Pheretima (Cyrenaean Queen)

Pheretima or Pheretime (Greek: η Φερετίμη, 6th century BC) was a Greek woman who was the wife of the sixth Greek Cyrenaean King Battus III and a member of "The Battiads" dynasty. She was the last queen mentioned in the sources of Cyrenaica from "The Battiads" dynasty. Pheretima was a woman of Greek Dorian origin and Herodotus states that her father was called Battus. Little is known about her family and life prior to marrying Battus.

She married Battus before 550 BC when he was still a Cyrenaean Prince. They had two children, a son, prince and future king Arcesilaus III and a daughter, Cyrenaean Princess Ladice who married the Egyptian Pharaoh Amasis II. She became Queen of Cyrenaica in 550 BC, when Battus became king.

Not much is known about her during her husband's reign. When Battus died in 530 BC, Arcesilaus became the new king. In 525 BC, Arcesilaus made an alliance with King Cambyses II of Persia. About 518 BC, Arcesilaus could no longer accept the Cyrenaean constitutional changes introduced by his late father and Denomax and demanded his ancestral rights returned to him. After civil struggles that occurred, Arcesilaus was defeated and because Pheretima supported him, both mother and son left Cyrenaica. Arcesilaus went to the Greek island of Samos, while Pheretima went to the court of the deaf Greek King Euelthon in Salamis, Cyprus.

While her son was trying to recruit supporters in Samos, promising the men land in Cyrenaica, Pheretima was asking Euelthon to give her an army to return to Cyrenaica. Euelthon refused to do so but gave her various fine presents instead. Failing in her mission, Pheretima returned to Cyrenaica. Arcesilaus recruited an army in Samos. He returned to Cyrenaica with his army and regained his power.

Pheretima probably influenced her son to take revenge on his political opponents, which he did. His opponents were either murdered or exiled from Cyrene. Arcesilaus’ supporters received their promised land but they feared a backlash for their actions and ignoring the oracle’s advice not to harm the Cyrenaean citizens. Arcesilaus left Cyrene and went to the Cyrenaean town of Barca.

When Arcesilaus went to Barca, Pheretima became the head monarch and ruled Cyrenaica and administered the Cyrenaean government. Arcesilaus and his father-in-law were murdered in the Barcaean marketplace by exiled Cyrenaean nobles exacting revenge.

When Pheretima heard her son was murdered, she went to Arysandes, the Persian governor of Egypt, to seek assistance in avenging the death of her son. Pheretima approached Arysandes for help and claimed it was Arcesilaus' friendship with the Persian king that caused his murder.

Arysandes pitied Pheretima and gave her Egypt’s army and navy to command. Before she left for Egypt, Arysandes sent a herald to Barca to ask who murdered Arcesilaus. When the herald arrived at Barca and asked, the Barcaeans replied that they were all responsible for Arcesilaus’ death. The herald returned to Egypt with this answer and the army marched with Pheretima to Barca to avenge her son’s death.

When Pheretima and the Persian army arrived at Barca, they called upon those Barcaeans responsible for the murder to surrender. They refused to surrender and the subsequent siege lasted for nine months. The Persians started digging underground tunnels to the city’s wall as a direct assault. The Barcaeans also dug underground tunnels and killed various Persian soldiers and foil other attacks. Both the Persians and the Barcaeans lost many men.

Amasis, the commander of the Persian infantry, changed tactics once he realized that Barca could not be taken by force. He devised a plan to lure the Barcaeans out of the town based on a false offer to discuss an armistice. Amasis had ordered some soldiers to dig a large trench in front of the city covered with wooden planks and earth in order to catch them.

Amasis then invited the Barcaeans for a meeting and they came. They Barcaeans accepted the offer of ending the hostility in exchange for a fair sum paid to the Persian King. The Barcaeans agreed and they open the city gates and allowed the Persians in. The Persians went in and the ground the Barcaeans stood on gave way and they fell in the large trench. (I am unable to edit this because there is a contradiction at this point in the account. It seems that the author meant to say that the Barcaeans went out of the city to accept the terms and then fell into the trap.) Pheretima ordered the wives’ breasts to be cut off. She gave the rest of the Barcaeans to the Persians for slavery. The Barcaeans were resettled by King Darius I of Persia, in Bactria and named their settlement Barca.

Pheretima was successful in avenging the Barcaeans in murdering her son. She returned to Egypt, giving the army back to the governor. While in Egypt, Pheretima contracted a contagious skin disease in which worms were living in her and eating her flesh. Pheretima died in late 515 BC and her grandson Battus IV became king. After Pheretima's death, Cyrenaica was no longer an independent Greek Kingdom and became apart of the Persian Empire. Cyrenaica became a vassal state under Persian rule.

ee also

* List of Kings of Cyrene
* Cyrene
* Cyrenaica

ources:

*Herodotus, The Histories, Book 4
*Morkot, R., The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Greece, Penguin Books, The Bath Press - Avon, Great Britain, 1996
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=yFoGAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA476&lpg=RA1-PA476&dq=battus+i+of+cyrene&source=web&ots=t0ry2lDq05&sig=de4r9u7WwS3ocdHqMZvG-z6ZZU4]
*http://www.livius.org/ct-cz/cyrenaica/cyrenaica.html
*http://www.mediterranees.net/dictionnaires/smith/cyrene.html
*http://www.attalus.org/translate/polyaenus8B.html#47.1
*http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/2592.html