Andrea R. Cooper's Blog, page 53
May 7, 2013
May 3, 2013
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April 29, 2013
Z is for Zenobia
“Septima Zenobia governed Syria from about 250 to 275 AD. She led her armies on horseback wearing full armor and during Claudius’ reign defeated the Roman legions so decisively that they retreated from much of Asia Minor. Arabia, Armenia and Persia allied themselves with her and she declared herself Queen of Egypt by right of ancestry. Claudius’ successor Aurelian sent his most experienced legions to conquer Zenobia but it took almost 4 years of battles and sieges before her capital city of Palmyra fell and Zenobia along with nine other martial queens of allied provinces were paraded through the streets of Rome in chains. Aurelian exiled Zenobia to Tibur. Her daughters married into influential Roman families and her line continued to be important in Roman politics for almost three centuries. Mavia, was Queen of the Bedouin Saracens from 370 to 380 AD. She led her troops in defeating a Roman army then made a favorable peace and married her daughter to the Roman commander in chief of the eastern Emperor Valens.” [1]
Quote attributed to Zenobia: “I am a queen; and as long as I live I will reign.” She claimed to be a descendant from one of the early Cleopatras. This if true would have made her Macedonian Greek, Arab, and Aramaic. She admired other women leaders besides the Cleopatras such as Zabibi, Samsi, and Omm-Karja.
“Facts
Known for: “warrior queen” conquering Egypt and challenging Rome, finally defeated by emperor Aurelian. Also known for her image on a coin.
Dates: 3rd century C.E.; estimated as born about 240; died after 274; ruled from 267 or 268 to 272
Also known as: Septima Zenobia, Septimia Zenobia, Bath-Zabbai, Zainab (Arabic), Julia Aurelia Zenobia Cleopatra
Biography:
Zenobia, generally agreed to have been primarily of Semitic (Arab) descent, claimed Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt as an ancestor, though this may be a confusion with Cleopatra Thea (the “other Cleopatra”). Another ancestor was Drusilla of Mauretania, granddaughter of Cleopatra Selene, the daughter of Cleopatra VII and Marc Antony. Drusilla also claimed descent from a sister of Hannibal and from a brother of Queen Dido of Carthage. Drusilla’s grandfather was King Juba II of Mauretania. Zenobia’s paternal ancestry can be traced six generations, and includes Gaius Julius Bassianus, father of Julia Domna, who married the emperor Septimus Severus.
Zenobia’s languages likely included Arabic, Greek, Aramaic and Latin. Zenobia’s mother may have been Egyptian; Zenobia was said to be familiar with ancient Egyptian language as well.
Marriage
In 258, Zenobia was noted as being the wife of the king of Palymra, Septimius Odaenathus. Odaenathus had one son from his first wife: Hairan, his presumed heir. Palymra, between Syria and Babylonia, at the edge of the and the Persian empire, was economically dependent upon trade, protecting caravans. Palmyra was known as Tadmore locally.
Zenobia accompanied her husband, riding ahead of the army, as he expanded Palmyra’s territory, to help protect Rome’s interests and to harry the Persians of the Sassanid empire.
Around 260-266, Zenobia gave birth to Odaenathus’ second son, Vaballathus (Lucius Julius Aurelius Septimius Vaballathus Athenodorus). About a year later, Odaenathus and Hairan were assassinated, leaving Zenobia as regent for her son.
Zenobia assumed the title of “Augusta” for herself, and “Augustus” for her young son.
War With Rome
In 269-270, Zenobia and her general, Zabdeas, conquered Egypt, ruled by the Romans. Roman forces were away fighting the Goths and other enemies to the north, Claudius II had just died and many of the Roman provinces were weakened by a smallpox plague, so the resistance was not great. When the Roman prefect of Egypt objected to Zenobia’s takeover, Zenobia had him beheaded. Zenobia sent a declaration to the citizens of Alexandria, calling it “my ancestral city,” emphasizing her Egyptian heritage.
