Artemisia II.

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Artemisia with drinking vessel and urn with the ashes of her deceased husband in Schönbrunn Palace Park . Marble statue of Jakob Christoph Schletterer , completed by Johann Baptist Hagenauer around 1780

Artemisia II ( Greek Ἀρτεμισία Artemisía ; † 351/350 BC) was the older of the two daughters of the Carian satrap and dynast Hekatomnos , the founder of the Hecatomnid dynasty . She was the sister and wife of Hekatomnos' successor Maussolos . After the death of her husband, she took power in Caria and ruled energetically and successfully, but she died after two years of sole rule. During this time she had the mausoleum of Halicarnassus built as a burial place for Maussolus .

Youth and role as co-ruler

Artemisia probably grew up at her father's court in Mylasa ; only Maussolos moved the residence to Halicarnassus . Maussolos followed in 377 BC. His father as ruler of Caria and, although he was under the sovereignty of the Persian king, was able to achieve a largely independent position of power. His sister wife Artemisia acted as co-regent. Although this is not clear from the information in the literary sources, it is documented in writing. However, Maussolos was the politically clearly dominant partner. In a joint decree, the siblings gave the city of Knossos the Proxenie, the status of state “hospitality”, whereby both guaranteed the fixed legal validity of the decree: “It was decided by Maussolos and Artemisia”. Around 357/355 BC The council of the city of Erythrai decided to honor the ruling couple for their services to the city: According to the decree of the council, a bronze statue of the dynast was set up in the market and a stone statue of Artemisia in the temple of Athens , the main temple of Erythrai.

The main reason for sibling marriage was probably the need to raise the status of the dynasty and to establish its special identity.

Sole rule

After Maussolos' death, the childless Artemisia ruled for two years from 353/352 to 351/350 BC. Only over Caria. However, there is no source evidence that she officially carried the satrap title.

The ruler of Athens was in danger. The Athenian politician Demosthenes urged 351 BC. In his speech on the freedom of the Rhodians for a military intervention by Athens on Rhodes with the aim of wresting the island ruled by local oligarchs under the rule of the Carian dynasty from the Hecatomnids and bringing the exiled Rhodian democrats to power there . He asserted that it was shameful for the Athenians to be afraid of a woman. He was also of the opinion that Artemisia was not really interested in owning Rhodes. The island only played a role in its considerations insofar as it could serve it to meet the Persian king Artaxerxes III. popular, which she no longer has any reason to, given its current weakness. Actually, it is more in the interests of the ruler that Rhodes come under the Athenian sphere of power than that it is under Persian control; therefore they would only half-heartedly resist an attack by the Athenian fleet. With this, Demosthenes largely denied the independence of Carian foreign policy. His assessment of the situation is judged to be unrealistic in research and his presentation of the Persian-Carian relationship is described as distorted. The citizens rejected the proposed campaign.

When the oligarchs ruling Rhodes were no longer in danger of an Athenian attack, they tried to make themselves independent of the Hecatomnid dynasty and even wanted to conquer Halicarnassus. The reason was probably that the oligarchs were merchants and ship owners, whose business was affected by the growing importance of the Halicarnassus trading center. A permanent occupation of mainland Carian territory was probably not intended, because the Persian great king would not have tolerated this; but at least the attackers could hope to capture or destroy a considerable part of the Hecatomnid navy and its merchant ships and thus decisively weaken the competing trading power, perhaps also to overthrow the dynasty.

A surprise did not succeed, however, because Artemisia found out about the impending attack early on and was able to prepare. She had a well-equipped fleet secretly brought into a hidden port while the citizens of Halicarnassus, at her behest, greeted the nearby Rhodian armed forces and pretended to submit. Apparently, the attackers had already expected to be supported in the city by the opposition forces there. When the Rhodians invaded the city, Artemisia ran out of the hidden harbor with her fleet and seized the Rhodian ships, which had been bared by her crew. The islanders who went ashore were defeated and the Carians drove with their fleet to Rhodes. There they could land unhindered because the residents believed their compatriots would come back victorious. So Artemisia got the island under her control. She had noble Rhodians executed and two bronze statues erected as a monument to victory, one of which represented herself. The Rhodians later rebuilt the site and made it inaccessible; therefore his name was Abaton .

Artemisia also managed by a ruse to bring the apostate Herakleia on the Latmos back under her rule. After she had not been able to take the city straight away, she held a ritual celebration in the nearby grove of the "mother of gods" Cybele as part of the popular Cybele and Attis cult, in which eunuchs , women, flute players and drummers took part. The orgy-like festival was so attractive that residents came out to see it. Thereupon the Carian soldiers, lurking in an ambush, penetrated Herakleia, which had been stripped of its defenders, and captured it. Opposite her overlord Artaxerxes III. Artemisia, however, continued the course of her late brother-husband with a cautious policy.

