Berenice (Formerly Hesperides)

City of the Cyrenaic Pentapolis, at the eastern extremity of the great Syrtis, near the river Lathon. The settlement of the Jews in Berenice, as in the other towns of the Greek colony "Cyrenaica," dates from Ptolemy I. Although enjoying the rights of citizenship, they formed an independent municipal community. But instead of having an ethnarch at their head, as in other places, the Jews in Berenice formed a separate "politeuma," and were governed by their own archons. A Greek inscription found in Berenice, dating from the year 13 B.C., according to Böckh's calculation, gives the names of the nine Jewish archons. These are: Cleanthropos, Stratonicos, Euphanides, Aristonos, Sozigenos, Sosippus, Andromachus, Marcus, and Lailaos.

Bibliography:

  * Josephus, Ant. xiv. 7, § 2;
  * C. I. G. ed. Aug. Böckh, No. 5361, p. 557;
  * Schürer, Gesch. iii. 25, 42, 43.



G. I. Br.