Berenike (daughter of Agrippa)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Berenike (also called Julia Berenike ; * 28 AD; † after 79 AD) was a Jewish queen as a member of the Herodian dynasty . After several short marriages, she spent most of her time at the court of her brother Herod Agrippa II and is rumored to have had an incestuous relationship with him. During the great Jewish uprising against the Roman Empire , she and her brother took the side of the Romans besieging Jerusalem . She became the lover of the future emperor Titus , who had to end his relationship with her when he ascended the throne in 79 AD for reasons of state .

Life

Descent, marriages and coexistence with Herod Agrippa II.

Berenike was the eldest daughter of the Jewish king Herod Agrippa I and his wife Kypros , thus a great-granddaughter of Herod the great . Besides her one year older brother Herodes Agrippa II, she had another brother named Drusus, who died as a boy, and two younger sisters, Mariamne and Drusilla . Due to her family origins, she was a Roman citizen and belonged to the gens Iulia , so that her full name was Julia Berenike . For example, the Athenians erected a statue on the basis of the charity shown for their hometown , on the base of which an inscription was attached, in which she is entitled Julia Berenike .

In her first marriage, Berenike was only 13 years old and was married to Marcus Iulius Alexander , son of the Alexandrian Alabarch Tiberius Iulius Alexander , in AD 41 . After the early death of her first husband, before the end of AD 44, she entered into another marriage with her father's brother, her uncle Herod of Chalkis . Since he was appointed king by Emperor Claudius in AD 44 and was given the region around Chalkis in the Lebanon Mountains as rulership, Berenike was Queen of Chalkis at his side. She gave birth to her second husband, two sons, Berenikianos and Hyrcanos .

After the death of her second husband in AD 48, Berenike lived for years with her brother Herod Agrippa II, who, as the successor of Herod of Chalkis, received his kingdom from Emperor Claudius. According to circulating rumors, the siblings are said to have had an incestuous relationship with each other. Incest was not unknown in the era of Hellenism - for example, there were sibling marriages in some ruling houses - but traditional Jews an abomination. According to the Jewish historian Flavius ​​Josephus , Berenike tried to put an end to the talk about their alleged bloodthirsty relationship by proposing to King Polemon of Cilicia to marry her. Polemon caught Berenike's sizable fortune, and he actually became her third husband. To make this marriage possible, he was circumcised and converted to the Jewish faith. Nevertheless, Berenike soon left him to live with her brother again.

As the account of the Bible in the Acts of the Apostles shows (Acts 25, 13 - 26, 32), Berenike and her brother went to Caesarea in the year 60 , where they paid their respects to the new Roman procurator of Judea, Porcius Festus ( Acts 25.13  EU ). There the apostle Paulus of Tarsus also had to appear in the presence of the Festus before Herod Agrippa II and Berenike and defend himself against charges brought by the Jews (mention of Berenikes in Acts 25, 23 EU and 26, 30 EU ).

Role in the outbreak of the Jewish uprising

In 66 AD, the cruel administration of the procurator Gessius Florus appointed by Emperor Nero led to the outbreak of the national Jewish uprising against Rome . Herod Agrippa II was absent from Judea at the time because he was in Alexandria. Berenike, on the other hand, was in Jerusalem to fulfill a vow and now played the role of a moderate nationalist. She tried unsuccessfully to persuade Florus to urge his troops to take a less aggressive course of action against the Jews. Rather, she is said to have been almost killed by the procurator's unleashed Soldateska if she had not fled in time.