After this success, Zenobia personally led her army as a “warrior queen.” She conquered more territory, including Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, creating an empire independent of Rome. This area of Asia Minor represented valuable trade route territory for the Romans, and the Romans seem to have accepted her control over these routes for a few years. As ruler of Palmyra and a large territory, Zenobia had coins issued with her likeness and others with her son’s; this may have been taken as a provocation to the Romans though the coins acknowledged Rome’s sovereignty. More urgent: Zenobia cut off grain supplies to the empire, which caused a bread shortage in Rome.
The Roman Emperor Aurelian finally turned his attention from Gaul to Zenobia’s new-won territory, seeking to solidify the empire. The two armies met near Antioch (Syria), and Aurelian’s forces defeated Zenobia’s. Zenobia and her son fled to Emesa, for a final fight. Zenobia retreated to Palmyra, and Aurelius took that city. Zenobia escaped on a camel, sought protection of the Persians, but was captured by Aurelius’ forces at the Euphrates. Palmyrans who did not surrender to Aurelius were ordered executed.
A letter from Aurelius includes this reference to Zenobia: “Those who speak with contempt of the war I am waging against a woman, are ignorant both of the character and power of Zenobia. It is impossible to enumerate her warlike preparations of stones, of arrows, and of every species of missile weapons and military engines.”
In Defeat
Zenobia and her son were sent to Rome as hostages. A revolt in Palmyra in 273 led to the sacking of the city by Rome. In 274, Aurelius paraded Zenobia in his triumph parade in Rome, passing out free bread as part of the celebration. Vaballathus may never had made it to Rome, likely dying on the journey, though some stories have him parading with Zenobia in Aurelius’ triumph.
What happened to Zenobia after that? Some stories had her committing suicide (perhaps echoing her alleged ancestor, Cleopatra) or dying in a hunger strike; others had her beheaded by the Romans or dying of illness.
Yet another story — which has some confirmation based on an inscription in Rome — had Zenobia being married to a Roman senator and living with him in Tibur (Tivoli, Italy). In this version of her life, Zenobia had children by her second marriage. One is named in that Roman inscription, “Lucius Septimia Patavina Babbilla Tyria Nepotilla Odaeathiania.”
Zenobia was a patron of Paul of Samosata, Metropolitan of Antioch, who was denounced by other church leaders as a heretic.
Saint Zenobius of Florence, a 5th century bishop, may be a descendant of Queen Zenobia.
Queen Zenobia has been remembered in literary and historical works for centuries, including in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and art works.”[2]
Bibliography
[1] http://listverse.com/2008/03/17/top-10-badass-female-warriors/
[2] http://womenshistory.about.com/od/ancientqueens/a/Zenobia.htm
Uppity Women of Ancient Times by Vicki Leon
April 28, 2013
Y is for Lydia Litvyak
Ok, yes I know her name doesn’t start with a Y, but she has a Y in her first & last name – so that’s gotta count for something right?
“If there’s one thing that the Soviet Air Force is famous for, it’s getting shot out of the sky and careening to earth in a fiery inferno. It’s no secret that the Russkies were plagued with their fair share of inexperienced pilots, insufficient combat training, and substandard equipment, particularly in the early years of the Second World War, but from Erich Hartmann and Hiromichi Shinohara to pretty much every 1980s military action movie ever made, if you didn’t know better you’d get the idea that you couldn’t release a weather balloon into the atmosphere without accidentally bringing down a MiG or two in the process.
It’s beyond the scope of this article to debate the operational combat history of the Soviet Union’s air forces, but I do mention this because it may come as somewhat of a surprise to you that the top-scoring female fighter pilot in history was out there flying the unfriendly skies and shredding Fascist fuselages in the name of the Motherland. Lydia Litvak, the “White Rose of Stalingrad” (she is sometimes referred to as the “White Lilly” as well, but I’m not going to argue semantics here), was out there testing her mettle against some of the most well-trained, battle-hardened, and highest-scoring fighter pilots to ever strap themselves into a cockpit, and spent some of the most critical moments of World War II making all of them her bitch.
Whenever we go to cool-ass war museums, most uneducated rubes like myself look at all the shiny knobs, gauges, and levers in a fighter cockpit and think to themselves, “how the hell are you supposed to make any goddamned sense out of this insanity?” I generally have trouble successfully operating the twelve buttons and two sticks on my Xbox controller in a way that doesn’t get the Master Chief killed once every eight seconds, so with all the shit you’ve got going on in the pilot’s seat of a fighter plan it probably goes without saying that you don’t just sit down in front of the flight stick and suddenly turn into the Danica Patrick of aeronautical bloodshed. That shit takes work.
