Artemisia II of Caria

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Artemisia II of Caria (in Greek, Aρτεμισία; died in 350 BC) was the sister, wife and successor of the Carian prince Mausolus. She was daughter of Hecatomnus, and after the death of her husband she reigned for two years, from 352 to 350 BC. Her administration was conducted on the same principles as the one of her husband, whence she supported the oligarchical party on the island of Rhodes.¹ She is renowned in history for her extraordinary grief at the death of her husband Mausolus. She is said to have mixed his ashes in her daily drink, and to have gradually pined away during the two years that she survived him. She induced the most eminent Greek rhetoricians to proclaim his praise in their oratory; and to perpetuate his memory she built at Halicarnassus the celebrated monument, Mausoleum, which was regarded as one of the seven wonders of the world and whose name subsequently became the generic term for any splendid sepulchral monument.² Another celebrated monument was erected by her in Rhodes to commemorate her conquest of the island. The Rhodians, after regaining their liberty, made it inaccessible, whence it was called in later times the Aβατoν (Abaton).³

[edit] References

• Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, "Artemisia (2)", Boston, (1867)

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