I bought this book and Arsinoe of Egypt and Macedon A Royal Life at the same time Both books are part of a remarkable series of biographies about women in Antiquity that includes Cleopatra and the notorious Clodia of Catullan and Ciceronian fame The dearth of evidence for the lives and especially the thoughts and writings of women in antiquity has been a major topic of discussion for decades now Although new evidence is likely not forthcoming this book still aims to correct the lack of a comprehensive study of this famous Egyptian Queen Berenice succeeded Arsinoe as co regent of Egypt but the two biographies paint very pictures of the women Part of this can again be attributed to the lack of evidence There is even less evidence for Arsinoe s life than there is for Berenice and as a result Clayman s approach differs from that of Carney This book is primarily a literary biography Clayman frequently engages with the literature that was written during Berenice s life and makes many convincing and a few less convincing arguments about the way this literature would have been associated with the Queen and received by her This book is not only a study of the life of Berenice but it also makes a solid introduction to Hellenistic poetry the Ptolemaic court and historical readings of literature in general Clayman reveals her indebtedness to Griffith s seminal _Theocritus At Court_ early on and a large part of this book is comprised of interpretations of works by Callimachus and Apollonius of Rhodes with an eye to their relevance to Berenice The book is longer than Carney s biography of Arsinoe by about 50 pages and this extra length is largely spent reading literary texts including an appendix with a translation of Catullus Lock of Berenice Despite this extra length the book seems less of a slog than Carney s for me Berenice s life was not significantly eventful than her predecessor she died three years younger than Arsinoe did but the vagaries of ancient textual preservation mean that we can comment much fully on the significance of Berenice to literary culture. This was a great read The book toes the line between addressing a scholarly and a popular audience This is not always easy to do and many fail at it in some way I found the endnotes very rewarding since I tend toward the scholarly side and there is a useful bibliography that added even books to my reading list One major complaint is that the images in the book don t get the glossy color treatment despite being tucked in the middle of the book where we often find a nice little cache of pretty pictures to help guide our imaginations It is also strange that there are also fewer images here than can be found in Carney s Arsinoe biography despite the fact that Clayman mentions several images of Berenice that are not included in this volume These are small critiques of an otherwise excellent book 9780195370898 This turned out to be about court poetry and foundation myths Given that Alexandria was the science superpower of the age I was hoping for about that Not the book I wanted 9780195370898 So this book has some good information but the author projects a lot of emotions and motivations on historical figures Literary sources are given way too much credence and the author relies heavily on previous scholarship as well as assuming Greek ethnic identity for Ptolemaic Egypt 9780195370898 A conglomeration of available sources on a very interesting woman of antiquity the only real person that has a constellation named after her Coma Berenices The author pulls together as many ancient sources as there are available to flesh out most of a biography of the wife of Ptolemy III of Egypt Since many of those sources are fragmentary or summarized by some other ancient author it shows quite a good job of work on Clayman s part She fills in gaps with reasonable speculation based on what sources are there and amplifies the history not just of Berenice II and Egypt but the Mediterranean world between the death of Alexander the Great and the rise of Rome It s worth reading if you are interested in that period of history 9780195370898 Berenice II was one of Cleopatra VII s ancestors She was the daughter of King Magas of Cyrenaica modern day Libya She was the step daughter in law of Arsinoe II because she married Ptolemy III She bore a son named Ptolemy IV This biography portrays Berenice as a queen who was a patron of the arts For the famous poets of her day helped project her image of a powerful queen. Through poetry Berenice had helped establish a cult and became one of the most celebrated Macadeonian queens in Ptolemaic history Just like Arsinoe II Berenice II also had a colorful life She was the granddaughter of Seleucus I who was the founder of the famous Seleucid dynasty When her father King Magas died she married Demeterius who was the half brother of the King of Macedonia However she murdered her husband once she caught him in bed with her mother After the death of her husband she married her cousin Ptolemy III They reigned together for 24 years until Ptolemy III died However she did not outlive her son for long because her son Ptolemy IV murdered her shortly after he ascended the throne This biography mostly focuses on Berenice II s assassination of her first husband Demetrius and what the poets thought of the queen s ruthless deed Callimachus defends this queen for her actions However the poet Appolionius is critical of Berenice II s treacherous execution I also found it interesting that the author presented Berenice II s murder of Demetrius to be a fact becuase this has been disputed among historians Joyce Tydesley believes it to be highly unlikely that Berenice II was ever involved in the murder of her first husband For information about this debate read her biography of Cleopatra Nevertheless it provided an interesting debate on whether Berenice II was actually a murderer Overall this biography relies heavily on speculation that is still being disputed among historians There is not a lot of information on Berenice II except that she won a few chariot races I like how this biography rarely focuses on Ptolemy III and focuses exclusively on Berenice II I also like reading about the poets of the era and how they helped influence a Golden Age in the Ptolemaic era Thus Mrs Clayman shows a woman who was intelligent and as accomplished as her infamous descendant Cleopatra VII 9780195370898 3. 5 9780195370898 Perhaps it is suited to this biopic type book on Berenice II however the author repeatedly appears to strain to find connections between the meager source material and the titular queen Since I came to this book seeking additional background on the poet Callimachus many of the claims when placed against the body of scholarship are untenable However this book does provide a good basic window into understanding Alexandria at the time 9780195370898
Berenice II c 264 221 BCE daughter of King Magas of Cyrene and wife of Ptolemy III Euergetes came to embody all the key religious political and artistic ideals of Ptolemaic Alexandria Though she arrived there nearly friendless with the taint of murder around her she became one of the most accomplished and powerful of the Macedonian queens descended from the successors of Alexander the Great She was at the center of a group of important poets and intellectuals associated with the Museum and Library not the least of which was Callimachus the most important poet of the age These men wrote poems not just for her but about her and their eloquent voices projected her charisma widely across the Greek speaking world Though the range of Berenice s interests was impressive and the quantity and quality of the poetry she inspired unparalleled today she is all but known Assimilating the scant and scattered evidence of her life Dee L Clayman presents a woman who was powerful and fascinating than we had previously imagined Berenice II and the Golden Age of Ptolemaic Egypt offers a portrait of a woman who had access to the cultural riches of both Greece and Egypt and who navigated her way carefully through the opportunities and dangers they presented ultimately using them to accrue unprecedented honors that were all but equal to those of the king Berenice II and the Golden Age of Ptolemaic Egypt Women in Antiquity Dee L Clayman is an American classical scholar and a professor of Classics at the City University of New York She is a pioneer in the effort to digitize the humanities and served as president of the Society for Classical Studies..
