of Athens came to know of this, and Agnodice was constantly called in. The doctors were furious at her success, for of course the women refused them admission, and they accused her before the Areopagus of corrupting her patients; Agnodice would have been condemned, had she not taken off her male garments before the judges and proved her sex. But the doctors were only the more infuriated. Whereupon the chief women of Athens went to the court and said, “You are not husbands but enemies, for you condemn her who has saved our lives.” Then the Athenians amended their law, making it legal for freeborn women to learn the art of medicine. (4) WOMEN IN EGYPT. In a complete survey of the influence of women in ancient times notice would have to be taken of a remarkable set of women who appeared in Macedonia, Epirus, and especially in Egypt from about 333 B.C. to the beginning of the Christian era. These women took a prominent part in public affairs. Some of them led armies and fought personally on the battle-field. They entered into alliances, carried on endless intrigues, and wielded much power. But they were all members of royal families, wives or daughters of kings, and often styled queens. Justin says in regard to one reign that the government was carried on in the name of the son, but it was the mother that exercised the sway. In Egypt there was a continuous effort on the part of the women of the royal family to mingle in public affairs. And finally they succeeded in obtaining the mastery. The most famous of them, Cleopatra the VIIth, though governing nominally along with her brother, was the supreme ruler, and possessing all the rights of an absolute ruler, as Strack says, held in her hand for many years the Sceptre of Egypt, and directed the rudder of the Ship of State according to her own good pleasure. But the public influence of these women was not shared by those who did not belong to the royal families. And the history of their lives is gathered from imperfect notices and from historians who have no claim to implicit confidence.