If only for the fact of facing the "almighty" Rome, she would already deserve the distinction of having a place in history, there would be more reason for it if the one who led her own to fight against the fearsome legions was a woman. The protagonists of this article are three ancient women who, with weapons in hand, leading their people or with their women's weapons, challenged the power of Rome.
Cleopatra
Her full name was Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ (Cleopatra Filopator Nea Thea ) and was the seventh to bear that name within the family that dominated the country of the Nile since Ptolemy Soter, Alexander's diadochus, settled in Egypt after his death and, after a bloody war with his former companions, proclaimed himself pharaoh. She is the daughter of Cleopatra V and Ptolemy XII "Auletes" (she was called the "flautist" because he was a playful cretin), she was born in 69 BC
Contrary to what some think (that if she was dark-skinned, or even of black factions as some associations of African-American Americans claim), Cleopatra was totally Greek. The Lagids they adopted the pharaonic ritual of marrying brothers to preserve royal blood, so the queen of the Nile did not have a drop of Egyptian or African blood. What is known is that Cleopatra VII she was the first Ptolemaic queen to learn the Egyptian language. All the testimonies of her time indicate that she was a very intelligent, cultured and refined woman. When she first appeared in public at the age of fourteen, in addition to her vernacular Greek, she already spoke Demotic Egyptian, Hebrew, Syrian, Aramaic, and some Latin. As a kind of forerunner of Hypatia, she was educated by a cast of Greek preceptors and was a woman versed in literature, music, politics, mathematics, medicine, and astronomy. Plutarch said of her:
It is pretended that her beauty, considered in itself, was not so incomparable as to cause astonishment and admiration, but her treatment was such that it was impossible to resist. The charms of her figure, seconded by the courtesies of her conversation and by all the graces that emerge from a happy personality of hers, left a sting in the mind that penetrated to the most alive. He possessed an infinite voluptuousness when speaking, and so much sweetness and harmony in the sound of his voice that his tongue was like a multi-stringed instrument that he handled easily and from which he extracted, as he saw fit, the most delicate nuances of language; Plato recognizes four types of flattery, but she had a thousand.
When she was eighteen years old, her father drowned in the Nile. Because of her death, her twelve-year-old brother, Ptolemy XIII , and she inherited Egypt as co-regents and husbands. She was not her only brother:she had another brother and later husband, Ptolemy XIV , and three more sisters, two older, Cleopatra VI (mysteriously missing) and Berenice IV , and a minor, Arsinoe IV .
She was running the fall of 48 B.C. Egypt was half ruined when Cleopatra fought with her brother for the throne and was expatriated to Syria. Famines, great inequalities and permanent attempts at usurpation, even by her sister Arsinoe de ella, lavished the country of the two lands. Her brother and her pharaoh, Ptolemy XIII, was a child at the hands of three schemers; the eunuch Potinus , her tutor Teodoro and the captain of the guard, Aquilas . It was these three men who decided to assassinate Pompey the Great when, fleeing from Farsalia (Greece), he landed in Egypt requesting help and asylum from Ptolemy. They thought that this way they would please César , when, in fact, they angered him by showing him the head of the one who had been her father-in-law. They paid dearly for it.
Caesar received the applicant in Alexandria, who appeared before him, circumventing the iron surveillance that Aquilas had organized. The consul agreed to mediate between the two brothers as testamentary of their father. Rome had been the guardian of Egypt for years because of the astronomical debts that the last lagid kings dragged.
After several conflicts, the attack by Ptolemy's supporters on the city that resulted in the burning of the Great Library, intrigues, executions and battles, Ptolemy XIII drowned in the Nile, like his father, Arsinoe was taken to Rome loaded of chains and Cleopatra remained as the sole regent of Egypt, in collusion with Caesar, the queen's ally and lover. Perhaps her triumphal entry into Rome along with the dictator provoked the staunchest Republicans. This happy union was cut short on the Ides of 44 B.C. On the steps of Pompey's theatre. Caesar was assassinated by various traditionalist elements and Cleopatra had to flee Rome with her son Caesarion , fruit of her relationship with César.