After further serious clashes between Roman soldiers and residents of Jerusalem, both leading Jews, including Berenike and Florus, sent letters of complaint about the other side to the Roman governor of Syria, Gaius Cestius Gallus . He sent a trusted officer to Jerusalem to investigate the situation more closely, who met with Herod Agrippa II, who was returning from Egypt. The officer returned to Cestius after giving meaningless praise for the attitude of the Jews. Berenike then stood by her brother's side when he tried to persuade his people, who were indignant about Florus, in a long speech to further recognize the supremacy of Rome, which appeal was initially followed. But the bitterness of the people increased again when Herod Agrippa II asked them to obey the orders of Florus until his recall. Rebellious Jews finally burned down the castle in Jerusalem that belonged to Berenike and her brother, whereupon the royal siblings had to flee from there and since then have remained loyal to the Romans who fought against their compatriots. It was probably then that they renovated a house built by Herod the Great in Berytos (today's Beirut ).

Lover of Titus

After Cestius Gallus failed to put down the Jewish uprising, Nero commissioned the future emperor Vespasian to continue the war. Vespasian was accompanied on this lengthy military undertaking by his son Titus, whom the 40-year-old Berenike was able to make her lover, although she was eleven years older than Titus. After Nero's death, Titus made his way to Rome to pay homage to the new emperor Galba , but after receiving news of Galba's murder (January 69) he went back to Judea; the rumor arose that the love for Berenike was decisive for Titus' quick return. In the turmoil of the civil war in Rome, Berenike generously supported Vespasian's ambitions for the throne and made herself worthy to the Flavian with her wealth. When Titus was commissioned by his father to end the Jewish war after his father became emperor, his relationship with Berenike should have strengthened further. In AD 70 he was able to conclude his military enterprise largely victorious by the extremely bloody capture of Jerusalem.

In 71 AD Titus left Judea again, but Berenike and her brother Herod Agrippa II did not follow him to Rome until the year 75. By this time Vespasian had firmly consolidated his rule. In the metropolis of the empire, Berenike was able to persuade Titus to resume their relationship and live with him in the imperial palace. Titus is said to have suspected a senator of having a love affair with Berenike and therefore had him executed. In Rome it was rumored that Berenike had received a promise from Titus that he would marry her. According to Cassius Dio , she had at least this expectation and accordingly acted publicly as if she were already the wife of the heir to the throne. The Cynic Diogenes publicly expressed the public's displeasure towards Berenike in a well-attended theater and had to allow himself to be flogged for this reason; Another Cynic named Heras also made a similar diatribe and was beheaded for it.

Berenike finally achieved an extremely influential position in Rome and was, for example , present as a member of this body and involved in the decision-making process in a procedure concerning her in which Quintilian pleaded before Vespasian's Privy Council. Quintilian reports nothing about the content of the proceedings; possibly a property issue related to the substantial expropriations of land by the Romans in Judea, where Berenike owned rich estates.

When Titus became emperor in AD 79, he immediately, albeit reluctantly, sent Berenike away from Rome. The reason for the separation was probably primarily the hostile attitude that the people of Rome took against Berenike. In turn, her unpopularity with the Romans was probably due in particular to the fact that she was Jewish. After all, the Jews had been branded as rebels because of their great uprising, and the Roman masses suspected them because of their religious denomination. In addition, any children who had a legitimate relationship between Titus and Berenike would also have been Jews. Furthermore, Titus' decision to separate from Berenike may also have been influenced by her age (she was 51 years old when Titus ascended the throne). Before his death in A.D. 81, however, she may have come to Rome again. After that she should have finally returned to her homeland, but there is no record of her further fate, so that the year of her death is also unknown.

Theodor Mommsen characterized Berenike as a " Cleopatra in a small way."

