Pheretima (Cyrenaean Queen)

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Pheretima or Pheretime (Greek: η Φερετίμη, flourished 6th century BC) was a Greek woman who was the wife of the sixth Greek Cyrenaean King Battus III and was a member of The Battiads dynasty. She was the last queen known from the ancient sources of Cyrenaica from The Battiads dynasty. Pheretima was a woman of Greek Dorian origin and Herodotus states that her father was called Battus. She seem to have been born and raised in Cyrenaica. However, little is known on 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 and became friends with him. 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 with her back to Cyrenaica. Euelthon refused to do so but gave her various fine presents instead. Failing in her mission, Pheretima returned to Cyrenaica. However Arcesilaus successfully recruited an army in Samos. He returned to Cyrenaica with his army and successfully 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 out of Cyrene. Arcesilaus’ supporters received their promised land, however 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 left Cyrene and went to Barca, Pheretima became the head monarch and took responsibility for ruling Cyrenaica and administering the Cyrenaean government. Arcesilaus and his father-in-law were murdered in the Barcaean marketplace by some exiled Cyrenaean nobles who were exacting their revenge.

When Pheretima heard her son was murdered, she left Cyrenaica and 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 as the reason she was petitioning to the Persians.

Arysandes pitied Pheretima and gave her all of 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 equally 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 all 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 became very ill and contracted a contagious skin disease in which worms were living in her and eating her flesh resulting in a horrible death. Pheretima died in late 515 BC and her grandson Battus IV became king. From the time when Pheretima died, Cyrenaica was no longer an independent Greek Kingdom and became apart of the Persian Empire. Cyrenaica became a client kingdom under Persian rule.