Tractatus de mulieribus
Ancient Greek work discussing famous women in antiquity / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tractatus de mulieribus claris in bello ("Treatise on Women Distinguished in Wars"; Greek: Γυναῖκες ἐν πολεμικοῖς συνεταὶ καὶ ἀνδρεῖαι, "Women wise and brave in the art of war") is a short ancient Greek work by an anonymous author,[1] which discusses fourteen famous ancient women,[2] of whom one is not otherwise attested.[3] The treatise is preserved as part of a 12th- or 13th-Century manuscript in the Laurentian Library in Florence, Codex Laurentianus 56-1.[4]
Despite the title, not all of the women discussed are warriors, and only a few are portrayed as skilled military strategists.[3] It was written near the end of the second or the beginning of the first century BCE.[5] Deborah Gera has suggested, however, that it was written by Pamphile of Epidaurus during the 1st century AD.[2][6]
It is a list of ancient women, four Greek and ten barbarian,[7] and contains the following individuals:[1]
- Semiramis
- Zarinaea
- Nitocris the Egyptian
- Nitocris the Babylonian
- Argeia
- Dido
- Atossa
- Rhodogune of Parthia
- Lyde (Woman who tames her son Alyattes by fasting)
- Pheretime
- Thargelia
- Tomyris
- Artemisia I of Caria
- Onomaris