Tradition emphasizes Artemisia's incomparable love for her brother and husband, as well as her great pain over his loss. According to legend, after his death she ingested his ashes mixed with water in order to be a living grave for him, and in his eternal memory she almost completed the mausoleum of Halicarnassus , which was one of the seven wonders of the world . Artemisia called upon the most important Greek artists to decorate this famous tomb. She also hosted a lavish speech contest to hold commendatory obituaries for her deceased husband. Famous Greek speakers such as Theopompus , Naukrates of Erythrai and Theodectes attended, supposedly even Isocrates . Theopompos emerged as the winner of this agon .

According to the sources, Artemisia was dying of grief for her beloved husband; she only survived him by two years. Successors were her siblings Idrieus and Ada, who were also married .

reception

Cicero named in his Tusculanae disputationes Artemisia as an example of a person who spent their life in mourning after the loss, because they daily freshly visualized their misfortune and did not let the memory wither over time.

The Roman writer Valerius Maximus cited Artemisia's attachment among the examples of conjugal love in his collection of historical memorabilia, the Facta et dicta memorabilia . Not only did she build the famous tomb, she also wanted to become a “living and breathing grave” for her husband.

The Roman scholar Pliny the Elder reports in his encyclopedia Naturalis historia that Artemisia sought the fame that a plant was named after her. She gave her name to the plant, which was previously called parthenis . It is the mugwort , which is called Artemisia vulgaris in Latin today . However, Pliny also gives an alternative etymology of the plant name.

In the 2nd century Aulus Gellius compiled messages on Artemisia's grief in his Noctes Atticae , emphasizing the uniqueness of her passion.

The church father Hieronymus praised Artemisia's loyalty to her husband in his work Adversus Iovinianum .

The humanist writer Giovanni Boccaccio dedicated a chapter to Artemisia of his collection of biographies Of Famous Women ( De mulieribus claris ) , written in 1361/1362 . There he glorified her love for her husband, the establishment of the mausoleum and the victory over the Rhodians. He did not want to expose his audience to sibling marriage, which is extremely offensive for Christian readers; hence he claimed that his heroine's parents and homeland were unknown. Several Renaissance humanists later wrote works praising the virtues and achievements of outstanding women, with Artemisia being recognized as an exemplary wife. Among the authors who praised them include Bartolomeo Goggio ( De laudibus mulierum , around 1487), Jacopo Filippo Foresti ( De plurimis claris selectisque mulieribus , 1497), Agostino Strozzi ( Defensio mulierum , around 1501), Mario Equicola ( De mulieribus , around 1501) and Agrippa von Nettesheim ( De nobilitate et praecellentia foeminei sexus , 1529). In the late 15th century, Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti compared the Carian ruler in his collection of biographies, Gynevera de le clare donne, to his own wife, Francesca Bruni.