She just returned to Egypt, she ordered her brother and her husband Ptolemy XIV to be poisoned, thus avoiding any attempted usurpation. The situation in Egypt was dire:blocked irrigation canals, plagues and famine everywhere. Little more than a year later, another arrogant and needy Roman knocked on her door. He was Mark Antony , faithful legacy of her murdered husband and her most passionate avenger. Antonio had just broken the balance between the republican traditionalists and his fellow triumvirate Octavio Augusto , Caesar's successor, and Lepidus , a straw man. Antony asked Cleopatra for support, which she agreed to even though her country was on the brink of ruin. After a sensual encounter in Tarsus , in her lavish royal trireme, Cleopatra demanded the execution of her sister Arsinoe as a prerequisite for helping Antony, who agreed to her proposal. On that date, both fell passionately in love. Antony later returned to Rome and married Octavia, the sister of his then friend and future great adversary. Cleopatra had two children with Antony, Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene .
Four years later, Antony returned to Egypt and married his beloved, without first having disowned Octavia. That torrid adultery was the trigger for hostilities between Octavio and Antonio. While the former endured hardship in Rome, faithful to his policy of austerity and work, the latter squandered the Empire's resources from his palace in Alexandria. Octavio knew how to turn the entire western half of the state against Antonio, especially the more conservative factions of the Senate that were scandalized by the licentious life of Antonio and Cleopatra, accused of regicide, incest, lust, etc. The critical point was passed by Octavio when, violating the secrecy that protected him, he publicly read Antonio's will in the Senate. He arbitrarily granted his wife control of the Roman Middle East, gave the government of Armenia and Cyrene to his two sons and, worst of all, showed his desire to be buried in Alexandria. That smothered the rancid Roman aristocracy, which declared war on Egypt. It was 32 BC
The decisive battle between both opponents took place on the shores of Actium (Greece), on September 2, 31 B.C. The Roman fleet commanded by Agrippa cornered the Egyptian squad. Cleopatra fled in the face of Roman pressure and Antony abandoned her men to join her. Less than a year later, in July 30 BC, Octavian entered Alexandria. Antonio, credulous of a false report that announced the death of his wife, committed suicide by stabbing himself with his gladio. Octavian met with Cleopatra. The princeps of Rome intended to lead her to Rome, but she knew that if she agreed to accompany him she would parade in chains as her sister Arsinoe had. Seeing that she was not able to seduce him with her charms, as Octavio was a cold and calculating man, she chose to follow her husband to the world of the dead. According to the most common version, she was an asp provided by one of her faithful slaves who had the honor of depriving Octavian Augustus of the pleasure of showing the arrogant queen of Egypt as his slave. It was August 12, 30 BC
Boudica, the British queen
Boudica , also known as Boadicea in Latin sources, she was the queen of the Eceni , British tribe that inhabited the present county of Nortfolk, to the east of England. Coming from the indigenous nobility, her husband was Prasutagus , king of the Eceni. Both Cassius Dio and Tacitus agree on the physical and emotional description of this extraordinary woman. According to the latter " she had a greater intelligence than women generally have ”. She seems to have been a stocky woman, much higher than the average Roman height, with a hard voice and an alienated look. She was dressed in multi-colored robes girdled by a cloak and her red hair hung down to her hips. On her neck stood out a thick gold torque, a Celtic symbol of the power of the indigenous oligarchy.
The land of the Iceni had not suffered the horrors of war during the conquest of Britain in 43. This tribe was an ally of the Romans and therefore was left out of the reprisals and destruction caused by said invasion in the time of the emperor Claudius . But the Roman occupation ended up stirring up the British independentist pretensions, well seen and fed by the toughest faction of the Eceni nobility. Several neighboring fractious tribes rose up against the Roman authority, which acted forcefully. The veiled support of the Iceni for these tribes did not go unnoticed by the governor Publius Ostorio Escápula , which even threatened them with total disarmament.
