ABSTRACT
Berenike II, the wife of Ptolemy III, is one of the most prominent Ptolemaic royal women, not least because she was celebrated by contemporary poets living at the Alexandrian court. Her image in the Ptolemaic dynastic representation and cult was modeled on the precedent of Arsinoë II, the wife of the preceding king Ptolemy II (246–222 BCE), and varied by the addition of new features. In accordance with the representation of the Ptolemaic royal couple as a firm unity, Berenike appears as Ptolemy III’s complement. However, it is uncertain to which degree she in fact exercised any (co-) regnal power.