Growing up in Moscow, Lydia Litvak always knew she wanted to fly, and she wasn’t going to fuck around with big dreams when she could have been out there doing awesome barrel rolls and finding out what happens when you barf while pulling a half-dozen Gs – she just went balls-out (in a manner of speaking), learned to pilot a prop plane by age fifteen, and was a flight instructor within three years. The same day that she heard our old pal Adolph Hitler had double-crossed Uncle Joe and invaded Russia in 1941, she was standing outside the military recruiting office looking to fly combat missions for the Soviet air force. The guy behind the counter told her that she wasn’t eligible because she hadn’t logged over 1,000 hours of flight time in her short, five-year career as a pilot, so she thanked the guy, walked up the street to the next recruiting office, filled out her paperwork, and put “1,000″ in the box asking how many hours of flight time she’d logged in her career. Next thing you know, she was shipped out to boot camp.
After a pretty intensive-yet-short training camp, Lydia was assigned to a men’s squadron, where she took her Yak-1 fighter into battle against a sea of pissed-off German warplanes in the skies above the raging battle of Stalingrad. The guys in Lydia’s unit weren’t super-keep on having some girlie flying around with her, but it wasn’t long before the asskicking Amazonian ship-wrecker would prove herself to the point where pretty much every guy out there was like, “you can be my wingman any time.”
It only took Lydia Litvyak two combat missions to score her first kill, shooting down a German Junkers Ju-88 bomber and becoming the first woman in military history to ever score a solo aerial victory in combat. About ten minutes later she became the first woman in military history to score two aerial victories, when she outdueled a badass motherfucker who oh yeah just so happened to be an eleven-kill fighter ace and a recipient of the Iron Cross. When this proud German officer was captured by the Russkies, he demanded to meet the pilot who finally took him out of action. Lydia walked up to him and stared him in the eyes, and of course this guy’s first thought was that the Communists were fucking with him and being total dicks by playing some joke on him. It wasn’t until Lydia described the entire dogfight turn-for-turn that this guy’s mind was completely blown. Since he’d been completely pwnd out of hand by this chick, he got really pumped and offered her the super-expensive gold watch he always wore around his wrist. Lydia didn’t even look at it. She kept her gaze straight in the dude’s eyes and calmly said, “I do not accept gifts from my enemies.” Then she got so pissed that she went out the very next day and shot down another German fighter plane.
For the next year, the White Rose of Stalingrad ignited enemy fuselages up and down the Eastern Front. She was transferred to a Guards Regiment, the elite of the Soviet military, and flew as a Junior Lieutenant and Flight Commander in the recently-established all-female 586th Fighter Air Regiment. She flew bomber escorts, attack missions, and was so ridiculously awesome that she was given a James Bond license to kill at will – she was assigned “Free Hunter” status, meaning that she was free to go balls-out into enemy airspace without orders to do so. Over that year she flew 66 combat missions, sometimes four or five a day, including one attack when she busted through a gauntlet of AA guns and fighters to shoot down an observation balloon that was fucking with the Red Army and helping Nazi artillery range their shells on Russian positions outside Stalingrad. So fuck those guys. She notched twelve solo kills – the most of any woman ever – and had four or five more assisted kills. Basically, she kicked some Fascist ass.
It should also be mentioned that she was flying a Yakolev Yak-1 for most of her combat actions. I was hoping to be able to put some paragraph in here about how the Yak-1 was a piece of shit that was about as maneuverable as the name “Yak” would imply, but looking through some research it doesn’t seem like this is the case. It was, however, an unreliable plane that had a lower ceiling and was more lightly-armed than the Me-109s the Germans were flying, and looking at the kill totals of some of the German aces should give you some idea that when you were dealing with one-on-one attacks, the Soviet airmen and airwomen were definitely the underdogs.