Prasutagus, the Eceni king, was a good vassal of Rome. His reign was long and calm, although an important detail would condition the future of his people:he had no sons, only daughters. This thorny succession issue did not pose a problem for the indigenous society, which would accept it willingly, but it did conflict with the clientele agreements signed with Rome. Prasutagus's great mistake was to appoint the emperor as co-heir of his daughters, a common practice in those times. With this he hoped to maintain in his succession the balance of power that he had achieved in his territory. But the Lex Romana did not contemplate it that way, the only possible inheritance that he accepted was from fathers to sons.
When the king died, the territory remained in the hands of the governor of Britannia, who ignored the previous agreements and acted in the area as had been customary in the rest of the provinces of the Empire. As if it were conquered land, much land was expropriated, much property confiscated, and the arrogant Eceni nobility were treated as if they were uncivilized barbarians. The situation worsened when Boudica, the king's widow, was unable to repay the loans her husband had acquired from Rome. According to Cassius Dio, the publicans unleashed a savage plundering operation to collect the debt, looting villages and enslaving many Eceni who could not afford the excessive imperial taxes. Tacitus highlighted within these events the terrible behavior of the attorney Deciano , apparently the instigator of a bloody collection action that ended with Boudica herself whipped and her two daughters raped by her. The queen never forgave such an outrage and began plotting a full-scale revolt against the power of Rome.
The opportunity came in the year 61. At that time, a certain Caius Suetonius Paulinus was governor of Britain. . Fresh from Mauritania, he set out for the island of Mona (now Anglesey) to root out resistance from the last druidic stronghold. Boudica took advantage of the governor's absence from British soil to conspire with her nobles and unleash the rebellion. Soon the revolt spread to the neighbors of her trinovantes (present-day Essex County)
Boudica's first target was Camulodunum (today Colchester), main city of the Trinovante territory and at that time a Roman colony. The city garrison asked for help in holding back the rebel horde. But the procurator Deciano sent a sad support force of two hundred auxiliaries that was unable to stop the insurgents. The city was destroyed and burned, including the temple to the imperial cult in which its last defenders took refuge. All of them without exception were put to the knife, men women and children.
The only one who tried to rescue the Camulodunum garrison was Fifth Petillo Cerial , legate of the Legio IX Hispana and future governor of Britannia. He was caught in an ambush in a forest near the city and, after a fierce fight, he had to abandon his purpose, losing many men in the attempt. The one who fled miserably was the miserly Decian Cato, who, seeing the turn events were taking and knowing that he was guilty of that revolt due to his inexhaustible greed, chose to leave Britannia and hide in Gaul Belgium.
The capture of Camulodunum and the subsequent victory against the troops of Petilius Cerial gave strength to the insurgents, who continued their overwhelming advance towards Londinium (London). Gaius Suetonius, now free from the campaign he had undertaken in Wales, directed his troops there as soon as he learned of Boudica's intentions, but faced with the apparent impossibility of being able to defend it properly, he chose to withdraw to a more optimal place to fight and abandon it to your luck. Again, the city was razed and its inhabitants massacred. And it wasn't the last, Verulamium (St. Alban) suffered the same fate…
Gaius Suetonius was the one who chose the place where he would face the insurgents. This decisive battle took place in an undetermined location between Londinium and Viroconium (Wroxeter) A priori, the Roman forces had everything to lose. The insurgents outnumbered them 5 to 1, but Suetonius chose the scene of battle well. It was a plain that stretched out in front of a narrow wooded gorge that did not allow the enemy to encircle their lines. This topographic condition averted the indigenous numerical advantage. In addition, the Roman troops were very well trained and equipped, while the indigenous mass, made up of levies of children, men and the elderly, was much more difficult to lead and mobilize.
