Artemisia I of Caria

Artemisia I of Halicarnassus commanded a squadron of five ships at Salamis and was the only one of Xerxes' commanders whose advice was not to fight. She ruled Halicarnassus, Cos, Nisyros and Calydna as a Persian client, having taken power on her husband's death while her son was still a boy. She was a Greek, of Carian and Cretan descent, and her city was Greek-speaking. Herodotus, who came from Halicarnassus himself and may have been her subject's subject, records her with obvious admiration and considerable ambivalence. Before Salamis, Xerxes canvassed his naval commanders. She alone advised against a general engagement, arguing that the Greek fleet could not hold together long, that the Peloponnesians would disperse to defend their own cities if he simply moved on the isthmus, and that his ships were as much inferior to theirs as women are to men. Xerxes was pleased with her and took the opposite advice. In the battle, pursued by an Athenian trireme and unable to escape, she rammed and sank a ship of her own side — a Calyndian vessel under a king she was said to be feuding with. The Athenian, concluding she must be Greek, broke off. Xerxes, watching from the shore and told the sunken ship was Greek, said that his men had become women and his women men. She then advised him to withdraw to Asia and leave Mardonius to finish the war, which he did. He entrusted his illegitimate sons to her care. Her grandson Lygdamis executed the poet Panyassis, which is generally thought to be why Herodotus left Halicarnassus.

• Lived: 520 BCE – 460 BCE
• Nationality: Greek
• Roles: ruler, general