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Warrior Women: Arachidamia The Spartan Princess

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THIS IS SPARTA !!!

Ahm ... sorry i couldn't help it ... ahm .. hi all .. this is the 4th drawing of a series of drawings about warrior women through history .. today we have:-

Arachidamia The Spartan Princess

Here is some info about her from Wikipedia --> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachidamia

Arachidamia (Greek: Αραχιδάμεια) was a wealthy Spartan queen, wife of Eudamidas I, mother of Archidamus IV and Agesistrata, grandmother of Eudamidas II, great-grandmother and grandmother of Agis IV.

We first hear of her leading Spartan women against Pyrrhus during his siege of Lacedaemon in the 3rd century BC. In the face of Pyrrhus's invasion, the Spartan Gerousia considered sending the Spartan women to Crete for their safety. Arachidamia, speaking on behalf of the Spartan women, entered the Gerousia, "with sword in hand," and contested this proposal, questioning whether the Spartan women were expected to survive the ruin of their own city.

With the matter settled, the Spartans initiated the construction of a defensive trench running parallel to Pyrrhus's camp. We may presume that Arachidamia helped direct the Spartan women in this respect, since it is reported that the Spartan women impressively "completed with their own hands a third of the trench." We may also presume Arachidamia led the efforts of Spartan women during the subsequent battle against Pyrrhus, as they are noted for supplying the defenders with weapons and refreshment during combat, and extracting wounded from the battlefield.

We next hear of Arachidamia roughly three decades later, assisting in the revolutionary designs of her grandson Agis IV, as he attempted to restore Lycurgan institutions to a Sparta then thoroughly corrupted by wealth and greed. Because Arachidamia and Agesistrata were the wealthiest two people in all of Lacedaemon, Arachidamia's support of Agis was instrumental in gaining support for the cause. She was among those who first pledged to contribute their wealth to a common pool, which was then to be distributed equally amongst both old and new Spartan citizens.


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Regardless of how you might view the siege of Lacedaemon there is no doubt Arachidamia is one hell of a woman, not only did she pull off a "THIS IS SPARTA" on the men of Sparta when she entered the Gerousia (sort of Spartan parliament) with her war-gear and her sword in hand and spoke on behalf of all spartan women challenging the judgment of spartan men and asking them whether the spartan women should just sit and watch their city destroyed or what.

And not only did she make such a bold move but she also delivered, she organized the women while building the trench around the city and led them in the heat of battle to support the fighting spartan men in every way they can, and after the war she helped with a an ambitious restoration plan against corruption and donated part of her own personal money/wealth along with other rich Spartans to a common pool to get it distributed among all Spartans equally, it's sad she was eventually killed by her political rivals, but there is little doubt she was one fine warrior woman.

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Lady general Fu Hao is probably next in line .

Have a good day everyone and enjoy ;)
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