Introduction

Abstract

Berenice II Euergetis (267/6–221 BCE) is one of the better-known Ptolemaic queens, though a biographical sketch of what is known about her would take up no more than a single paragraph. Her father was Magas of Cyrene and her mother the Seleucid princess Apame. Berenice was briefly wed to Demetrius the Fair before marrying Ptolemy III of Egypt, whom she bore six children—including Arsinoe III and Ptolemy IV. While her husband invaded Syria during the Laodicean War, the queen remained in Alexandria overseeing the government of the kingdom. She offered a lock of hair to all the gods in the temple of Arsinoe II (Philadelphus) Zephyritis for the king’s swift and safe return from his foreign military campaign. After its mysterious disappearance, the lock was identified as a new constellation among the stars — a constellation that is still named Coma Berenices (“The Hair of Berenice”) in her honor. Coins were minted featuring her portrait and legend, rather than that of the king, with the Horn of Plenty on the reverse symbolizing the abundant wealth of the reign. Together with her husband she was worshipped as the Theoi Euergetai (“Benefactor Gods”) and she received an Egyptian titulature that assimilated her with the Egyptian goddesses Bastet, Hathor, Mut, and Neith. During their rule Ptolemaic Egypt was free of war and reached the height of its imperial power, stretching across the Eastern Mediterranean north into the Black Sea and Asia Minor, east into Syria and Mesopotamia, south into Nubia, and west into Libya. At the death of Ptolemy III, the clique around Sosibius—tutor of Ptolemy IV—had Berenice and other members of the royal family murdered. She was, in short, queen at an important juncture in early Hellenistic history. Studying details of her life will therefore greatly enhance our understanding of the position and patterns of Ptolemaic queenship and power.