Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/500

Rh 432 BERENICE. liELLUTUS, C. SICl'NIUS, was the leader of the plebs in their secession to the Sacred Moun- tain, B. c. 494, and was afterwards one of the first tribunes of the plebs elected in that year. (Liv. ii. 32, 33; Dionys. vi. 45, 70, 72, 82, 89.) He was plebeian aedile in 492 (Dionys. vii. 14), and tri- bune again in 491, when he distinguished himself by his attacks upon Coriolanus, who was brought to trial in that year. (Dionys. vii. 33-39, 61.) Asconius calls him (in Cornel, p. 76, ed. Orelli) L. Sicinius L. f. Bellutus. It is most probable that his descendants, one of whom we are expressly told was tribune in b. c. 449 (Liv. iiu 54), also bore the cognomen Bellutus; but as they are not mentioned by this name in an- cient writers, they are given under Sicinius. BEMA'RCIIIUS (Bt;mc^x'os), a Greek sophist and rhetorician of Ciiesareia in Cappadocia, who lived in or shortly after the time of the emperor Constantine, whose history he wrote in a work consisting of ten books. He also wrote declama- tions and various orations ; but none of his works have come down to us. (Suidas, s. t*. BTj/xapxios ; Liban. Orat. p. 24, &c. ed. Reiske.) [L. S.] BENDIS (BeVSts), a Thracian divinity in whom the moon was worshipped. Hesychius (s. r. 5/A07- Xov) says, that the poet Cratinus called this goddess 5tAo7xos, either because she had to discharge two duties, one towards heaven and the other towards the earth, or because she bore two lances, or lastly, because she had two lights, the one her own and the other derived from the sun. In Greece she was sometimes identified with Persephone, but more commonly with Artemis. (Proclus, Tlieolog. p. 353.) From an expression of Aristophanes, who in his comedy "The Lemnian Women" called her the tuyaKi) Seiis (Phot Le-x. and Hesych. s. «.), it may be inferred, that she was worshipped in Lemnos ; and it was either from this island or from Thrace that her worship was introduced into At- tica ; for we know, that as early as the time of Plato the Bendideia were celebrated in Peiraeeus every ye;ir on the twentieth of Thargelion. (He- sych. s. r. BeVSts ; Plat. Rep. i. 1 ; Proclus, ad Tim. p. 9; Xen. Hell. ii. 4. § 11; Strab. x. p. 471; Liv. xxxviii. 41.) [L. S.] BERECY'NTHIA {BepcKvvBia), a surname of Cybele, which she derived either from mount Bere- cynthus, or from a fortified place of that name in Phrygia, where she was particularly worshipped. Mount Berecynthus again derived its name from Berecynthus, a priest of Cybele. (Callim. Hymn. in Dian. 246 ; Serv. ad Aen. ix. 82, vi. 785 ; Strab. X. p. 472; Plut. deFlum. 10.) [L.S.] BERENI'CE (BepcvUr]), a Macedonia form of Pherenice (^fpei/i/cTj). I. £J(/j/ptian Berenices. I. A daughter of Lagus by Antigone, niece of Antipater, was married first to Philip, an obscure Macedonian, and afterwards to Ptolemy Soter (the reputed son of Lagus by Arsinoe), who fell in love with her when she came to Egypt in attendance on his bride Eurydice, An- tipater's daughter. (Schol, ad Tlieoc. Idyll, xvii. 61 ; Pans. i. 6, 7.) She had such influence over her husband that she procured the succession to the throne for her son Ptolemy Philadelphus, to the exclusion of Eurydice's children, — and this, too, in spite of the remonstrances of Demetrius of PLalerus with the king. (Just. xvi. 2 ; Diog, Laert. v. 78; comp. AeL V. H. iii. 17.) Plutarch BERENICE. speaks of her as the first in virtue and wisdom of the wives of Ptolemy, and relates that Pyrrhua of Epeirus, when he was placed with Ptolemy as a hostage for Demetrius, courted her favour espe- cially, and received in marriage Antigone, her daughter by her first husband Philip. Pyrrhus is also said to have given the name of " Berenicis," in honour of her, to a city which he built in Epeirus. (Plut. Pyrrh. 4, 6.) After her death her son Philadelphus instituted divine honours to her, and Theocritus {Idyll, xvii. 34, &c., 123) celebrates her beauty, virtue, and deification. See also Athen. v. pp. 202, d., 203, a. ; Theoc. Idyll, xv. 106 ; and the pretty Epigram (55) of Calli- machus. It seems doubtful whether the Berenice, whose humane interference with her husband on behalf of criminals is referred to by Aelian ( V. //, xiv. 43), is the subject of the present article, or the wife of Ptolemy III. (Euergetes.) See Peri- zonius, ad A el. I. c. 2. Daughter of Ptolemy Philadelphus, becama the wife of Antiochus Theos, king of Syria, ac- cording to the terms of the treaty between him and Ptolemy, B. c. 249, which required him to divorce Laodice and marry the Egyptian princess, estab- lishing also the issue of the latter as his successors. On the death, however, of Ptolemy, b. c. 247, Antiochus put Berenice away and recalled Laodice, who notwithstanding, having no faith in his con- stancy, caused him to be poisoned. Berenice fled in alarm to Daphne with her son, where being be- sieged they fell into the hands of Laodice 's parti- zans, and were murdered with all their Egyptian attendants, the forces of the Asiatic cities and of Ptolemy Euergetes (brother of Berenice) arriving only in time to avenge them. These events are prophetically referred to by Daniel in the clearest manner. (Polyb. Fragm. Hist. 54, v. 58, Oil Jin.; Athen. ii. p. 45, c. ; Just, xxvii. 1 ; Polyaen. viii. 50 ; Appian, Syr. 65, p. 130 ; Dan. xi. 6, and Hie- ron. ail loc.) 3. Grand-daughter of Berenice, No. 1, and daughter of Magas, who was first governor and then king of Cyrene. Athenaeus (xv. p. 689, a.) calls her, if we follow the conmion reading, " Bere- nice the Great," but perhaps 77 Maya should be substituted for 77 /jLeydArj. (Schweigh. ad Atheii. I. c.) She was betrothed by her father to Ptolemy Euergetes, as one of the terras of the peace between himself and his half-brother Ptolemy II. (Philadelphus), the father of Euergetes.