[Footnote 154: Plat. Legg. vii. pp. 804-805-806. 804 E: [Greek: a)kou/ôn me\n ga\r dê\ mu/thous palaiou=s pe/peismai, ta\ de\ nu=n, ô(s e)/pos ei)pei=n, oi)=da o(/ti muria/des a)nari/thmêtoi gunaikô=n ei)si\ tô=n peri\ to\n Po/nton, a(\s Sauromati/das kalou=sin, ai(=s ou)ch i(/ppôn mo/non a)lla\ kai\ to/xôn kai\ tô=n a)/llôn o(/plôn koinôni/a kai\ toi=s a)ndra/sin i)/sê prostetagme/nê i)/sôs a)skei=tai.] We may doubt whether Plato knew anything of the brave and skilful Artemisia, queen of Halikarnassus, who so greatly distinguished herself in the expedition of Xerxes against Greece (Herod. vii. 99, viii. 87), and, indeed, whether he had ever read the history of Herodotus. His argument might have been strengthened by another equally pertinent example, if he could have quoted the original letter addressed by the Emperor Aurelian to the Roman Senate, attesting the courage, vigour, and prudence, of Zenobia, queen of Palmyra. Trebellius Pollio, Vitæ Triginta Tyrannorum in Histor. August. p. 198 (De Zenobia, xxix.: cap. xxx.): "Audio, Patres Conscripti, mihi objici, quod non virile munus impleverim, Zenobiam triumphando. Næ, illi qui me reprehendunt, satis laudarent, si scirent qualis illa est mulier, quam prudens in consiliis, quam constans in dispositionibus, quam erga milites gravis, quam larga cum necessitas postulet, quam tristis cum severitas poscat. Possum dicere illius esse quod Odenatus Persas vicit, ac fugato Sapore Ctesiphontem usque pervenit. Possum asserere, tanto apud Orientales et Ægyptiorum populos timori mulierem fuisse, ut se non Arabes, non Saraceni, non Armenii, commoverent. Nec ego illi vitam conservassem, nisi eam scissem multum Romanæ Reipublicæ profuisse, cum sibi vel liberis suis Orientis servaret imperium.] [Footnote 155: Plato, Legg. vii. pp. 813-814.] [Footnote 156: Plato, Legg. vi. p. 781 D.] [Footnote 157: Plutarch, Theseus, c. 27; Æschylus, Eumenid. 682; Isokrates, Panegyr. ss. 76-78. How popular a subject the Amazons were for sculptors, we learn from the statement of Pliny (**xxxiv. 8, 19) that all the most distinguished sculptors executed Amazons; and that this subject was the only one upon which a direct comparison could be made between them.] [Footnote 158: Homer, Iliad, xv. 123.] [Footnote 159: Homer, Iliad, v. 333-592.] [Side-note: In a Commonwealth like the Platonic, the influence of Aphroditê would probably have been reduced to a minimum.]