them, told an acquaintance of the emperor that it would not be advisable
to carry them to the palace at Constantinople, as they could not remain
anywhere else but where Solomon had placed them. This, he said, was the
reason why Genseric had taken the Palace at Rome, and the Roman army had
in turn taken that of the Vandal kings. Upon this, the emperor was so
alarmed, that he sent the whole of them to the Christian churches at
Jerusalem.

[783] A.U.C. 825.

[784] A.U.C. 824.

[785] A.U.C. 823, 825, 827-830, 832.

[786] Berenice, whose name is written by our author and others Beronice,
was daughter of Agrippa the Great, who was by Aristobulus, grandson of
Herod the Great. Having been contracted to Mark, son of Alexander
Lysimachus, he died before their union, and Agrippa married her to Herod,
Mark's brother, for whom he had obtained from the emperor Claudius the
kingdom of Chalcis. Herod also dying, Berenice, then a widow, lived with
her brother, Agrippa, and was suspected of an incestuous intercourse with
him. It was at this time that, on their way to the imperial court at
Rome, they paid a visit to Festus, at Caesarea, and were present when St.
Paul answered his accusers so eloquently before the tribunal of the
governor. Her fascinations were so great, that, to shield herself from
the charge of incest, she prevailed on Polemon, king of Cilicia, to
submit to be circumcised, become a Jew, and marry her. That union also
proving unfortunate, she appears to have returned to Jerusalem, and
having attracted Vespasian by magnificent gifts, and the young Titus by
her extraordinary beauty, she followed them to Rome, after the