Timeline of women in ancient warfare

[kiwi]

# 1760 BC: Eurypyle, leader of an all-female expedition against Babylonia, captures the capital of the Amorites.[1]

# 1600 BC: Ahhotep I fights the Hyskos. She is later buried with military metals symbolizing her valor in battle.[2]

# 1300 BC: Hittite fortresses dating from 1300 BC depict women warriors with axes and swords.[citation needed]

# 1200s BC[citation needed]: Deborah, Judge of Israel, accompanies Barak on a military campaign in Qedesh, according to Judges 4:6‑10. [3]

# 1200s BC[citation needed]: Jael assassinates Sisera, a retreating general who was the enemy of the Israelites, according to Judges 5:23-27.

# roughly 1200-1000 BC: The Rigveda (RV 1 and RV 10) mentions a warrior queen named Vishpala, who lost a leg in battle and had an iron prosthesis made, and returned to warfare.[4]

# 1000s BC: Fu Hao, consort of Wu Ding, king of China, leads 3,000 men into battle.[5]

# 1000s BC:[6] According the legendary history of Britain, Queen Gwendolen fights her husband Locrinus in battle for the throne of Britain. She defeats him and becomes queen.[7]

# 840 BC: Athaliah, daughter of Jezebel, controls Jerusalem. She directs warriors in its defense until her son is killed fighting a member of the House of David. She then attacks descendants of the House of David, and kills nearly all the members of its Jerusalem branch. [8]

# 700s BC:[9]According the legendary history of Britain, Queen Cordelia (on whom the character in Shakespeare's King Lear is based), battles her nephews for control of her kingdom, personally fighting in battle.[10]

# Late 9th century BC-8th century BC:[11] Reign of Shammuramat of Assyria. She may have been the inspiration for the legendary warrior queen Semiramis.[12]

# 740 BC: Approximate time of the reign of Zabibe, an Arabian queen who led armies.[13]

# 720 BC: Approximate time of the reign of Samsi, an Arabian queen who was possibly the successor of Zabibe.[14] She revolted against Tiglath Pileser II.[15]

# 6th century BC-4th century BC: Women are buried with both jewelry and weapons on the Kazakhstan-Russia border at roughly this time.[16]

# 530 BC:[17] According to Herodotus, queen Tomyris of the Massagetae fights and defeats Cyrus the Great.[18]

# 510 BC: Greek poet Telesilla defends the city of Argos by rallying women with war songs.[19]

# 506 BC[20] Cloelia, a Roman girl who was given as a hostage to the Etruscans, escapes her captors and leads several other girls to safety.[21]

# 5th century BC: The Lady of Yue trains the soldiers of the army of King Goujian of Yue.[22]

# 5th century BC[23] Herodotus describes the Amazons.[24]

# 480 BC: Artemisia I of Caria, Queen of Halicarnassus, participates in the Battle of Salamis.[25]

# 480 BC: Greek diver Hydna and her father sabotage enemy ships before a critical battle, thus causing the Greeks to win.[26]

# 460 BC-370 BC:[27] Approximate lifetime of Hippocrates. He writes of Sauromatae Scythian women fighting battles.[28]

# 403 BC-221 BC:[29] Warring States period of China. A story by Sun Tzu, who lived at this time, describes how Ho Lu, King of Wu, tested his skill by ordering him to train an army of 180 women.[30]

# 4th century BC: Amage, a Sarmatian queen, attacks a Scythian prince who was making incursions onto her protecterates. She rides to Scythia with 120 warriors, and kills his guards, his friends, his family, and ultimately kills the prince himself in a duel.[31][32]

# 4th century BC: Cynane, a half-sister to Alexander the Great, accompanies her father on a military campaign, and kills an Illyrian leader named Caeria in hand-to-hand combat.[33]

# 4th century BC: Pythagorean philosopher Timycha is captured by Sicilian soldiers during a fight. She and her husband are the only survivors. When questioned by the Sicilian tyrant, she bit off her tongue and spat it at his feet in a gesture of defiance.[34]

# 4th century BC:[35] Chinese statesman Shang Yang writes The Book of Lord Shang. In it, he recommends dividing the members of an army into three categories; strong men, strong women, and the weak and old of both sexes. He recommended that the strong men serve as the first line of defence, that the strong women defend the forts and build traps, and the weak and elderly of both sexes control the supply chain. He also recommends that these three groups do not intermingle, on the basis that doing so would be detrimental to morale.[36]

