Four Ancient Queens

1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Women's History
by Constance Jones

Where do you go to learn about Madonna or foot binding? What about hot pants, the Queen of Sheba, Clara Barton or the Bread and Roses Strike of 1912? 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Women's History is a lively, approachable introduction to these and 995 other topics that appear on the dazzling canvas of women's history.

In clear and engaging prose, Constance Jones gives readers an entertaining and panoramic view of the female half of history. She covers the people that we all ought to know, like Queen Elizabeth I, Helen Keller, and Marie Curie, as well as other leading female politicians, artists, athletes, physicians, teachers, soldiers, criminals, spiritual leaders, entertainers, poets, inventors, lovers, and thrill seekers of every sort. In addition to presenting a well-rounded survey of the achievements of women, she offers a healthy smattering of amusing, startling, and scandalous tidbits--the naughty stuff that makes history so fun.

1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Women's History puts history at your fingertips--in pithy, easily read entries, lavishly illustrated with nearly one hundred photographs. Like all the books in the 1001 Things series, it can be read from beginning to end or opened at random and browsed with pleasure. This is history the way it should be taught: concise, fun, and accessible.

1. The Queen of Sheba

Reigning in the tenth century B.C.E., Balkis was the celebrated queen who met with King Solomon of Israel. According to the Bible, which refers to her only as the Queen of Sheba, she traveled to Jerusalem to learn what she could of Solomon's legendary wisdom. She arrived "with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices, and very much gold, and precious stones," evidence of the wealth of her people. Balkis was one of the earliest rulers of Sheba, located in southwestern Arabia where the Republic of Yemen now lies. It was one of the region's more powerful states until the second century B.C.E. and profited greatly from trade routes to Palestine.

2. Semiramis (d. 807 B.C.E.)

After the death of her husband, King Shamshi-Adad V, the Assyrian queen known as Semiramis ruled as regent for her son from 811 to 807 b.c.e. Semiramis defeated the Medes and Chaldeans in war and imported some elements of Babylonian religion. Legend erroneously attributes the building of Babylon to her; it also holds that she ordered the execution of lovers who failed to please her.

3. Salome Alexandra (d. 67 B.C.E.)

Married to two successive kings of Judea, Salome Alexandra became king herself in 76 B.C.E. following the death of her second husband. She carried on the rule of the Maccabees, or Hasmoneans, a family of leaders instrumental in winning freedom for the Jews. During her reign she played a pivotal role in a battle between two Jewish sects, supporting the Pharisees in their bitter dispute with the Sadducees. Her intervention helped the Pharisees, originally known as the Hasidim, oust their rivals from positions of religious and political influence. Credited as the originators of rabbinic Judaism, the Pharisees believed every aspect of life should be governed according to divine law.

4. Cleopatra (69-30 B.C.E.)

Ascending the Egyptian throne as co-ruler with her brother Ptolemy XIII in 51 B.C.E., Cleopatra struggled with him for two years before he usurped her power. Another two years elapsed before Julius Caesar came to her aid and vanquished Ptolemy. Leaving the government in the hands of her younger brother - now her husband as well - Cleopatra moved to Rome as Caesar's mistress. Caesar was soon assassinated, however, and she returned to Egypt and murdered her brother to make her son, Cesarion, her co-ruler. In 42 b.c.e., she started her famed love affair with Marc Antony. After a few years in Egypt, he returned to Rome and married the sister of Octavian, the future emperor. Cleopatra reunited with him in 36 B.C.E. while he led a military campaign against the Parthians; he divorced his wife and they married. They lived together in Egypt until Octavian declared a war of vengeance. Joining Antony in battle, Cleopatra stood by him until the naval engagement at Actium in 31 B.C.E. Convinced they could not win, they fled to Alexandria. There, a rumor of Cleopatra's death induced Antony to kill himself; Cleopatra soon did the same by allowing an asp to bite her. Octavian then executed Cesarion and made Egypt a province of the Roman Empire.

Warrior Queens

5. Empress Jingo (c. 169-269)

The military ambitions of Empress Jingo had a profound influence on the early cultural development of Japan. She became regent of Japan for her son Ojin when her husband, Emperor Chuai, died. According to tradition, she sent a large army to invade Korea, which she conquered by 203. She ruled Japan for sixty-nine years, fending off a number of challenges to her authority. Her conquest of Korea opened several centuries of cultural exchange between the two countries that brought not only Korean but Chinese elements into Japanese civilization. Empress Jingo lives on in Japanese tradition as a great ruler and goddess.

6. Zenobia (d. after 274)

One of history's great warrior queens, Zenobia ruled her domain with an eye toward enlarging it as much as possible. She reigned over Palmyra, a city on the northern edge of the Syrian Desert, with her husband, Odenathus, during the third century. When the king was assassinated in 267 - possibly with the collusion of his queen - Zenobia gained control of the prospering city-state, reigning as regent for her young son. Feigning loyalty to Rome, she went out to conquer nearby peoples. Military campaigns expanded her dominion to Syria, Egypt and Asia Minor, and she announced her independence from Rome. In 272, Emperor Lucius Domitius Aurelian invaded her realm and captured its outlying areas, then laid siege to Palmyra itself. When the city fell, Aurelian captured Zenobia and left Palmyra in ruins. He put Zenobia on display in Rome before sending her to live on an estate at nearby Tibur.

7. The Kahina

In the eighth century, a Berber leader known as the kahina (meaning "prophetess" or "sorceress") repelled invading Arabs to maintain the independence of the region occupied by modern Tunisia. She achieved this by uniting the Berber and Byzantine armies and led an independent state for several years until she died in battle.

8. Aethelflaed (d. 918)

Queen of the Anglo-Saxon state of Mercia, in what is now central England, Aethelflaed fought alongside her husband and brother to defend her people against Welsh and Viking (Danish) invaders. After her husband's death in 911, she ruled alone but lost none of the bravery that made her such an effective warrior. She was also noted for the imposing fortifications she built to protect Mercia.

9. Tamara (c. 1160-1212)

Queen of the Asian empire of Georgia, Tamara guided her land to the height of its power. She rode into battle with her army, earning the sobriquet "King Tamara," and was famed for her brilliant statesmanship and military strategy. Her conquest of neighboring Russians, Turks, Persians and Armenians marked the peak of Georgia's prosperity and vitality. Reputedly insatiable in matters carnal, she was nonetheless canonized by the Georgian church.

A Virgin Queen

10. Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603)

The daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn ushered England into the Renaissance and transformed it into one of history's greatest world powers. She had to fight for the throne because Henry beheaded her mother to marry Jane Seymour, who bore his only legitimate son, Edward VI. Imprisoned for asserting her birthright, she finally took the crown in 1558, after the death of Edward and the reign of her half-sister Mary Tudor. As queen, she made Protestantism the official religion of England and ushered in an era of peace, prosperity and exceptional cultural advancement. She successfully quelled plots and intrigue in her court - notably the tumult over Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots - and contained disputes with Spain, routing the formidable Spanish Armada in 1588. Establishing England's dominance as a naval power, she secured extensive claims in the New World, thereby inaugurating more than four centuries of staggering growth for the British Empire.

Copyright © 1998 by Constance Jones.

About the Author

Constance Jones is the author of eleven books, and has contributed to, ghostwritten, and edited many more. She studied women's history at the doctoral level at the City University of New York, where she was awarded the prestigious four-year University Fellowship. Jones lives in New York City.