Phile (politician)

Phile (c. 50 B.C.) was the first recorded benefactress and the first female magistrate in the ancient Greek city of Priene. She was honored in a first-century BC public decree for constructing, at her own expense, the city reservoir and aqueduct. Rives writes that the coincidence of Phile’s benefactions and public office suggests that "the increasing importance of wealth in public life, i.e., the ability to fund important public works, may have played a role in overcoming the traditional ineligibility of women for public office."

Phile was the daughter of Apollonius and wife of Thessalus, the son of Polydectes.