Reception in literature and music

In modern literature, Berenike has been made the heroine of several novels and dramas about her relationship with Titus since the 17th century . In the fragmentary novel Bérénice (1648/49) by Jean Regnault de Segrais, the title character, in contrast to her historical role model, does not love Titus but an oriental prince; she is harassed by Titus' younger brother Domitian and ultimately kidnapped by him. The tragic comedy Tite (1660) by the French playwright Jean Magnon , in which Titus wed his beloved Berenike despite a connection with the Roman Mucie, which was considered for reasons of state, inspired the tragedy Tite et Bérénice (1670) by Pierre Corneille . In this work by Corneille, Berenike is portrayed as noble and controlled, and as standing in competition with the unscrupulous Roman Domitie for Titus' hand; She does not become Titus' wife, but knows that he only loves her. Also in 1670, Jean Racine published Corneille's work, artistically superior, drama Bérénice on the same subject in which the heroine is loved not only by Titus but also by the King of Commagene, Antiochus . Thomas Otway wrote his tragedy Titus and Berenice after Racine in 1676 . There are also around 15 operas based on Racine's drama, including one by Niccolò Piccinni (1764).

Berenike plays a decisive role in the historical novel Lucius Flavus (around 1890) by Joseph Spillmann . She is also the title character in Heinrich Vollrat Schumacher's historical novel Berenice , published in 1893 .

swell

  • Flavius ​​Josephus: De bello Iudaico. Greek / German . Edited and with an introduction and annotations by Otto Michel and Otto Bauernfeind. 3 volumes, 1959–1969, Josephus' Jewish War (Greek and English translation)
  • Flavius ​​Josephus: Jewish antiquities . Translated and provided with an introduction and notes by Heinrich Clementz. With paragraph counting according to Flavii Josephi Opera recognovit Benedictus Niese (Editio minor), Wiesbaden 2004. ISBN 3-937715-62-2

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ According to Flavius ​​Josephus ( Jüdische Antiquities 19, 354), Berenike was 16 years old in AD 44, when her father died.
  2. ↑ Josephus, Jüdische Antiquities 18, 132 and 19, 354; Jewish War 2, 220.
  3. ^ Josephus, Jüdische Antiquities 19, 276.
  4. ↑ Josephus, Jüdische Antiquities 19, 277; Jewish War 2, 217.
  5. ↑ Josephus, Jüdische Antiquities 20, 104; Jewish War 2, 221.
  6. ^ Josephus, Jüdische Antiquities 20, 104.
  7. ↑ Josephus, Jüdische Antiquities 20, 145; see. Juvenal , Satiren 6, 156ff. (who speaks flatly of Berenike and her brother as lovers).
  8. ↑ Josephus, Jüdische Antiquities 20, 145f.
  9. ^ Josephus, Jewish War 2, 310-314.
  10. ^ Josephus, Jüdischer Krieg 2, 333ff.
  11. ^ Josephus, Jüdischer Krieg 2, 344 and 2, 402.
  12. ↑ Josephus, Jewish War 2, 426.
  13. ↑ Année épigraphique (AE) 1928, 82.
  14. ^ Tacitus , Historien 2, 2.
  15. ↑ Tacitus, Historien 2, 81 (according to which Berenike is said to have been in the prime of her youth and beauty at that time).
  16. ^ Aurelius Victor , Epitome de Caesaribus 10, 4.
  17. ^ Suetonius , Titus 7, 1.
  18. ^ Cassius Dio 66, 15, 4f.
  19. ↑ Quintilian, Institutio oratoria 4, 1, 19; on this Helmut Castritius , Die Kaiserinnen Roms , p. 167.
  20. ^ Suetonius, Titus 7, 2.
  21. ↑ Helmut Castritius, Die Kaiserinnen Roms , pp. 168f.
  22. ↑ Ulrich Wilcken : Berenike 15). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume III, 1, Stuttgart 1897, Col. 289.
  23. ↑ Cassius Dio 66, 18, 1.
  24. ^ Theodor Mommsen: Römische Geschichte , Vol. 5, S. 540.
  25. ↑ Berenike . In: Elisabeth Frenzel : Substances of world literature. A lexicon of longitudinal sections of the history of poetry (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 300). 9th, revised and expanded edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-520-30009-5 , pp. 95f.
personal data
SURNAME Berenike
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Princess of Judea, Queen of Chalkis
DATE OF BIRTH 28
DATE OF DEATH after 79