Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/93

 , where she remained till she was summoned to Egypt to become the second wife of her brother, Ptolemy the Second, Philadelphus, king of that country, who reigned from B. C. 284 to 276. Arsinoe is said to have founded a city, called by her own name, on the banks of the Achelaus, in Ætolia.

ARSINOE II, of Lysimachus, king of Thrace, was the first wife of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, by whom she had three children, Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Berenice. Suspecting her of plotting against his life, Ptolemy banished her, and she fled to Cyrene, where she was kindly received by Magas, half-brother of the king of Egypt. Magas married her, and adopted her daughter Berenice. Berenice was betrothed to Demetrius, son of Demetrius Polioreetes, who came from Macedonia to marry her; but instead, transferred his affections to Arsinoe, which led to his assassination, and the marriage of Berenice to Ptolemy the Third, who was probably her brother, by which the kingdoms of Egypt and Cyrene were again united. The history of this princess is very confused; and there is much difference of opinion on the subject.

ARSINOE III, of Ptolemy the Third, Euergetes, was married to her brother, Ptolemy the Fourth, Philopater; she is called Eurydice by Justin, and Cleopatra by Livy. She was present at the battle of Rhaphia, a city not far from Gaza, in Palestine, fought between her husband and Antiochus the Great, B.C. 217, and is said to have contributed not a little to the victory. Ptolemy afterwards, seduced by the charms of Agathoclea, ordered Arsinoe to be put to death.

ARTEMISIA I, of Lygdamis, became queen of Caria, in Asia Minor, when her husband died. According to Herodotus, she was one of the most distinguished women of antiquity. She attended Xerxes in his expedition against Greece, B. C. 480, and furnished five ships, which were only inferior to those of the Sidonians. In the council of war before the battle of Salamis, she strongly represented to Xerxes the folly of risking a naval engagement, and the event justified her opinion. In the battle she displayed so much courage, that Xerxes exclaimed "The men behave like women, and the women like men!" To her Xerxes intrusted his children, that they might be safely transported to his kingdom, when, agreeably to her advice, he abandoned Greece, to return to Asia.

These great qualities did not secure her from the weakness of love; she was passionately fond of a man of Abydos, whose name was Dardanus, and was so enraged at his neglect of her, that she put out his eyes while he was asleep. This, however, instead of diminishing her passion, seemed to increase it. At length she consulted the Delphic oracle, to learn how to conquer her love; and being advised to go to Leucadia, the ordinary resort of desperate lovers, she, like the poet Sappho, took the fatal leap from that promontory, and was drowned and buried there. Many writers confound this Artemisia with the wife of Mausolus, who lived some time after. 