Bernice

Bernice (meaning: one that brings victory) was the eldest daughter of Herod Agrippa I and sister of both Agrippa II and Drusilla. After the early death of her first husband Marcus, son of the Alexandrian Jew Alexander, she was married to her uncle Herod of Chalcis and bore him two sons. She later lived with her brother Agrippa II in a relationship that attracted scandalous comment from Roman writers including Juvenal and Josephus.

Bernice appears in Acts 25–26, where she is present with Agrippa II at Caesarea when Paul defends himself before Festus the Roman governor. She listens to Paul's extended address in which he recounts his conversion and his commission to preach the gospel. Agrippa's famous half-serious response—Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian—was spoken in the context of this audience in which Bernice participated. She later became the mistress of the Roman general Titus before he became emperor, and accompanied him briefly to Rome.