Bereni'ce
1. Daughter of Costobarus and Salome, sister of Herod the Great, was married to Aristobulus, her first cousin. [ARISTOBULUS, No. 4.] This prince, proud of his descent through Mariamne from the blood of the Maccabees, is said by Josephus to have taunted Berenice with her inferiority of birth; and her consequent complaints to Salome served to increase that hostility of the latter to Aristobulus which mainly caused his death. (
J. AJ 18.5,
94,
16.1.2, 4.1, 7.3;
Bell. Jud. 1.23. sec; 1, 24. sec; 3.)
After his execution, B. C. 6, Berenice became the wife of Theudion, maternal uncle to Antipater the eldest son of Herod the Great,-- Antipater having brought about the marriage with the view of conciliating Salome and disarming her suspicions of himself. (
J. AJ 17.1.1;
Bell. Jud. 1.28. sec; 1.) Josephus does not mention the death of Theudion, but it is probable that he suffered for his share in Antipater's plot against the life of Herod. [See p. 203a.] (
J. AJ 17.4.2;
Bell. Jud. 1.30.5.)
Berenice certainly appears to have been again a widow when she accompanied her mother to Rome with Archelaus, who went thither at the comencement of his reign to obtain from Augustus the ratification of his father's will. (
J. AJ 17.9.3;
Bell. Jud. 2.2.1.) At Rome she seems to have continued for the rest of her life, enjoying the favour of Augustus and the friendship of Antonia, wife of the elder Drusus. [ANTONIA, No. 6.] Antonia's affection, indeed, for Berenice exhibited itself even after the death of the latter, and during the reign of Tiberius, in offices of substantial kindness to her son Agrippa I., whom she furnished with the means of discharging his debt to the treasury of the emperor. (
Strab. xvi. p.765;
J. AJ 18.6. ยงยง 1-6.)
