Ancient businesswomen

woman mentioned in the New Testament, regarded as first documented convert to Christianity in Europe (Acts of the Apostles)

thumbnail|''Locusta testing in Nero's presence the poison prepared for Britannicus'', painting by Joseph-Noël Sylvestre, 1876

Terentia (; 98 BC – AD 6) was the wife of the orator Marcus Tullius Cicero. She was instrumental in Cicero's political life both as a benefactor and as a fervent activist for his cause.

mother of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius

Great-grandmother of Islamic prophet Muhammad

Baranamtarra (died 2375 BC) was the Queen consort of Lagash.

thumb|upright|The statue erected in honor of Eumachia at Pompeii

Ahaha () was an ancient Assyrian investor and one of the earliest documented businesswomen in history. She is known for falling victim to financial fraud and pleading to her brother to retrieve stolen silver for her. It is unknown if her pleas were answered.

courtier to Roman emperor Nero

Babatha bat Shimʿon, also known as Babata ( – after 132) was a Jewish woman who lived in the town of Maḥoza at the southeastern tip of the Dead Sea in what is now Jordan at the beginning of the 2nd century CE.

5th/4th-century BC Corinthian madam

Ama-e () was an Ancient Sumerian businesswoman. She is one of the earliest individual businesswomen of which any significant amount of information is known.

Irdabama (fl. early 5th-century BC), was an Ancient Persian businesswoman during the reign of Darius the Great (r. 522–485 BC). She is the most well known and wealthiest businesswoman attested to in the records of the Achaemenid Empire at Persepolis. According to Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones (2013), recently uncovered texts in Persepolis indicate that Darius' mother was Irdabama.

executed for witchcraft

Roman Egyptian wine merchant

Roman craftswoman