The morning of the fight Suetonius got up at dawn, warned by his tribunes that the rebel army had formed up in front of them. A vague line formed in a crescent unfolded before him, closed behind by the Britons' own chariots that served as shelter for expectant women and children before a presumed great victory. Suetonius, well trained in the warlike deeds of Mario and César, saw in that the way to turn a British feast into a real hell. He formed his men with the classic double line in the form of saw teeth. According to Tacitus, who narrated these events fifty years after they occurred, Boudica delivered this harangue to his troops:
Nothing is safe from Roman arrogance and pride. They will disfigure the sacred and deflower our virgins. Win the battle or perish, such is my decision as a woman:there the men if they want to live and be slaves
Suetonius did the same with his:
Ignore the cries of these savages. There are more women than men in their ranks. They are not soldiers and are not properly equipped. We've beaten them before, and when they see our iron and feel our courage, they'll give in on the spot. Stand shoulder to shoulder. Throw the spears, then move forward:take them down with your shields and finish them off with your swords. Forget the loot. Just win and you will have it all
That was how it happened. Suetonius formed up the troops and awaited developments. The Britons, impatient and unaware of the Roman tricks, after hours of observing the enemy's perfectly motionless formation, charged the front line. The gorge shortened the magnitude of the noisy British charge, which crashed into a hail of spears from the Roman front line. The pile (plural of pilum ) were a devastating weapon. Once nailed, they left the shields useless, or pierced the unarmored bodies of the natives like a pin through butter. After the second hail of spears, a tapestry of corpses and the dying stretched out in front of the gorge. It was time to move on. At a steady pace and gladio In hand, the Roman troops overwhelmed the Britons, slashing at them from their secure shield wall and driving them toward their chariots with cavalry charges from the flanks. It is assumed that more than forty thousand Britons were trampled to death after the disbandment of the insurgent army upon seeing the implacable advance of the legions and close to eighty thousand at the end of that bloody day in which nothing was respected. The British impedimenta itself acted as a dam and congested the flight. The legions massacred the indigenous masses, men, women and children, in one of the bloodiest episodes in the entire history of Roman Britain. It may have been propaganda, but classical historians attribute only four hundred casualties to Roman troops compared to thousands of fallen Britons. It is probable knowing other battles similar to this one, such as the one between Lucullus and Tigranes, where Rome only lost thirty men and Armenia twenty thousand.
According to Tacitus, Boudica was poisoned before falling into Roman hands, although according to Dio Cassius he was able to survive that disaster, although he fell ill and died later. Boudica's revolt marks the last great indigenous attempt to free themselves from the Roman yoke. Except for two little-documented riots and some Pictish riots, the island would remain peaceful until the arrival of the Angles and Saxons in the 5th century.
Zenobia of Palmyra
The legendary queen Zenobia of Palmyra An educated woman with a strong temperament and vision of the state, she was able to fill the power vacuum in the Middle East during the turbulent second half of the 3rd century. It is not possible to talk about Zenobia without talking about her beloved homeland, Palmyra (today near Tadmor, Syria), at that time one of the richest and most splendid cities of the Roman East. “The city of date trees ”, translated from Aramaic, was located in the Oasis of Afqa and was an obligatory passage for the caravan routes that linked Persia with the cities of the Hellenistic East. That privileged position made the Nabataean tribes that inhabited it prospered with trade, serving as a hinge between the two great powers of the time. It came to have 200,000 inhabitants, a spectacular figure for those times (in 260 Emérita Augusta did not have more than 20,000 souls and Valentia or Saguntum did not exceed 8,000)
Septimia Bathzabbai Zainib , known today as Zenobia due to the Latinization of her name, was born in Palmyra on December 23, 245. Daughter of an influential citizen, Zabaii Ben Selim (Julio Aurelio Zenobio in the Roman chronicles), she was married to a local prince vassal of the Empire and a Roman citizen since the time of the Severans, Odainath , son of Hairán of Tadmor (better known as Septimius Odaenus). We do not know with certainty on what date Odaenathus ascended to the regency of Palmyra, but it is known from an inscription that in 258 he already exercised control of the city.
They enjoyed a quiet regency until the great crisis that broke out in 260. Emperor Valeriano he was captured by the Persian king Shapur I in Edessa (Syria) and later taken as a prisoner to Persepolis. Some sources say that there they made him drink molten gold, skinned him and made a trophy with his skin. Apart from such an ignominious death, what was truly important was the political and military vacuum in which the entire Roman East was plunged after the tragedy of Edessa. The shadow of a possible betrayal by Macrino , the praetorian prefect, added to the lack of a clear direction in the operations, led the Sassanian Persians to plunder much of Syria, Cilicia and Cappadocia.
