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Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt
Berenike II (wife of Ptolemy III (circa 244-221 B.C.)
Bronze Tritartemorion 21mm (7.74 grams) Kyrene mint, struck circa c. 244-241 B.C.
Reference: Svoronos 1055; SNG Copenhagen 460
Diademed and draped bust right of Berenike II.
ΠTOΛEMAIOY BAΣIΛEΩΣ, Eagle with closed wings standing left on thunderbolt.
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 Berenice II (267 or 266 BC – 221 BC) was a ruling queen of Cyrene by birth, and a queen and co-regent of Egypt by marriage to her cousin Ptolemy III Euergetes, the third ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt.
She was the daughter of Magas of Cyrene and Queen Apama II. She was the granddaughter of Berenice I.
Queen of Cyrene
In approximately 249 BC, her father died, making Berenice ruling queen of Cyrene. Soon after her father died, Berenice was married to Demetrius the Fair, a Macedonian prince. Berenice had no children with Demetrius.
After Demetrius came to Cyrene, he became the lover of her mother, Apama. In a dramatic event, Berenice had him killed in Apama’s bedroom. Berenice stood at the door and instructed the hired assassins not to hurt her mother while she attempted to protect her mother’s lover. Apama lived on afterward. Although there were many plots to assassinate her, all hired assassins became fearful of her “exceptional courage.”
Queen of Egypt
After the death of Demetrius, Berenice married Ptolemy III.
Berenice is said to have participated in the Nemean Games (between 245 and 241 BC) and to have competed in Olympic games at some unknown date. Berenice had a strong equestrian background and was accustomed to fighting from horseback. According to Hyginus’s Astronomica, he tells of when Berenice’s father Magas, king of Cyrene in modern-day Libya, and his troops were routed in battle, Berenice mounted a horse, rallied the remaining forces, killed many of the enemy, and drove the rest to retreat.
Soon after her second husband’s death in 221 BC, she was murdered at the instigation of her son, Ptolemy IV, with whom she probably was associated in the government.
Nevertheless, a decree “issued delineating the cult for the newly deified queen Berenike II…specified that men and women singers were to sing all day in front of the statue of Berenike.”
Issue
With Ptolemy III she had the following children:
- Arsinoe III, born in c. 246/245 BC. She later married her brother Ptolemy IV
- Ptolemy IV Philopator, born c. 244 BC
- Possibly Lysimachus. The name of the son is not known, but he is said to have been born in c. 243 BC.
- Alexander, born in c. 242 BC
- Magas, born in c. 241 BC. Scalded to death in his bath by Theogos or Theodotus, at the orders of Ptolemy IV.
- Berenice, probably born in c. 239 BC and died a year later.
Myths
During her second husband’s absence on an expedition to Syria, she dedicated locks of her hair to Aphrodite for his safe return and victory in the Third Syrian War, and placed the offering in the temple of the goddess at Zephyrium. By some unknown means, the hair offering disappeared when Ptolemy returned to Egypt. Conon of Samos explained the phenomenon in courtly phrase, saying that the hair had been carried to the heavens and placed among the stars. The name Coma Berenices or Berenice’s hair, applied to a constellation, commemorates this incident. This made the locks of Berenice the only war trophy in Greco-Roman sky. Callimachus celebrated the transformation in a poem, of which only a few lines remain, but there is a fine translation of them by Catullus. Neoclassical painters illustrated this theme abundantly.
The city of Euesperides was refounded by her and received her name, Berenice (now the Libyan city of Benghazi). The asteroid 653 Berenike, discovered in 1907, also is named after Queen Berenice.
Ptolemy III Euergetes, (Greek: Πτολεμαῖος Εὐεργέτης, Ptolemaĩos Euergétēs, reigned 246 BC – 222 BC) was the third ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt.
Euergetes (“Benefactor”) was the eldest son of Ptolemy II Philadelphus and his first wife, Arsinoe I, and came to power in 246 BC upon the death of his father. He married Berenice of Cyrene in the year corresponding to 244/243 BC; and their children were:
- Arsinoe III, born in ca 246/245 BC. She later married her brother Ptolemy IV
- Ptolemy IV Philopator, born ca 244 BC
- Possibly Lysimachus. The name of the son is not known, but he is said to have been born in ca 243 BC.
- Alexander, born in c. 242 BC
- Magas, probably born in ca 241 BC. Scalded to death in his bath by Theogos or Theodotus, at the orders of Ptolemy IV.
- Berenice, probably born in ca 239 BC and died a year later.
Leadership
Ptolemy III Euergetes was responsible for the first known example of a series of decrees published as bilingual inscriptions on massive stone blocks in three writing systems. Ptolemy III’s stone stela is the Canopus Stone of 238 BC. Other well-known examples are the Memphis Stele (Memphis Stone), bearing the Decree of Memphis, about 218 BC, passed by his son, Ptolemy IV, and the famous Rosetta Stone erected by Ptolemy Epiphanes, his grandson, in 196 BC.
Ptolemy III’s stone contains decrees about priestly orders, and is a memorial for his daughter Berenice. But two of its 26 lines of hieroglyphs decree the use of a leap day added to the Egyptian calendar of 365 days, and the associated changes in festivals.
He is also credited with the foundation of the Serapeum.
War with Seleucids
Due to a falling out at the Seleucid court, his eldest sister Berenice Phernophorus was murdered along with her infant son. In response Ptolemy III invaded the Seleukid Kingdom. During this war, the Third the Seleukid Kingdomn War, he occupied Antioch and even reached Babylon. In exchange for a peace in 241 BC, Ptolemy was awarded new territories on the northern coast of the Seleukid Kingdom, including Seleucia Pieria, the port of Antioch. The Ptolemaic kingdom reached the height of its power.
This war is cryptically alluded to in Daniel XI 7-9.
The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a Hellenistic kingdom based in Egypt. It was ruled by the Ptolemaic dynasty which started with Ptolemy I Soter’s accession after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC- and which ended with the death of Cleopatra VII and the Roman conquest in 30 BC.
The Ptolemaic Kingdom was founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter, who declared himself Pharaoh of Egypt and created a powerful Hellenistic dynasty that ruled an area stretching from southern Seleukid Kingdom to Cyrene and south to Nubia. Alexandria became the capital city and a major center of Greek culture and trade. To gain recognition by the native Egyptian populace, they named themselves the successors to the Pharaohs. The later Ptolemies took on Egyptian traditions by marrying their siblings, had themselves portrayed on public monuments in Egyptian style and dress, and participated in Egyptian religious life. The Ptolemies had to fight native rebellions and were involved in foreign and civil wars that led to the decline of the kingdom and its final annexation by Rome. Hellenistic culture continued to thrive in Egypt throughout the Roman and Byzantine periods until the Muslim conquest.
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