BERENICE (BERNICE). - Sister of Agrippa II, daughter of King Erode Agrippa I (d. in A.D. 44). She married Erode, king of Calciè, brother of her father. Widowed at the age of twenty-one, she lived scandalously with her brother. Later she married Polemone I, king of Cilicia, but soon left him to return to her brother. During this period, about the year 60, Agrippa II and B., passing through Caesarea Maritima, were invited by the procurator Festo to hear the defence of St. Paul, who had appealed to Caesar (Act. 25, 13-26, 12). Subsequently B. succeeded in seducing the already elderly Vespasiano, and Tito, who would have married the Jewess had he not feared the disapproval of the Roman people.
Besides Flavio Giuseppe (Antiq. Iud., XIX, 5, 1 and 9, 1; XX, 7, 2; Bell. Iud., II, 15, 1 and 17, 6; Vito, 65), the following speak of B.: Dione Cassio, 66, 18; Giovenale, VI, 155-160; Tacito, Hist., II, 2, 81; Svetonio, Titus, 7, 1. Well known are the tragedies of Racine (Bérénice) and Cornelle (Titus et Bérénice). Pietro De Ambroggi