ARSINOE, ir-sIn'61, the name of several celebrated women of antiquity, the most noted of whom is the daughter of Ptolemy I of Egypt, and Bernice: b. about 316 Lc.; she married Lysimachus, King of Thrace, in 300 a.c. Desirous of securing the crown for her own children, Arsinoe persuaded Lysimachus to put Agathocles, the son of his former wife, to death. This crime proved fatal to the Thra cian king; for Lysandra, the wife of the mur dered prince, fled with her children to the court of Seleucus Nicator of Syria, who took up arms in her favor. In the course of the war Lysimachus was slain and his kingdom taken possession of by the conqueror. Arsine now fled into Macedonia, which was soon overrun by the Syrian army. In less than a year after ward, however, Seleucus was assassinated by Ptolemy Ceraunus, half-brother of Arsine. This queen, who held the city of Cassandria in Macedonia, was induced, under promise of marriage, to admit Ptolemy within its walls; but no sooner had he entered than her two children were butchered before her eyes. She
succeeded in making her escape to Egypt, where she became the second wife of Ptolemy II, Philadelphus, her own brother (279 a.c.), thus affording a precedent to these unnatural unions which afterward became common among the Greek rulers of Egypt. She bore no children to her brother, who, however, seems to have had a strong affection for her, as he called one of the districts of Egypt by her name and employed the architect Dino chares to build a temple in her honor. The first wife of Ptolemy II, also named Arsinoi, was a daughter of Lysimachus. A daughter of Ptolemy III, also of the same name, mar ried her brother Ptolemy IV. Cleopatra's younger sister, Arsinoe, was taken prisoner by Julius Caesar and later ordered by Mark Antony to be put to death, 41 B.c.