# 4th century BC: Roxana is captured during a battle by Alexander the Great. She eventually marries him.[37]

# 334 BC: Ada of Caria allies with Alexander the Great and personally handles a siege to reclaim her throne.[38]

# 333 BC: Battle of Issus. Persian princess Drypteis is probably captured along with the rest of the royal family by Alexander the Great.[citation needed] Stateira is captured as well.[39]

# 332 BC: Nubian queen Candace intimidates Alexander the Great with her armies, causing him to withdraw from Old Ethiopia, instead heading to Egypt.[40]

# 330 BC: Alexander the Great burns down Persepolis, reportedly at the urging of Tha?s, a hetaera who accompanied him on campaigns.[41]

# 320s BC[42]Cleophis surrenders to Alexander the Great when he sieges her city.[43]

# 321 BC: Polyaenus writes that Ptolemy I Soter fights the Cyrenians. Cyrenian women make palisades, dig trenches, provide the men with projectiles, take care of the wounded, and prepare provisions.[citation needed]
# 318 BC: Eurydice III of Macedon fights Polyperchon and Olympias.[44]

# Late 4th century BC-Early 3rd century BC: Amastris, wife of Dionysius of Heraclea, conquers four settlements and unites them into a new city-state, named for herself. [45]

# Early 3rd Century BC: Legendary Empress Jingu of Japan may have led an invasion against Korea at this time. However, the story is regarded as fictional by most scholars.[46]

# Early 3rd Century BC:[47] Huang Guigu acts as a military official under Qin Shi Huang. She leads military campaigns against the people of northern China.[48]

# 3rd Century BC: Berenice I of Egypt fights in battle alongside Ptolemy I.[49]

# 3rd Century BC: Spartan princess Arachidamia acts as captain of a group of female soldiers who fought Pyrrhus during his siege of Lacedaemon.[50]

# 3rd Century BC: Earliest graves of women warriors found near the Sea of Azov are buried at this time.[51]

# 3rd Century BC: Queen Berenice II participates in battle and kills several of her enemies.[52]

# 3rd Century BC: Laodice I fights Ptolemy III Euergetes.[53]

# 3rd century BC: Queen Teuta of Illyria begins piracy against Rome. She eventually fights against Rome when they try to stop the piracy.[54]

# 296 BC: Leontium, an Epicurean philosopher, obtains beans for her fellow Epicureans during a siege of Athens by Demetrius the City-Taker in which many Athenians starved to death.[55]

# 280 BC: Chelidonis, a Spartan princess, captains female Spartans on the wall of Sparta during a siege. She fought with a rope tied around her neck so that she would not be taken alive.[56]

# 271 BC: A group of Gothic women who were captured by Romans while fighting dressed as men are paraded through Rome wearing signs that say "Amazons".[57]

# 217 BC: Arsinoe III of Egypt accompanies Ptolemy IV at the Battle of Raphia. When the battle goes poorly, she appears before the troops and exhorts them to fight to defend their families. She also promises each two minas of gold if they won the battle. Ptolemy's forces win.[58]

# 205 BC: Sophonisba, a Carthaginian, commits suicide rather than be handed over to the Romans as a prisoner of war.[59]

# 2nd century BC: Queen Stratonice tricks Docimus into leaving his stronghold, causing him to be captured by her forces.[60]

# 186 BC: Gaul princess Chiomaca fights the Romans and Galatians. She refuses to leave the battlefield even when the call for retreat is sounded.[61]

# 170 BC: Meroitic queen Candace Shenakdahkete rules Ethiopia. A wall painting on a chapel in Meroe depicts her wearing a helmet and spearing her enemies.[62]

# 2nd century BC: Hypsicratea, concubine of Mithridates VI of Pontus, fights in battles beside him.[63]

# 2nd century BC: Queen Rhodogune of Parthia is informed of a rebellion while preparing for her bath. She vowed not to brush her hair until the rebellion was ended, and directed a long war and won it without breaking her vow.[64]

# 138 BC The Roman Sextus Junius Brutus found that in Lusitania the women were "fighting and perishing in company with the men with such bravery that they uttered no cry even in the midst of slaughter". And that the Bracari women were "bearing arms with the men, who fought never turning, never showing their backs, or uttering a cry."[65]