Eventually, Lydia’s luck ran out. In 1943, after an intense battle, the hardcore 21-year-old ace was last seen busting through enemy airspace and hauling ass towards the horizon being chased after by eight German fighter planes. One of only two female fighter aces in history (the other, Katya Budanova, was Lydia’s wingman and was killed just a month before Litvyak – the two of them combined for 23 of the 38 confirmed kills of the 586th Fighter Regiment), Lydia Litvyak was never heard from again. Her body was eventually recovered in 1989, and she was posthumously awarded honors as a Heroine of the Soviet Union – the highest military award for bravery offered by the USSR.” [1]
Bibliography
[1]http://www.badassoftheweek.com/litvya...
April 26, 2013
X is for Xanthippe
Xanthippe was an Athenian and the wife of Socrates. Together they had three sons called Lamprocles, Sophroniscus, and Menexenus. She was likely much younger than Socrates, perhaps by as much as forty years.[1]
Sadly it is hard to separate the myths about her from the facts.
It is believed that she had a bad temper and was a nagging wife. However, Socrates, though a great philosopher was without a paying job for fifty years, thought to be bisexual, and might have taken on a second wife. Because her husband refused to charge his pupils, Xanthippe had to live on only what Socrates had inherited-which still put them near the poverty level. However, historically she might have been from an upper class family – or at least a higher pecking order than her husband’s.
One reason for thinking Xanthippe’s family was socially prominent was that her eldest son was named Lamprocles instead of “Sophroniscus” (after Socrates’ father): the ancient Greek custom was to name one’s first child after the more illustrious of the two grandfathers. Xanthippe’s father is believed to have been named Lamprocles. Since he was even more well-established in Athenian aristocracy than was Socrates’ father, his name would have been the preferred choice for the name of the first-born son.[1]
She was considered far worse by the Romans than her own generation. There is a painting of Xanthippe and Socrates called: The chamberpot episode: Socrates, his Wives and Alcibiades, by Reyer van Blommendael (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg) It’s a scene from a story that she was so furious at Socrates that she poured out a full chamber pot over him. It is believed that he replied: ‘after thunder comes rain.’ Socrates is also said to have advised, “By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you’ll be happy. If you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.”
Plato‘s portrayal of Xanthippe in the Phaedo suggests that she was nothing less than a devoted wife and mother;[2] she is mentioned nowhere else in Plato.[3] Xenophon, in his Memorabilia, portrays her in much the same light, though he does make Lamprocles complain of her harshness;[4] it could be argued that this is fairly typical of an adolescent’s views of a strict parent.
We only hear Socrates’ point of view on Xanthippe. It so influenced society that now a Xanthippe is any nagging, peevish, or irritable woman.
Despite all the ridicule, she stayed with her husband until his suicide by hemlock at the age of seventy. It’s believe she wept.
Asteroid 156 Xanthippe is named in her honour.
Bibliography
Uppity Women of Ancient Times by Vickie Leon
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/xanthippe
http://www.in2greece.com/english/historymyth/history/ancient/xanthippe.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanthippe
[1^ John Burnet 1911, Plato: Phaedo, p. 12.
[2^ Plato, Phaedo, 60a-b, 116b
[3^ Xanthippe does receive mention in two short, apocryphal pieces within the literature ascribed traditionally to Plato but considered generally by scholars to be inauthentic. These come in the Halcyon and the Epigrams.
[4^ Xenophon, Memorabilia, 2.2.7-9
April 25, 2013
W is for Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft was born in London on April 27, 1759. She was a British philosopher, writer, and an advocate for women’s rights. She wrote novels and books, and even children’s book. However, she is mostly known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman which is one of the most important documents in the history of women’s rights. This document highlights her life and how it affected her work. She argues the right of woman to be educated, because she is responsible for training the children. She practiced what she believed in often reviled by her contemporaries.
Quotes by Mary Wollstonecraft: Women are systematically degraded by receiving the trivial attentions which men think it manly to pay to the sex, when, in fact, men are insultingly supporting their own superiority.
Mary Wollstonecraft
Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience.
Mary Wollstonecraft
She had two affairs one with Henry Fuseli and the other with Gilbert Imlay to who she gave birth to a daughter called Fanny. Then Wollstonecraft married William Godwin, a philosopher and one of the anarchist movement’s forefathers. Sadly Wollstonecraft, who had several unfinished manuscripts, died on September 10, 1797 at the age of thirty-eight and just ten days after giving birth to her second daughter, Mary.
