One of the more popular characters in my City of God series is Queen Berenike. She was an important member of the powerful Herod family. This is a continuation of my most recent blog post, in which I followed Berenike’s life from her marriage in about the year AD 41, up to the year AD 66.
In that year, all hell broke loose in Jerusalem, and Berenike found herself right in the thick of it…
Queen Berenike, Hero of Jerusalem
In April of AD 66, the Roman governor Florus sent troops to raid the Temple in Jerusalem. The men stole 17 talents of silver, about 1300 pounds by weight. This works out to about $1.5 million at today’s prices. The raid violated all norms of Roman law. Ancient temples functioned as banks, and they were supposed to be inviolate.
Jerusalem was outraged, and certain young men staged a protest, in which they posed as beggars collecting “alms for Caesar.” When Florus got wind of this insult, he invaded Jerusalem with about a thousand infantrymen and took up residence in Herod’s Palace, a fortress built by Herod the Great at the west end of the city.
Florus’s men slaughtered anyone they could find—men, women, children. Some were crucified in the market area just outside Herod’s Palace. Josephus claims that 3,600 people were killed in a single day. This number is wildly inflated, as most of Josephus’s numbers are, but it was certainly a massacre.
Agrippa was in Egypt, but Berenike happened to be in Jerusalem. She was suffering from some illness and had recently taken a Nazarite vow in the Temple in hopes of a cure. Berenike went alone to the tribunal where Florus was executing people. Her head was uncovered, and her feet were bare, and she begged Florus for mercy. He refused and sent her packing. Josephus tells us that she went in danger of her life. (This story is told in my novel Retribution.)
Berenike’s courage made her an instant hero in Jerusalem. Berenike had failed, but she had tried. She had put her life on the line. The people of Jerusalem respected her for that. If that was the end of the story, Berenike would be remembered in history as a hero. But it’s not the end…
Berenike and the Insurrection
Jerusalem was enraged. They ran Florus out of town. Berenike and the city elders sent an urgent appeal for justice to the legate of Syria, Cestius Gallus. But Gallus couldn’t be bothered to come to Jerusalem. He sent a tribune to look into the situation.
The tribune met with Berenike and with Agrippa, who had now returned from Eypt. They listened to the people’s demands for justice. All Jerusalem wanted Florus to be sent back to Rome to face trial before Nero. The tribune reported this information back to Gallus.
But Cestius Gallus made a truly stupid decision. He ignored the pleas for justice. Instead, he demanded that Judea must raise more tribute—40 talents worth. This was a heavy demand.
Agrippa gave a speech to the people, urging them to raise the money. Berenike, the hero of the city, stood beside him. The people agreed to this grudgingly, and within a few weeks, the whole amount was raised. But the people still wanted justice for the violence inflicted by Florus.
Agrippa gave another speech to persuade the people to obey Florus. He again used Berenike as a prop, posting her in a prominent spot in the Hasmonean Palace. But Jerusalem demanded justice. Florus must not be obeyed, he must be sent to Rome in chains. The people showered both Agrippa and Berenike with stones. The two left Jerusalem the next day. They never saw the inside of the Hasmonean Palace again.
Berenike’s Role in the War
Within weeks, a pack of young aristocratic priests in Jerusalem declared war on Rome. Berenike and Agrippa went in person to the legate of Syria, Cestius Gallus. They probably met in one of the coastal cities, Beirut or Tyre. Cestius decided that this rebellion must be put down with force. He sailed to the capital city of Syria, Antioch, taking Berenike and Agrippa with him.
Over the next months, Cestius Gallus pulled together a large force of men, about 30,000 in all. This was roughly the total population of Jerusalem, more than enough to put down any rebellion. The entire force marched a couple of hundred miles down the coast. They destroyed several villages along the way, as practice for their troops.
The giant force marched inland to Jerusalem. Agrippa was with the army, and Berenike may well have been there also. They arrived right outside the city gates around the time of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, in late September of AD 66.
In theory, they had plenty of time to take control of the city. They quickly captured and burned the northern sector of Jerusalem, known as New City.
But then something went wrong. We don’t know how this large force failed to take the rest of Jerusalem.
We just know that they failed. Badly. The rebels turned the Romans back. Chased them from their camp on Mount Scopus through a succession of camps at Geba and Bet Horon. In the famous Battle of Bet Horon, the Judean rebels destroyed the entire Twelfth Legion, the famous “Thunderbolt Legion” that was once commanded by Julius Caesar.
Cestius Gallus returned to Antioch with Berenike and Agrippa in utter disgrace. The war appeared to be over. But it was only beginning…
Berenike and Titus
We don’t hear much about Berenike after this. The Roman historian Tacitus mentions her a couple of times in connection with Titus, the son of a Senator named Vespasian whom Nero sent to clean up the mess in Judea. Vespasian took his time, grinding through Galilee first, then Judea. About the time Vespasian was preparing to lay siege to Jerusalem, the whole world flipped on its head…
In June of AD 68, Nero committed suicide. The empire plunged into turmoil. In quick succession, one Senator after another put himself forward as emperor. Vespasian halted the war efforts in Judea to see how things would fall out. At one point, he sent his son Titus to Rome to meet with the current emperor, Galba. When Titus got as far as Corinth, he learned that Galba was dead. He returned to his father in Judea. Tacitus tells us that part of the reason was his attraction to Berenike, who was eleven years older than him. She was forty years old, and still knocking men dead with her beauty.
After three men proclaimed themselves emperor and failed, Vespasian put himself forward in the year AD 69. Agrippa and Berenike were quick to offer their allegiance to Vespasian. Tacitus tells us that Berenike “quite won the old man’s heart.” But he doesn’t say how.
Vespasian went to Rome, and his son Titus took over the campaign in Judea. At some point, Titus and Berenike began an affair. Titus oversaw the destruction of Jerusalem and the burning of the Temple in the year AD 70. He returned to Rome as the conquering general, while Berenike stayed behind in Judea.
Queen of All the Earth?
In the year AD 75, Agrippa and Berenike went to Rome. Agrippa was elected praetor, a high-ranking position in the Roman government. Berenike resumed her affair with Titus. Very soon she was living with him openly in the imperial palace, expecting to shortly become his wife.
Since Titus was the oldest son of the emperor Vespasian, this meant that Berenike would be the wife of the future emperor. But Romans in the street were none too happy with the idea of a Jewish queen. The Roman historian Cassius Dio tells us that a Cynic named Diogenes denounced the relationship between Titus and Berenike in the theater. Diogenes was flogged for his troubles. Another Cynic, Heras, did the same and was beheaded. But popular sentiment ran against Berenike. Titus read the writing on the wall and dumped her, (although he kept his boy prostitutes and eunuchs).
Four years later, Vespasian died, and Titus became emperor. Berenike returned to Rome, but she apparently had no further flings with Titus. So in the end, Berenike failed in her quest to be “Queen of All the Earth,” but it was a close thing. Her title would not have lasted long. Titus died only a couple of years later, not quite 42 years old.
Berenike was about 53 years old at the time Titus died, but we don’t know how long she lived after this. She disappears from the historical record. Her brother Agrippa lived at least into the early 90s. Josephus published his gigantic work Antiquities of the Jews about the year AD 93, and he thanks Agrippa for his help. But he says nothing about Berenike, so she may have already died by then.
Berenike has been a favorite in fiction, drama, opera, TV, and film over the centuries. It’s standard practice to paint her as a seductress, weaving her wiles on unwary men. But that’s just the patriarchy at work, always blaming the woman. The truth is that we don’t know who seduced whom. We do know who had the power in every relationship, and it was always the man. Make of that what you will.
