ancient Women Warriors
This feature is copyright © 2003 N.S. Gill.
