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Pheretime

Mother of a king of Cyrene who sought Persian help and avenged her son at Barca, about 515 BCE

Pheretime was the mother of Arcesilaus III, king of Cyrene in Libya. Herodotus tells her story in book 4: after her son was killed at Barca, she appealed to Aryandes, the Persian governor of Egypt, and a Persian force took Barca. Her end, as Herodotus tells it, is a moral tale about the anger of the gods.

In the game: Pheretime is named in the Encyclopedia's event article on the siege of Barca and in related articles on the Persians in Egypt. She has no figure, building or mechanic of her own in the game.

Mother of a king of Cyrene

Ancient account

Herodotus says Pheretime was the mother of Arcesilaus III, a king of the Battiad dynasty of Cyrene. When her son fell out with his people, she went to Salamis in Cyprus while he went to Samos and then to Barca. After he was killed at Barca, Herodotus says she went to Egypt to seek vengeance.

Herodotus 4.162-165

Appeal to Aryandes

Ancient account

Herodotus says Pheretime went to Aryandes, the Persian governor of Egypt, and asked him to avenge her son. She argued that Arcesilaus had died because he had placed Cyrene under Persian rule. Aryandes gave her an army and a fleet, though Herodotus says he had his own reasons for the campaign.

Herodotus 4.165-167

The siege of Barca

Ancient account

According to Herodotus, the Persians besieged Barca for nine months, digging mines that the Barcaeans detected with a bronze shield. The Persians then took the city by a trick, swearing terms that they did not intend to keep. Pheretime had the leading men impaled and, he says, had the breasts of their wives cut off and fixed along the wall. He adds that the Persians settled the surviving Barcaeans in Bactria.

Herodotus 4.200-204

Her death

Later legend

Herodotus says Pheretime returned to Egypt and died of worms swarming over her body. He draws the lesson that excessive vengeance brings the anger of the gods. This is a moral tale, and the manner of her death is known only from Herodotus.

Herodotus 4.205

What historians question

Disputed

Herodotus's account is the only detailed one, and Cyrenaean and Barcaean tradition may have shaped it. Historians debate the date, usually placed around 515, and how far Aryandes acted for the King rather than on his own account. The surrounding drama is hard to test.

P. Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander, 2002