literature

Web links

Commons : Artemisia II  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Elizabeth D. Carney: Women and dunasteia in Caria. In: American Journal of Philology 126, 2005, pp. 65–91, here: 71 f.
  2. ↑ Jonas Crampa: Labraunda. Swedish Excavations and Researches , Vol. 3/2, Stockholm 1972, p. 6; Text of the inscription with English translation and commentary p. 39 f. See Pierre Debord: L'Asie Mineure au IV e siècle (412–323 aC) , Bordeaux 1999, p. 139.
  3. ↑ Hilmar Klinkott : On political acculturation among the Achaimenids. The test case Caria. In: Hartmut Blum et al. (Ed.): Brückenland Anatolien? , Tübingen 2002, pp. 173-204, here: 181; Stephen Ruzicka: Politics of a Persian Dynasty , Norman / London 1992, p. 42.
  4. ↑ Text, translation and commentary by Helmut Engelmann , Reinhold Merkelbach (Ed.): The inscriptions of Erythrai and Klazomenai , Part 1, Bonn 1972, pp. 53–56. See Pierre Debord: L'Asie Mineure au IV e siècle (412-323 aC) , Bordeaux 1999, pp. 139, 392; Elizabeth D. Carney: Women and dunasteia in Caria. In: American Journal of Philology 126, 2005, pp. 65–91, here: 72 f.
  5. ↑ Elizabeth D. Carney: Women and dunasteia in Caria. In: American Journal of Philology 126, 2005, pp. 65-91, here: 81-84.
  6. ↑ Diodorus 16,36,2; Strabo 14.2.17. For the chronology see Jan Radicke : The speech of Demosthenes for the freedom of the Rhodians (or. 15) , Stuttgart / Leipzig 1995, p. 34 f .; Simon Hornblower: Mausolus , Oxford 1982, pp. 39-41.
  7. ↑ Stephen Ruzicka: Politics of a Persian Dynasty , Norman / London 1992, pp. 100-102; Pierre Debord: L'Asie Mineure au IV e siècle (412–323 aC) , Bordeaux 1999, p. 140.
  8. ↑ Demosthenes, On the Freedom of the Rhodians 11 f. Cf. Jan Radicke: Demosthenes' speech for the freedom of the Rhodians (or. 15) , Stuttgart / Leipzig 1995, p. 57 f .; Stephen Ruzicka: Politics of a Persian Dynasty , Norman / London 1992, pp. 101 f., 107 f.
  9. ↑ Stephen Ruzicka: Politics of a Persian Dynasty , Norman / London 1992, p. 109 f.
  10. ↑ Stephen Ruzicka: Politics of a Persian Dynasty , Norman / London 1992, p. 110 f.
  11. ↑ Vitruvius , About Architecture 2,8,14 f. See Pierre Debord: L'Asie Mineure au IV e siècle (412-323 aC) , Bordeaux 1999, p. 400, 407; Gabriele Bockisch : The Carians and their dynasts. In: Klio 51, 1969, pp. 117-175, here: 162 f .; on the controversial credibility of Vitruvius's portrayal of Elizabeth D. Carney: Women and dunasteia in Caria. In: American Journal of Philology 126, 2005, pp. 65–91, here: 67 f. and Violaine Sebillotte Cuchet: The Warrior Queens of Caria (Fifth to Fourth Centuries BCE). In: Jacqueline Fabre-Serris, Alison Keith (eds.): Women & War in Antiquity , Baltimore 2015, pp. 228–246, here: 233–235.
  12. ↑ Polyainos 8.53.4. See Simon Hornblower: Mausolus , Oxford 1982, p. 322 f .; Stephen Ruzicka: Politics of a Persian Dynasty , Norman / London 1992, p. 42.
  13. ↑ Demosthenes, On the Freedom of the Rhodians 11. Cf. Stephen Ruzicka: Politics of a Persian Dynasty , Norman / London 1992, pp. 101 f.
  14. ↑ See Elizabeth D. Carney: Women and dunasteia in Caria. In: American Journal of Philology 126, 2005, pp. 65-91, here: 78; Simon Hornblower: Mausolus , Oxford 1982, pp. 237-240.
  15. ↑ Aulus Gellius , Noctes Atticae 10.18.1-6; Strabo 14,2,16 f .; Pliny , Naturalis historia 36.30; Cicero , Tusculanae disputationes 3.75; Suda , Lemmata Theodectes and Isocrates . See Stephen Ruzicka: Politics of a Persian Dynasty , Norman / London 1992, p. 103 f .; Gabriele Bockisch: The Carians and their dynasts. In: Klio 51, 1969, pp. 117-175, here: 146-149; Simon Hornblower: Mausolus , Oxford 1982, pp. 253-260, 267.
  16. ↑ Diodorus 16.45.7; Strabo 14.2.17. On mourning, see Elizabeth D. Carney: Women and dunasteia in Caria. In: American Journal of Philology 126, 2005, pp. 65–91, here: p. 66 and note 14.
  17. ^ Marcus Tullius Cicero, Tusculanae disputationes 3.75.
  18. ↑ Valerius Maximus, Facta et dicta memorabilia 4,6.
  19. ↑ Pliny, Naturalis historia 25,36,73. See the notes of the editors Roderich König and Wolfgang Glöckner: C. Plinius Secundus d. Ä .: Natural history. Book XXV , Darmstadt 1996, p. 143.
  20. ↑ Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 10.18.
  21. ↑ Hieronymus, Adversus Iovinianum 1.44.
  22. ↑ Giovanni Boccaccio, Of Famous Women 57. Cf. Margaret Franklin: Boccaccio's Heroines , Aldershot 2006, p. 155 f.
  23. ↑ Stephen Kolsky: The Ghost of Boccaccio , Turnhout 2005, pp. 86 f., 155 f., 187, 218; Margaret Franklin: Boccaccio's Heroines , Aldershot 2006, p. 155, note 92.
personal data
SURNAME Artemisia II.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ruler of Caria and Rhodes
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century BC BC or 4th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH around 350 BC Chr.