Born: Unknown (300s BC), Unknown
Died: Unknown (300s BC)
Country most active: Turkey
Also known as: NA
From Woman: Her Position, Influence and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World. Designed and Arranged by William C. King. Published in 1900 by The King-Richardson Co. Copyright 1903 The King-Richardson Co.:
Caria was a small mountainous Greek kingdom on the Mediterranean coast of what is now Turkey in Asia, having the kingdom of Phygia on the east, and Lydia on the north. The chief towns were Miletus, Halicarnassus, and Cnidus; principal river the Meander.
The Greeks were the most individualized people in the world, inconsistent, fickle, delighting in suits at law, arguments, and disputes, and seldom able to agree. Their chief cities, at this time ruled by tyrants, were almost perpetually at strife with each other, and often in bloody wars.
Artemisia was the sister and, after the ancient customs, became the wife of Mausolus, king of Caria, who died 252 B.C., the widow surviving him two years.
She is chiefly known to history for the conquest of the Island of Rhodes, afterwards the greatest seat of learning in the world, and then celebrated and wealthy. She built a monument to commemorate the event, which the Rhodians, when they gained liberty again, rebuild so as to make it inaccessible. Her excessive grief over her brother-husband’s death is also noteworthy. She is said to have mingled his funeral ashes with her wine; and built for him, at Halicarnassus, a tomb (she dying before it was finished) so costly and grand so as to be considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and from which hour modern word Mausoleum comes from. Ruins of the tomb yet remain. She employed the most celebrated Greek orators to pronounce orations in his honor, giving prizes to the most successful, and is said to have died of grief for him.
The following is excerpted from “Female Warriors: Memorials of Female Valour and Heroism, from the Mythological Ages to the Present Era,” by Ellen C. Clayton (Mrs. Needham), published in 1879 and shared online by Project Gutenberg.
Artemisia II, who lived more then one hundred and thirty years after the former heroine, has frequently been confounded with her, as both were queens of Caria. The second of that name was daughter of King Hecatomus, and is principally famous for the honours which she paid to the memory of her husband, Mausolus, to whom she erected a magnificent tomb at Halicarnassus, which monument was afterwards reckoned as one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Most writers represent Artemisia as plunged in tears during her widowhood; but there are some who, on the contrary, declare that she made some important conquests at that time. Vitruvius relates that the Rhodians, indignant that a woman should reign over Caria, despatched a fleet to Halicarnassus to dethrone Artemisia. The queen commanded the citizens to appear on the walls directly the Rhodians came in sight, and to express, by shouts and clapping of hands, their readiness to surrender. The enemy, falling into the trap, disembarked, and went with all haste to the city, leaving their ships without even one man to guard them.
Artemisia came out with her squadron from the little port, entered the great harbour, and seized the Rhodian vessels. Putting her own men on board she sailed to Rhodes, where the people, seeing their own ships return adorned with laurel-wreaths, received them with every demonstration of joy. No resistance was offered to the landing; and Artemisia seized the city, putting to death the leaders of the people.
She caused a trophy to be erected, and set up two statues—one representing the city of Rhodes, and the other an image of herself, branding the former figure with a red-hot iron. Vitruvius says the Rhodians were forbidden by their religion to destroy this memorial; so they surrounded it by a lofty building which concealed it from view.
Her death, which took place the same year (B.C. 351) probably reinstated the Rhodians in their liberty.