Queen Artemisia I of Caria — 5th Century BC

Queen Artemisia I of Caria stands as one of the most enigmatic and formidable figures of the ancient world, a Greek queen who, against the tide of Hellenic solidarity, allied herself with the Achaemenid Persian Empire during its monumental Second Invasion of Greece in 480 BCE. As ruler of Halicarnassus and other Carian cities, she commanded her own contingent of ships within Xerxes I's vast fleet. Her story, primarily recounted by Herodotus, reveals a woman of extraordinary intelligence, tactica…