BEBEWIC.13, the name of several celebrated women of ancient tines.-1. 13., daughter of Lagus and Antigone, and the second wife of the Egytian king, Ptolemy I. (Soter), (323-284 n.c.). She is described by Plutarch as the first in virtue and wisdom of the wives of Ptolemy. Theocritus celebrates her beauty, virtue, and deification in his Idyls 15 and 17.-2. 13., daughter of Ptolemy II. (Philadelphus) and ` rsinot, was married to Antiochus II. of Syria, after he had divorced his wife Laodice, whom, however, he again took back, putting 13. away. Laodice having no faith in her husband, poisoned lihn, and caused 13. and her son to be murdered.-3. 13., daughter of Magas, king of Cyrene, granddaughter of 13. INo. 1, was to have been married to Demetrius the fair, but he having slighted her for her mother, she caused him to be murdered, and then went to Egypt and married Ptolemy III. (Euergetes). in accordance with the terms of a treaty between her father and Ptolemy II. During the king's wars in Asia. the queen 13. made a vow to offer her beautiful hair to the gods when her, husband returned snfely—a vow which she fulfilled. The hair was suspended in the temple of Venus, whence, it is said, it was taken away to form a constellation, Cana Bertniete. 13. was put to death by her son, Ptolemy IV. (Philopator), when lie succeeded to the throne.-4. 13., also called Cleopatra, daughter of Ptolemy IX. (Lathy•us), was, on. her succession to the thione, married to Alexander II., by whom she was murdered 19 days after marriage.-5. 13 , daughter of Ptolemy X1. (Auletes). eldest sister of the renowned Cleopatra, was raised to the throne after her father's deposition. 58 B.C., but was put to death when her father
was restored. 55 n c. She was first married to Seleuctis, whom she caused to be rut to death, and afterwards to Archelaus, who was put to death with her.—There were, besides, two Jewish Bereniccs—the one, daughter of Salome, sister of Herod the great end Costobarus, and mother of Agrippa I.; the other, and more famous, was daughter of this monarch. She was three times married: first, at a very early age, to Marcus, son of Alexander the Alabarch; afterwards to her uncle, Herod, king of Chaleis, who dying,. left her for the second time a widow, at the age of 20: and again to Polemon, king of Cilicia, whom she soon deserted to return to her brother, king Agrippa If . the same before whom Paid defended himself at Cesarea. After the capture of Jeruzalem, she went to Rome, and Titus. who was much in love with her, would have married her but for the opposition of the people. The intimacy of B. and Titus forms the subject of a tragedy by Racine.
BERENI"Ci (modern name, Sakayt-el-Kublee, "Southern Sakavt"), a t. of Egypt. on a bay in the Red sea, 20 m. s.w, of Ras Bernass. It was founded by Ftolcmy Philadelphus, and was in ancient thne,s the emporium of the trade with India, but it is now ruined, and interesting only for its antiquities, which include hieroglyphics, sculp tures, and a teniple dedicated to Serapis. There are emerald mines hi its vicinity that have been worked since the time of the ancient Egyptians.