A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

482 BERENICE.
BELLUTUS, C. SICINIUS, was the leader
of the plebs in their secession to the Sacred Mountain, B. c. 494, and was afterwards one of the first
tribunes of the plebs elected in that year. (Liv. ii.
32, 33; Dionys. vi. 45, 70, 72, 82, 89.) He was
plebeian aedile in 492 (Dionys. vii. 14), and tribune again in 491, when he distinguished himself
by his attacks upon Coriolanus, who was brought
to trial in that year. (Dionys. vii. 33-39, 61.)
Asconius calls him (in Cornel. p. 76, ed. Orelli)
L. Sicinius L. f. Bellutus.
It is most probable that his descendants, one of
whom we are expressly told was tribune in B. c.
449 (Liv. iii. 54), also bore the cognomen Bellutus;
but as they are not mentioned by this name in ancient writers, they are given under SICINIUS.
BEMA'RCHIUS (BppoXtos), a Greek sophist
and rhetorician of Caesareia in Cappadocia, who
lived in or shortly after the time of the emperor
Constantine, whose history he wrote in a work
consisting of ten books. He also wrote declamations and various orations; but none of his works
have come down to us. (Suidas, s. v. BmUaPXLos;
Liban. Orat. p. 24, &c. ed. Reiske.) [L. S.]
BENDIS (BEfvis), a Thracian divinity in whom
the moon was worshipped. Hesychius (s. v. aihoyXov) says, that the poet Cratinus called this goddess
ilAoyXos, either because she had to discharge two
duties, one towards heaven and the other towards
the earth, or because she bore two lances, or lastly,
"because she had two lights, the one her own and
the other derived from the sun. In Greece she
was sometimes identified with Persephone, but
more commonly with Artemis. (Proclus, Theolog.
p. 353.) From an expression of Aristophanes,
who in his comedy " The Lemnian Women" called
her the y eydA\r beds (Phot. Lex. and Hesych. s. v.),
it may be inferred, that she was worshipped in
Lemnos; and it was either from this island or from
Thrace that her worship was introduced into Attica; for we know, that as early as the time of
Plato the Bendideia were celebrated in Peiraeeus
every year on the twentieth of Thargelion. (Hesych. s. v. BElvts; Plat. Rep. i. 1; Proclus, ad Tim.
p. 9; Xen. IHell. ii. 4. ~ 11; Strab. x. p. 471;
Liv. xxxviii. 41.) [L. S.]
BERECY'NTHIA (BepeKvovia), a surname of
Cybele, which she derived either from mount Berecynthus, or from a fortified place of that name in
Phrygia, where she was particularly worshipped.
Mount Berecynthus again derived its name from
Berecynthus, a priest of Cybele. (Callim. Hymn.
in Dian. 246; Serv. ad Aen. ix. 82, vi. 785;
Strab. x. p. 472; Plut. deFlum. 10.) [L.S.]
BERENICE (BEevidb), a Macedonic form of
Pherenice ({epsEivKc).
I. Egyptian Berenices.
1. A daughter of Lagus by Antigone, niece
of Antipater, was married first to Philip, an
obscure Macedonian, and afterwards to Ptolemy
Soter (the reputed son of Lagus by Arsinoe),
who fell in love with her when she came to
Egypt in attendance on his bride Eurydice, Antipater's daughter. (Schol. ad Theoc. Idyll. xvii.
61; Paus. i. 6, 7.) She had such influence
over her husband that she procured the succession
to the throne for her son Ptolemy Philadelphus, to
the exclusion of Eurydice's children,-and this,
too, in spite of the remonstrances of Demetrius of
Phalerus with the king. (Just. xvi. 2; Diog.
Laert. v. 78; comp. Ael. V. H. iii. 17.) Plutarch

BERENICE.
speaks of her as the first in virtue and wisdom of
the wives of Ptolemy, and relates that Pyrrhus
of Epeirus, when he was placed with Ptolemy as
a hostage for Demetrius, courted her favour especially, and received in marriage Antigone, her
daughter by her first husband Philip. Pyrrhus is
also said to have given the name of " Berenicis," in
honour of her, to a city which he built in Epeirus.
(Plut. Pyrrh. 4, 6.) After her death her son
Philadelphus instituted divine honours to her, and
Theocritus (Idyll. xvii. 34, &c., 123) celebrates
her beauty, virtue, and deification. See also
Athen. v. pp. 202, d., 203, a.; Theoc. Idyll. xv.
106; and the pretty Epigram (55) of Callimachus. It seems doubtful whether the Berenice,
whose humane interference with her husband on
behalf of criminals is referred to by Aelian (.K 1-.
xiv. 43), is the subject of the present article, or
the wife of Ptolemy III. (Euergetes.) See Perizonius, ad A el. 1. c.
2. Daughter of Ptolemy Philadelphus, became
the wife of Antiochus Theos, king of Syria, according to the terms of the treaty between him and
Ptolemy, B. c. 249, which required him to divorce
Laodice and marry the Egyptian princess, establishing also the issue of the latter as his successors.
On the death, however, of Ptolemy, B. c. 247,
Antiochus put Berenice away and recalled Laodice,
who notwithstanding, having no faith in his constancy, caused him to be poisoned. Berenice fled
in alarm to Daphne with her son, where being besieged they fell into the hands of Laodice's partizans, and were murdered with all their Egyptian
attendants, the forces of the Asiatic cities and of
Ptolemy Euergetes (brother of Berenice) arriving
only in time to avenge them. These events are
prophetically referred to by Daniel in the clearest
manner. (Polyb. Fragm. Hist. 54, v. 58, ad fin.;
Athen. ii. p. 45, c.; Just. xxvii. 1; Polyaen. viii.
50; Appian, Syr. 65, p. 130; Dan. xi. 6, and Hieron. ad loc.)
3. Grand-daughter of Berenice, No. 1, and
daughter of Magas, who was first governor and
then king of Cyrene. Athenaeus (xv. p. 689, a.)
calls her, if we follow the common reading, " Berenice the Great," but perhaps rj Mdya should be
substituted for ii AEyacA. (Schweigh. ad Athen.
1. c.) She was betrothed by her father to Ptolemy
Euergetes, as one of the terms of the peace
between himself and his half-brother Ptolemy
II. (Philadelphus), the father of Euergetes.