Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/572

 552 BERENICE stepmother, Ermengarda, had placed upon the throne her brother Hugh, count of Provence, who at length ordered Berenger to be seized and blinded. He escaped, and took refuge in Germany with Otho the Great, and in 943 began to excite the Italians against Hugh, and in 945 entered Italy at the head of an army, upon the invitation of the nobles and bishops. Hugh abdicated in favor of his son Lothaire, who received the title of king, but Berenger exercised the real authority. Lothaire died, it is supposed by poison, in 950. Berenger was now crowned together with his son Adal- bert, to whom he wished to marry Adelaide, the widow of Lothaire. She sought the pro- tection of Otho, who in 951 marched into Italy, penetrated without opposition to Pavia, the capital of Berenger, and married Adelaide. The next year Otho returned to Germany, whither he was followed by Berenger, who besought him to restore to him the crown upon any conditions, and whom he finally re- established as a feudatory of the German em- pire. But, scarcely on his throne again, Beren- ger undertook to punish those of his subjects who had taken part with Otho. The German emperor thereupon sent an army under his son Ludolph, who speedily overran nearly all Italy, but died the next year. In 961 Otho himself took the field. Berenger shut himself up in the fortress of St. Leo, where he stood a long siege, but was starved out in 964, and forced to surrender. He and his wife were imprisoned at Bamberg, where he died in 966. His son Adalbert troubled the Germans for a while, but was at last forced to flee and take refuge in Constantinople. BERENICE, the name of several Egyptian and Syrian queens and princesses. I. Daughter of Lagus and Antigone, went to Egypt in the tram of Eurydice, second wife of Ptolemy I. (Soter), became herself his third wife, and in- duced him to make her son, Ptolemy Philadel- phus, his successor in preference to an elder son by Eurydice. Her wisdom and virtue were celebrated by Plutarch and Theocritus, and after her death divine honors were decreed to her. II. Daughter of Ptolemy II. (Phila- delphus), and wife of Antiochus II. (Theos), king of Syria. Antiochus entered into a treaty in 249 B. 0., by which he agreed to put away his wife Laodice and marry Berenice ; but upon the death of Philadelphia, two years afterward, Antiochus took Laodice back and put Berenice away in turn. Laodice, however, distrusted Antiochus and caused him to be poisoned. Berenice fled to Daphne, where she was murdered together with her son and at- tendants by Laodice's partisans. III. Grand- daughter of Berenice I., daughter of Magas, king of Cyrene, and wife of Ptolemy III. (Euergetes) of Egypt. Her father promised her in marriage to Ptolemy Euergetes, and soon afterward died. Her mother, Arsinoe, was strongly opposed to the match, and for the pur- pose of preventing it offered her in marriage to Demetrius the Delicate, son of Demetrius Poliorcetes. But upon the arrival of Demetrius in Cyrene to receive her, Arsinou herself fell in love with him, and Berenice, indignant that her mother was preferred by Demetrius, caused him to be murdered in the arms of the queen. She then went to Egypt and married Euer- getes, to whom she had been originally be- trothed. Upon the return of her husband from an expedition into Syria, in fulfilment of a vow, she offered up her hair to Venus. The hair was said to have been changed into the seven stars of the constellation Leo, known as the Coma or Crinis Berenices. She was put to death by order of her son Ptolemy IV. (Philopator) when he succeeded to the throne. IV. Also called Cleopatra, daughter of Ptol- emy VIII. (Lathyrus) of Egypt, and wife of Alexander II. (Ptolemy X.). She was placed upon the throne by the Alexandrians after the death of her father (81 B. C.) ; and Alexander, who had been appointed king by Sulla, agreed to marry her and share the sovereignty. He performed his agreement, but caused her to be assassinated 19 days after their marriage, whereupon, it is said, the Alexandrians rose against him and put him to death. V. Daughter of Ptolemy XI. (Auletes) and eldest sister of the celebrated Cleopatra. She was proclaimed queen upon the deposition of her father, 58 B. C., and wishing to marry a prince of royal blood, she sent to Syria for Seleucus Cybio- sactes, who pretended to be of the royal race of the Seleucidre. Finding him to be a man of mean character, she caused him to be stran- gled a few days afterward. She then married Archelaus of Comana, who claimed to be a son of Mithridates Eupator. Aulus Gabinus, having undertaken to restore Auletes to the throne, defeated her and her husband in three successive battles, 55 B. C., and Archelaus was slain. One of the first acts of Auletes after his restoration was to cause his daughter to be put to death. VI. Daughter of Costoba- rns and Salome, sister of Herod the Great, king of Judea, married her cousin Aristobulus. The latter reproached her with the inferiority of her birth, and her complaints of this to her mother increased the hostility against her hus- band. After his execution (6 B. C.) she mar- ried Theudion, the maternal uncle of Antipater, the eldest son of Herod. After the death of Theudion she went to Rome with her mother and remained till her death. She was the mother of Agrippa I. VII. The eldest daughter of Agrippa I., married her uncle Herod, king of Chalcis, and had two sons by him. Upon his death in A. D. 48 she lived with her brother Agrippa for some time, and then mar- ried Polemon, king of Cilicia. She left him, and was again living with her brother when Paul pleaded before him at Ca:sarea. Titus was captivated by her beauty at the siege of Je- rusalem and carried her to Rome. He desired to marry her, but was compelled by the public sentiment at Rome to send her back to Judea,