Female Pirates of History - Queen Artemissia I of Halicarnassus
The earliest known pirate from the Mediterranean, and perhaps of all time, Artemissia was born sometime in the fifth century BCE to a Carian father and Cretan mother. Most of her childhood was spent in her father’s gubernatorial land: Halicarnassus, a large costal city-state in the region of Caria, now modern-day Turkey.
In 500 BCE, she married the king of Halicarnassus, and once newly widowed, Artemissia ascended to the throne and ruled in her husband’s place. Although she had one grown son, which would’ve meant she had no obligation to go into battle herself, she did so anyway.
Piracy in this point of history did not resemble the modern concept, nor the one seen during the Golden Age -- these ancient pirates were not bands of outlaws who swore allegiance to no one; they were more like enemy powers who raided other city-states on both land and sea, and thus, created a more widespread acceptance for the act of piracy, due to it being seen as more of an act of intertribal warfare.
Against this background, part of Artemissia’s queenly duties involved waging war against rival city-states. According to historical texts from Herodotus and Polyaenus, she took to these tasks with relish, not just commanding her troops, but actually taking the helm of her own ship -- which sailed under Persian colors, since Caria had fallen under Persian control (yet she seemed to plunder both Greek and Persian ships, so she showed no particular loyalty to no one save herself.)
Artemissia’s lack of rigid loyalty ended up being what saved her life. Blinded by a lust for power, Xerxes and his generals (who were also poor sailors, as the Persian capital was very far from the coast) sailed into a Greek trap in 480 BCE, despite Artemissia’s warnings, in what is now known as the Battle of Salamis. Realizing her prediction of loss was coming true, Atremissia rammed her ship into an allied Persian one, thus fleeing the battle and saving her and her crew’s lives, and then disappearing from history.
