Phile

Phile (c. 50 B.C.) was the first recorded female benefactor and the first female magistrate in the ancient Greek city of Priene.

Phile was the daughter of Apollonius and wife of Thessalus, the son of Polydectes. It is likely that she was made a magistrate because she promised to contribute to the public works out of her own private funds.

Phile was not the first woman in the Ancient Greek world to hold a public office - an inscription records a woman as archon (magistrate) in Histria in the 2nd century BC