Berenīce and Beronice, a woman famous for her beauty, mother of Ptolemy Philadelphus by Lagus. Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 14, ch. 43.—Theocritus.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 7.——A daughter of Philadelphus, who married Antiochus king of Syria, after he had divorced Laodice his former wife. After the death of Philadelphus, Laodice was recalled, and mindful of the treatment which she had received, she poisoned her husband, placed her son on the vacant throne, and murdered Berenice and her child at Antioch, where she had fled, B.C. 248.——A daughter of Ptolemy Auletes, who usurped her father’s throne for some time, strangled her husband Seleucus, and married Archelaus, a priest of Bellona. Her father regained his power, and put her to death B.C. 55.——The wife of Mithridates, who, when conquered by Lucullus, ordered all his wives to destroy themselves, for fear the conqueror should offer violence to them. She accordingly drank poison, but this not operating soon enough, she was strangled by a eunuch.——The mother of Agrippa, who shines in the history of the Jews as daughter-in-law of Herod the Great.——A daughter of Agrippa, who married her uncle Herod, and afterwards Polemon king of Cilicia. She was accused by Juvenal of committing incest with her brother Agrippa. It is said that she was passionately loved by Titus, who would have made her empress but for fear of the people.——A wife of king Attalus.——Another, daughter of Philadelphus and Arsinoe, who married her own brother Evergetes, whom she loved with much tenderness. When he went on a dangerous expedition, she vowed all the hair of her head to the goddess Venus, if he returned. Some time after his victorious return, the locks which were in the temple of Venus disappeared; and Conon, an astronomer, to make his court to the queen, publicly reported that Jupiter had carried them away, and had made them a constellation. She was put to death by her son, B.C. 221. Catullus, poem 67.—Hyginus, Poeticon Astronomicon, bk. 2, ch. 24.—Justin, bk. 26, ch. 3.——This name is common to many of the queens and princesses in the Ptolemean family in Egypt.——A city of Libya. Strabo.—Mela, bk. 3, ch. 8.——Two towns of Arabia. Strabo, bk. 16.——One in Egypt on the Red sea, where the ships from India generally landed their cargoes. Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 23.——Another near the Syrtes, &c. Pliny, bk. 17.
Berenīcis, a part of Africa near the town of Berenice. Lucan, bk. 9, li. 523.
Bergion and Albion, two giants, sons of Neptune, who opposed Hercules as he attempted to cross the Rhone, and were killed with stones from heaven. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 5.
Bergistăni, a people of Spain, at the east of the Iberus. Livy, bk. 34, ch. 16.
Beris and Baris, a river of Cappadocia.——A mountain of Armenia.
Bermius, a mountain of Macedonia. Herodotus, bk. 8, ch. 138.
Beroe, an old woman of Epidaurus, nurse to Semele. Juno assumed her shape when she persuaded Semele not to grant her favours to Jupiter, if he did not appear in the majesty of a god. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3, li. 278.——The wife of Doryclus, whose form was assumed by Iris at the instigation of Juno, when she advised the Trojan women to burn the fleet of Æneas in Sicily. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 620.——One of the Oceanides, attendant upon Cyrene. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 4, li. 341.
Berœa, a town of Thessaly. Cicero, Piso, ch. 36.
Beronīce. See: [Berenice].
Berōsus, a native of Babylon, priest to Belus. He passed into Greece, and remained a long time at Athens. He composed a history of Chaldæa, and signalized himself by his astronomical predictions, and was rewarded for his learning with a statue in the gymnasium at Athens. The age in which he lived is not precisely known, though some fix it in the reign of Alexander, or 268 years B.C. Some fragments of his Chaldæan history are preserved by Josephus, Against Appion & Antiquities of the Jews, bk. 105. The book that is now extant under his name, and speaks of kings that never existed, is a supposititious fabrication.