Demetrius The Fair - Cyrenaica

Cyrenaica

Not much is known about him until 249 BC. Greek Cyrenaean king Magas of Cyrene died in 249 BC or 250 BC. His widow, was the powerful Greek monarch Apama II. Apama was Demetrius’ niece, who was a daughter of his paternal half sister Stratonice of Syria from her marriage to Greek king of the Seleucid Empire Antiochus I Soter.

Apama summoned Demetrius from Macedonia. She offered Demetrius, her daughter with Magas (and only child) princess Berenice II in marriage to him. Demetrius in return, would become King of Cyrenaica and protect Cyrenaica from the Ptolemaic dynasty. Demetrius agreed to Apama’s request and married Berenice. When he married Berenice and became king, there was no opposition in his rise to the throne. When Demetrius became king, he became so ambitious it reached the point of recklessness.

Sometime after his marriage to Berenice, Demetrius and Apama became lovers. Jealous of her husband's affair with her mother, Berenice argued with both of them and fatally stabbed Demetrius who died in Apama’s arms. The poem Coma Berenices by Greek poet Callimachus (lost, but known in a Latin translation or paraphrase by Catullus), apparently refers to her killing of Demetrius: "Let me remind you how stout-hearted you were even as a young girl: have you forgotten the brave deed by which you gained a royal marriage?"