# 102 BC: A battle between Romans and Celts at Aque Sextiae takes place. Plutarch describes it: "the fight had been no less fierce with the women than with the men themselves... the women charged with swords and axes and fell upon their opponents uttering a hideous outcry."[66]

# 101 BC: General Marius of the Romans fights the Cimbrians. Cimbrian women would follow the men in battle, shooting arrows from mobile "wagon castles", and occasionally leave the wagon castles to fight with swords. Marius reports that when the battle went poorly for the men, the women emerged from their wagon castles with swords and threatened their own men if they did not continue to fight. After reinforcements arrived for the Romans, the men were killed, but the women continued to fight. When the Cimbrian women saw that defeat was imminent, they killed their children and themselves.[67]

# 1st century BC: Nubian queen Amanishabheto reigns. A depiction of her from a pylon tower in a chapel shows her striking the shoulders of prisoners with her lance.[68]

# 48 BC: Arsinoe IV of Egypt fights Cleopatra VII.[69]

# 42 BC: Fulvia, wife of Mark Antony, organized an uprising against Augustus.[70]

# 31 BC: Cleopatra VII of Egypt combines her naval forces with that of Mark Antony to fight Octavian. She is defeated.[71]

# 1st century: A woman is entombed with a sword in Tabriz, Iran. The tomb is rediscovered in 2004.[72]

# 1st century: Agrippina the elder accompanies Germanicus to war.[73]

# 1st century Cartimandua, queen of the Brigantes, allies with the Roman Empire and battles other Britons.[74]

# 1st century: Agrippina the Younger, wife of Emperor Claudius, commands Roman legions in Britain. The defeated Celtic captives bowed before her throne and ignored that of the emperor.[75]

# 1st century:[76] Tacitus writes that Triaria, wife of Lucius Vitellius the younger, was accused of having armed herself with a sword, and behaving with arrogance and cruelty while at Tarracina, a captured city.[77]

# 9: Thusnelda elopes with Arminius, triggering Arminius to begin an insurrection against her father when he accuses him of carrying her off.[78]

# 14-18: Chinese woman Lu Mu leads a rebellion against Wang Mang.[79]

# 21: Debate erupts as to whether or not Roman governors' wives should be with their husbands in the providences. Caecina Serverus said that they should not because they "paraded among the soldiers" and that "a woman had presided at the exercises of the cohorts and the manoeuvres of the legions".[80]

# 40-43: The Trung Sisters and Phung Thi Chinh fight against the Chinese in Vietnam.[81]

# 60-61: Boudica, a Celtic chieftain in Britain, leads an uprising against the occupying Roman forces.[82] The Romans attempted to raise the morale of their troops by informing them that her army contained more women than men. [83]

# 63: Tacitus writes in his Annals that women of rank entered the gladitorial arena.[84]

# 69-70: Seeress Veleda of the Bructeri tribe wields a great deal of influence in the Batavian rebellion.[85]

# 2nd century: Polyaenus describes Queen Tania of Dardania, who took the throne after her husband's death and and personally went into battle, riding on a chariot.[86]

# 100: Juvenal records a female gladiator named Eppia who left her husband and children to pursue an affair with a fellow gladiator.[87]

# 195: Julia Domna accompanies her husband, Emperor Septimius Severus, in his campaigns in Mesopotamia.[88]

# 3rd century: Zenobia, the queen of Palmyra, leads a revolt in the East against the Roman Empire.[89]

# 226 - 651: Period of the Sassanid Empire in Persia. The legendary warrior woman Gordafarid may have lived at this time.[citation needed]

# 248: Trieu Thi Trinh fights the Chinese in Vietnam. Her army contained several thousand men and women.[90]

# 3rd century: Two women warriors from the Danube region in Europe serve in a Roman military unit and are buried in Britain.[91]

# 4th century: Li Xiu takes her father's place as military commander for the Emperor of China and defeats a rebellion.[92]

# 350: Queen Majaji of the Lovedu tribe is killed defending the city of Meroe from Rome.[citation needed]

# 375: Queen Mavia battles the Romans.[93]

# 378: Roman Empress Albia Dominica organizes her people in defense against the invading Goths after her husband had died in battle.[citation needed]

# 450: A Moche woman is buried with two ceremonial war clubs and 28 spear throwers. The grave is rediscovered in 2006, and is the first known grave of a Moche woman to contain weapons.[94]

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