This paper aims at showing how Flavius Josephus represents three major networks of
political influence between women: the first between Alexandra, mother of Mariamme
and Cleopatra; the second between Salome, Herod’s sister and Livia; and the last one
between Berenice and Antonia. Josephus shows these networks operate, namely through
messengers and letters, and establishes a kind of feminine political network, parallel to
men’s relationship, but sometimes involving men as well. The most important constatation
is that Hellenistic women and Roman women of the Principate used the same kind
of network, all over the Roman world: political action for women went through the same
channels, in both the Hellenistic and imperial courts.
