Background
Berenice II was born around 267 BC in Egypt. She was a daughter of King Magas and the Queen Arsinoe.
Berenice II was born around 267 BC in Egypt. She was a daughter of King Magas and the Queen Arsinoe.
Evidence, slight as it is, indicates that Berenice II stood in the martial tradition of Macedonian women in the ruling aristocracies of the former parts of Alexander the Great's empire. The Roman writer Hyginus in his Astronomica tells us that when her father Magas, king of Cyrene in modern Libya, and his troops were routed in battle, Berenice mounted a horse, rallied the remaining forces, killed many of enemies, and drove the rest to flight.
Berenice II was best known in antiquity through the poetry of Callimachus and Catullus for pledging a lock of her hair to Ptolemy in the event of victory in the Third Syrian War (246 все). When he returned to Egypt, the lock was gone from the altar on which it had been placed, and the royal astronomer Conon reported that it had been installed as a new constellation near Ursa Major. This made the Lock of Berenice the only war trophy in the Greco-Roman sky.
Berenice II had a strong equestrian background, and there are indications that she entered horses in the Olympic Games.
First Benerice II married Demetrius the Fair. Demetrius 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.
After the death of Demetrius, Berenice married Ptolemy III, with whom she had five children - Berenice, Arsinoe III, Ptolemy (later Ptolemy IV Philometor), Alexander and Magas.