Cleopatra Berenike III.

Name of Cleopatra Berenike III.
Proper name	Repatet weret hesut Berenike Rpˁt (.t) wr (.t) ḥsw (.t) Bjrnjk.t

Cleopatra Berenike III. (* around 120 BC; † 80 BC ) was the eldest daughter of Ptolemy IX. Soter II and Cleopatra IV an Egyptian queen from the Ptolemaic dynasty .

Life

Cleopatra Berenike III. originally only carried the name Berenike. Ptolemy X. Alexander I took over after the death of his mother Cleopatra III. (October 101 BC) sole rule over Egypt. At the latest then he married his niece Berenike, who according to the testimony of Papyri in the year 91/90 BC. Adopted the additional throne name Cleopatra . She gave birth to her husband a daughter whose name has not been recorded. The royal couple experienced cultic veneration as Theoi Philometores Soteres (= "mother-loving savior gods"). In addition, Cleopatra Berenike III. only the cult title Thea Philadelphos (= "brother-loving goddess"). Her name appears in the dates of the documents behind that of her husband, whereby her designation as "sister" is not to be understood in the strict sense of the word, but as a titular usage.

Early 88 BC Ptolemy X was driven out of Alexandria by a revolt . Cleopatra Berenike III. accompanied her husband with her daughter when he wanted to raise new troops. After a lost sea battle, Ptolemy X fled with his wife and daughter to Myra in Lycia and was killed while attempting to conquer Cyprus .

Ptolemy IX., Who was already 116-107 BC. Co-regent of his mother Cleopatra III. had been, could now again exercise unchallenged rule over Egypt. Cleopatra Berenike III. returned soon after the death of her husband, probably still in 88 BC. BC, returned to Egypt and acted as co-regent of her father. She now dropped the no longer appropriate cult title Thea Philadelphos and instead adopted that of Thea Philopator (= "father-loving goddess"). In Athens bronze statues of Ptolemy IX were. and Cleopatra Berenike III. placed side by side.

As Ptolemy IX. around the end of 81 BC BC or early 80 BC Died, Cleopatra Berenike III. initially sole ruler of the Nile country. Her three closest male relatives were not in Egypt at the time. However, after about six months, she was persuaded by the Alexandrians - who allegedly did not like the rule of women alone - to give her stepson Ptolemy XI , who had been summoned from Rome . To marry Alexander II . This was obliged to the dictatorial ruling in Rome Sulla , who probably wanted to secure influence on the Egyptian government by agreeing to the marriage. The ancient historian Werner Huss believes that this marriage was initially the approval of Cleopatra Berenike III. have found. She was significantly older than her stepson and apparently did not want to share her power with him enough. So he left them around June 80 BC. Murder after 18 or 19 days of marriage. But it had enjoyed great popularity among the people. Therefore, their elimination sparked an uprising in Alexandria, in the course of which Ptolemy XI. was killed shortly thereafter.

reception

The fate of Cleopatra Berenike III. was set to music in the opera Berenice by Georg Friedrich Handel .

literature

General

• Günther Hölbl : History of the Ptolemaic Empire . Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1994, pp. 189, 191, 193f., ISBN 3-534-10422-6 .
• Werner Huss : Egypt in the Hellenistic Period 332–30 BC Chr . Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-47154-4 , p. 639, 652 f., 667-670 .
• Thomas Schneider : Lexicon of the Pharaohs . Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-491-96053-3 , p. 92 .
• Felix Stähelin : Cleopatra 21). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XI, 1, Stuttgart 1921, Col. 781 f.

About the name

• Jürgen von Beckerath : Handbook of the Egyptian king names. 2nd edition, von Zabern, Mainz 1999, pp. 244–245, ISBN 3-8053-2591-6 .

Questions of detail

• Aidan Dodson, Dyan Hilton: The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt . The American University in Cairo Press, London 2004, pp. 264-281, ISBN 977-424-878-3 .

Web links

• Jona Lendering: Cleopatra Berenice III . In: Livius.org (English)

Notes and individual references

1. ↑ So the name common in the specialist literature; by Werner Huss in his standard work Egypt in the Hellenistic Period. however, she is called Cleopatra VI. guided.
2. ↑ Porphyrios In The Fragments of the Greek Historians . (FGrH) No. 260 F 2, 8.
3. ↑ G. Hölbl, 1994, p. 189; W. Huss, 2001, pp. 652f.
4. ↑ Porphyrios In: FGrH No. 260, F 2, 8-9; u. a .; on this G. Hölbl, 1994, pp. 190f .; W. Huss, 2001, pp. 656-659.
5. ↑ G. Hölbl, 1994, p. 191 (who, in contrast to W. Huss, believes that Cleopatra Berenike III only assumed the cult title Thea Philopator after the death of her father); W. Huss, 2001, p. 667f.
6. ↑ Pausanias : Helládos Periēgēsis. 1, 9, 3.
7. ↑ Porphyrios In: FGrH No. 260, F 2, 10.
8. ↑ W. Huss, 2001, p. 669.
9. ^ So the Papyrus Oxyrhynchos XIX 2222, line 9.
10. ↑ So the ancient authors Porphyrios In: FGrH Nr. 260, F 2, 10-11 and Appian : civil wars. 1, 102, 477.
11. ^ Cicero : de rege Alex. Fragment 9; Appian: Civil Wars. 1, 102, 476f .; Porphyrios In: FGrH No. 260, F 2, 10-11; on this G. Hölbl, 1994, p. 193f. and W. Huss, 2001, pp. 669f.

predecessor	Office	successor
Ptolemy IX	Queen of Egypt 81–80 BC Chr.	Ptolemy XI.