Odaenathus, unhappy with the rise of his neighbor Shapor and the new Persian hegemony in his area of influence, tried to bribe him, but the Persian king returned his gifts. That contempt provoked Odenato's anger, forcing him to take part in a conflict from which he could no longer escape. Since the time of Hadrian Palmyra was a free city, but open warfare between the Persians and Romans was the worst for trade, the city-state's only source of income. By surprise, he decided to attack the Persian troops returning from the sack of Antioch on the banks of the Euphrates, opening hostilities with Persia.
Not only did Odaenathus have to choose a side, but also a pretender to the imperial throne. The chosen one was Galieno , son of the late emperor. In a highly precise tactical move, he attacked and killed the other purple aspirant, thereby gaining a highly advantageous position and earning the honorary title of Totius Orientis Imperator . From 262 to 266 he dedicated himself to recovering the territories lost to the Persian offensive, including some beyond such as Edessa, Carras and Nineveh. His successful campaigns re-established Roman rule in the East, though it was obvious that Odaenathus was supplanting Roman authority by his own personal project. Perhaps because of this, or out of simple envy, when he was about to launch an offensive against the Goths he was killed along with his eldest son, Hairán (Herod) for his nephew Maconius . It has not been possible to prove that the dark hand of Rome was behind that assassination, although it was entirely appropriate for the weak imperial administration.
The death of her husband and her eldest son left Queen Zenobia heartbroken and furious. Her son Vabalato he was still a minor, so the city council granted him the regency of Palmyra until he could take over from his late father. Perhaps due to the suspicion that Rome had orchestrated that murder, or to see her husband's great dream come true, Zenobia declared herself in rebellion. The queen herself saw the opportunity to fill the Sassanid power vacuum by taking advantage of the Roman instability and form a new state that would mediate between the two powers. She for a while she got it. She went on to occupy large territories in Asia Minor and depose a new Roman claimant in Egypt, incorporating him into her new territories. Zenobia was a polyglot, cultured and refined woman, trained in rhetoric, in whose court men of science and proven wisdom resided, such as Paul of Samosata, a theologian whose doctrine would be applied by his disciple Arius, the creator of Arianism, a Christian current that caused a lot of problems. We cannot say if she became a Christian, it is more likely that she was closer to Zoroastrianism.
That political and religious sedition became annoying and dangerous for Rome. A succession of feeble emperors allowed Zenobia to expand and consolidate her power, a dream of independence cut short when Lucius Domitius Aurelianus , new emperor since 270, a fierce and hardened man from the legions, entered the scene. In 272, having successfully averted an invasion of Alamanni tribes in Italy and defeated the Goths in Dacia, he set his sights on the eastern problem. The "Empire of Palmyra" recognized Aurelian as emperor, although it reserved the title of rex for Vabalato. That formalism that was completely irrelevant in practice was not convincing for the emperor, so when Aurelian felt strong he launched an offensive against the territories controlled by Zenobia.
It was a quick campaign. After several assaults and destructions by the legions, the rest of the cities of Asia Minor gave up their sedition, as well as Egypt and Syria. Three battles took place, Inmae and Emesa, in Syria, the last one ending with the siege of Palmyra. Zenobia tried to flee with her children from the city and take refuge in Persia, but the Roman troops captured her and handed her over to the emperor. Upon learning of her capture, the city ceased its belligerence and peace was signed.
The queen was taken to Rome and paraded in gold chains at the triumph the emperor celebrated on her arrival. Legend has it that Aureliano was so captivated by the bearing and beauty of her deposed queen that he granted her an exile worthy of her, freeing her from her and assigning her a luxurious villa in Tibur (Tivoli, Italy) It is possible that she ended her days there, as the wife of some senator.
Her forced retirement saved him from seeing Palmyra sacked and destroyed by Roman troops only a year after his surrender. Since the queen's capture there had been several minor clashes in the area that Aureliano put down forcefully. The sad end of Palmyra was caused by a chain of battles against the Persians in Egypt and Syria that led to their assault and destruction.
Source:Archenemies of Rome – Gabriel Castelló