Artemisia II of Caria

Artemisia II
Original and reconstitution of the statue traditionally identified as Artemisia, from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, now in the British Museum.
Satrap of Caria
In office	353–351 BCE
Predecessor	Mausolus
Successor	Idrieus
Born	c. 395 BCE.
Died	c. 351 BCE.
Consort	Mausolus
House	Hecatomnids
Father	Hecatomnus
Mother	unknown
Religion	Greek polytheism

Hecatomnid dynasty (Dynasts of Caria)
c. 395–377 BCE Hecatomnus c. 377–353 BCE Mausolus c. 353–351 BCE Artemisia II c. 351–344 BCE Idrieus c. 344–340 BCE Ada c. 340–335 BCE Pixodarus c. 335–334 BCE Orontobates c. 334–326 BCE Ada
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Artemisia II of Caria (Greek: Ἀρτεμισία; died 351 BC^[1]) was a naval strategist, commander and the sister (and later spouse) and the successor of Mausolus, ruler of Caria. Mausolus was a satrap of the Achaemenid Empire, yet enjoyed the status of king or dynast of the Hecatomnid dynasty. After the death of her brother/husband, Artemisia reigned for two years, from 353 to 351 BCE. Her ascension to the throne prompted a revolt in some of the island and coastal cities under her command due to their objection to a female ruler.^[2]: 27 Her administration was conducted on the same principles as that of her husband; in particular, she supported the oligarchical party on the island of Rhodes.^[3]

Because of Artemisia's grief for her brother-husband, and the extravagant and bizarre forms it took, she became to later ages "a lasting example of chaste widowhood and of the purest and rarest kind of love", in the words of Giovanni Boccaccio.^[4] In art, she was usually shown in the process of consuming his ashes, mixed in a drink.