You might know her daughter Mary…she was called Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. Still don’t know her? After she married Percy Shelley, she became Mary Shelley the author of the book, Frankenstein.
Bibliography
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/wollstonecraft/a/Mary-Wollstonecraft.htm
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mary_wollstonecraft.html#jCZWOpjAJDF8pvJD.99
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/wollstonecraft_01.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wollstonecraft
April 24, 2013
V is for Elizabeth Van Lew
“Elizabeth Van Lew - A Union spy during the Civil War, Van Lew was born on October 25, 1818, the oldest daughter of John Van Lew, a prominent Richmond, Virginia businessman, and Elizabeth Baker Van Lew. Her father ran a hardware business and owned several slaves. She was educated at a Quaker school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she was first exposed to abolitionism. After she finished school, she returned home to Virginia and a short time later, her father died. Though he had expressly forbidden it prior to his death, she and her mother freed the family’s nine slaves, one of whom was Mary Elizabeth Bowser, who would later work with Van Lew as a spy. Van Lew and her mother also bought and freed some of their former slaves’ relatives.
When the Civil War broke out, she began working on behalf of the Union. At first she brought food, clothing, and other necessities to the Union soldiers held at Libby Prison in Richmond. She then began to help prisoners to escape, passing them information about safe houses and getting a Union sympathizer appointed to the prison. In exchange, prisoners gave her information on Confederate troop movements, which she passed on to Union commanders.
Running and operating a spy ring of 12 people, Van Lew was even able to have Mary Elizabeth Bowser hired by Varina Davis, which allowed Bowser to spy in the White House of the Confederacy. Her work was highly valued by the United States, so much so that George H. Sharpe, intelligence officer for the Army of the Potomac, credited her with “the greater portion of our intelligence in 1864-65.” On Ulysses S. Grant’s first visit to Richmond after the war, he had tea with Van Lew, and later appointed her postmaster of Richmond.
When Richmond fell to the United States, Van Lew was the first person to raise the US flag in the city. She kept an “Occasional Journal” of her activities, but buried it for a time, for fear of recrimination.
After Reconstruction, she became increasingly ostracized in Richmond and having spent her family’s fortune on intelligence, was destitute. Finally, a group of wealthy and influential Bostonians collected money for the woman who helped so many Union soldiers during the war.
She died on September 25, 1900, and was buried in Shockoe Hill Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. Her grave was unmarked until the relatives of Union Colonel Paul J. Revere, whom she had aided during the war, donated a tombstone. Even into the 20th century, she was regarded by many Southerners as a traitor.” [1]
Bibliography
[1]http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-wo...
April 23, 2013
U is for Urraca of Aragon
Urraca was born in either 1079 or 1080. Since her father had no living sons, he had five other children, but they all died in either infancy or childhood. So Urraca became the heiress presumptive of her father’s titles. However, her father did have one living son, Sancho, by his mistress and he was named successor. In 1108 he died in battle giving Urraca the only legitimate claim to her father’s throne.
She was married to Count Raymond of Burgundy and despite being pregnant nine times, only two children lived: a daughter Sancha born sometime before 1095 and a son Alfonso in 1105. When her husband died in 1107, she also inherited his lands and Galicia. Widowed, her father, arranged her second marriage to Alfonso I of Aragon, her second cousin.
In 1109, her father died and she became the sovereign ruler of Leon and Castile. The church objected to her marriage on the grounds of limites of consanguinity. Even the nobles did not accept her marriage. She claimed Alfonso I was abusive. They put aside their differences and together repelled a Muslim invasion on Aragon from 1109 until 1110. Soon after this victory, they separated and the church annulled their marriage. Her husband, Alfonso I refused the churches ruling and seized Castile. However, Urraca took back Castile. Finally after thirteen years of battles between them, her husband consented to the annulment.
During the battles between Urraca, Alfonso I, and her son the First Crusaders fought to get out of Spain alive on their way to Israel.
