A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Φερετίμη), wife of Battus III., and mother of Arcesilaus III., successive kings of Cyrene,--"a Dorian woman," says Müller, "transformed into an Oriental sultana." It was doubtless through her violent instigations that Arcesilaus made the attempt to recover the royal privileges, which his father had lost; and, when he filed in this and was driven into exile, Pheretima fled to the court of Evelthon, king of Salamis in Cypus, to whom she made persevering but fruitless applications for an army to effect the restoration of her son. [EVELTHON.] Arcesilaus, however, recovered the throne with the help of auxiliaries from Samos, and in the cruel vengeance which he took on his enemies we seem to trace again the evil influence of his mother. On being obliged to flee a second time from his country, he took refuge with the Barcaeans, the greater part of whom were hostile to him, and jorning with some Cyrenaean exiles, put him to death. Mean while, Pheretima had remained in Cyiene, administering the government ; but, when she heard of her son's murder. she fled into Egypt to Aryandes the viceroy of Dareiaus Hystaspis, and, representing that the death of Arcesilaus had been the consequence of his submission to the Persians, she induced him to avenge it. On the capture of Barca by the Persian army, she caused those who had had the principal share in her son's murder to be impaled, and, not content with this cruel vengeance, she ordered the breasts of their wives to be cut off. The rest of her enemies in the city were enslaved, and the place was given up to the government of the Battiadae and their party. Pheretima then returned to Egypt, where she soon after died of a painful and loathsome disease. (Hdt. 4.162, 165, 167, 200-202, 205; Polyaen. 8.47 ; Suid. s. v. εὐλαί ; Thrige, Res Cyrenensium, §§ 39, &c.) [See above, Vol. I. p. 477.]

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