Berenice I of Egypt
Berenike I. (Greek Βερενίκη, * to 340 BC; † before 268 BC) was a noble Makedonin that the Diadochi and later Egyptian king Ptolemy I married his second wife, from whom she mother of Arsinoe II. , and of Ptolemy II was.
Life
Berenike I. came as her future husband Ptolemy I of the Macedonian landscape Eordaia. She was the daughter of Antigone and thus a great-niece of the Macedonian commander Antipater. Your otherwise unknown father's name was probably Magas.
First Berenike was a marriage with an equally unknown Macedonians named Philippos one, which was lower descent, according to Pausanias and they mother of the later King Magas of Cyrene and the Antigone, who later became the first wife of King Pyrrhus I of Epirus, and other daughters was, which probably belonged Theoxena.
The year of death of Berenice 's first husband is unknown, but at least she went to around 320 BC in the wake of the related family, Eurydice, the daughter of Antipater, to Egypt. The reason for Eurydice's journey to the land of the Nile was that she was the bride of Ptolemy I, the former general of Alexander the Great and nunmehrigen satrap of Egypt destined. Although the Eurydice Ptolemy I gave birth to several children, this soon (around 317 BC) having an affair came in with Berenice and took it possibly already at that time to his other wife. As a result, Berenike had with Ptolemy I, who founded the dynasty of the Ptolemies and 305/304 BC, assumed the title of king, at least three children: To 316 BC they brought her daughter Arsinoe II to the world, 308 v. Chr her son Ptolemy ( II ), while her daughter Philotera was their second child of Ptolemy I and probably should have been born 315-309 BC.
The legal status of Berenike in relation to Eurydice is unclear. At any rate, Berenike but Ptolemy's favorite wife. So the biographer Plutarch describes about the situation for about the year 299 BC, so that Berenike then I. among the wives of Ptolemy was the most influential, most virtuous and wittiest. The preference of the Egyptian king for Berenike was probably the decisive reason for even that he went Eurydice's son Ptolemy Keraunos favor of Berenike's son Ptolemy ( II ) in succession. Also Berenike's children from her first marriage were taken into account: Magas was around 300 BC governor of Cyrene, and Antigone to 299/98 BC, Pyrrhus of Epirus, wife of the king. After Eurydice 's departure to 287 BC from Egypt, Ptolemy II 285/84 BC co-regent with his father and thus was definitely throne.
It is testified that Berenike in an unknown year ( perhaps 284 BC) at the Olympics won the chariot race. She survived Ptolemy I and probably died in the period 279-274 BC, but in any case before 268 BC
Ptolemy II named the newly established Port Berenice on the Red Sea for her. Even the town's name Berenike in Epirus, who founded King Pyrrhus, goes back to her. Furthermore, let Ptolemy II temple for his parents throughout Egypt build - so a Berenikeion in Alexandria is already occupied by 275 BC - and ordered by Berenice 's death, her father and his divine honors as Theoi Soteres ( = "savior gods " ) come to be. This cult joined the king Ptolemy IV 215/214 BC, the cult of the deified Alexander to.
Berenike I. was the grandmother of Ptolemy III. , According to his wife Berenice II of the same constellation is named.