Urraca died on March 8 or 9, 1126. Her cause of death is not known for certain; some speculate she died in childbirth. Urraca is credited with having several lovers after her separation from Alfonso I. Count Pedro Gonzalez of Lara attempted, with his brother, to seize her crown after her death, on the grounds he had been Urraca’s consort. Urraca’s son mustered his allies and they prevailed over Pedro Gonzalez; the son became king as Alfonso VII of Leon and Castile. Alfonso VII continued to fight against Alfonso I of Aragon. They signed a truce in 1128, the Peace of Tamara, confirming the separate boundaries of the two realms. Alfonso I died in 1134, with enough mystery surrounding his end that an imposter came forward years later impersonating him. Alfonso VII could not gain the support of the nobles of Leon and Navarre to succeed Alfonso I, ending the hope of uniting Aragon, Castile, Leon and the other territories then considered Spain, which Urraca’s second marriage was supposed to bring about.[1
There is a historical study that shows she was not merely a military figurehead, but Urraca made the key policy decisions herself. 2]
Bibliography
[1 http://womenshistory.about.com/od/spain/a/Urraca.htm
2] Uppity Women of Medieval Times by Vicki Leon
April 22, 2013
T is for Trieu Thi Trinh
Trieu Thi Trinh was born on October 2, 222 A.D. in the Vietnam Village of Son Trung. Ruled by the Eastern Wu Kingdom, one of China’s three; she was orphaned as a toddler, but raided by her brother. He and his wife abused her and treated her like a slave. At the age of twenty, she escaped. Living in the jungle she raised an army of one thousand men and women. She claimed an area of Vietnam after saving it from the Wu Kingdom. Three years later she had stopped over thirty attacks from the enemy.
Popular belief, and it may be true, is that she rode an elephant while wearing golden armor and a sword in each hand. When her brother reprimanded her, she is believed to have said:
“I will not resign myself to the lot of women who bow their heads and become concubines. I wish to ride the tempest, tame the waves, kill the sharks. I have no desire to take abuse.” [1] [2]
In 248 CE, Trieu lost against the Chinese. She may have committed suicide by jumping into a river. However, despite her death, she still motivated rebellion against the Chinese. Vietnamese revolutionaries’ for centuries said she appeared in their dreams conveying direction and help.
She is regarded as a national hero and has her own holiday. In Vietnam, many streets are named after this amazing woman.
Bibliography
http://listverse.com/2008/03/17/top-10-badass-female-warriors/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Trieu
http://www.pocanticohills.org/womenenc/trinh.htm
^ vi:Nguyễn Khắc Viện (1913-1997), Vietnam, a long history, The Gioi Publishers, reprinted 2002, p. 22.
^ Helle Rydstrøm -Embodying Morality: Growing Up in Rural Northern Vietnam – Page 179 2003 “Among the Chinese, Trieu Thi Trinh was portrayed as a monster with three-meter long breasts and riding an elephant ..”
April 21, 2013
S is for The Sisters of Trung
The Trung Sisters lived in Vietnam and were military leaders. For more than three years, they prevented Chinese invasion. This is substantial because they lived during the thousand year Chinese occupation of their country. With an army containing mostly women that they recruited, they battled the Chinese out of their village. It is thought that to convince the people to join them in their army, they killed a man-eating tiger.
The Trung sisters chose thirty-six women, including their mother, and trained them to be generals. Many names of leaders of the uprising recorded in temples dedicated to Trung are women. These women led a people’s army of 80,000 which drove the Chinese out of Viet Nam in 40 A.D. The Trung sisters, of whom the younger sister proved to be the better warrior, liberated six-five fortresses including Nam Viet. [1]
Their country promoted them to Queens and they suppressed the Chinese for two years. They lived in a time when Vietnamese women enjoyed freedoms forbidden them in later centuries. For example, women could inherit property through their mother’s line and become political leaders, judges, traders, and warriors. [1]
It is believed that the Chinese army not only grew to put down the sisters, but battled naked to shame and distract the women soldiers. The Chinese succeeded. In order to protect their honor and who knows what at the hands of the Chinese, the two sisters drowned themselves in the Hát river.
Many wonder if there would not be a separate Vietnam country if these sisters had not rebelled against the Chinese.
Bibliography
http://listverse.com/2008/03/17/top-10-badass-female-warriors/
[1] http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/heroine10.html
