After the death of Antiochus VII Sidetes, his brother Demetrius II Nicator, newly freed from Parthian captivity, became king again. He took back his former wife (and his brother’s widow), Cleopatra Thea. At the urging of his exiled mother-in-law, Cleopatra II of Egypt (see below), he attempted to invade Egypt, but Ptolemy VIII Physco retaliated by sponsoring a rebel, Alexander II Zabinas, a supposed son of Alexander I Balas’, and in 126 Demetrius II, whom Zabinas had defeated near Damascus, was killed on a ship while attempting to flee from Tyre (Just. XXXIX 1; Jos. Ant. XIII 9,3 [267-269]).
Figure 25.3 Coin of Antiochus VIII Grypus (“hooknose” - though he preferred other official epithets: the legend on the reverse (not shown) is “of King Antiochus Epiphanes”) (Cat. Gk. Coin, Seleucid Kings, pp. 88-89). Hellenistic portraiture aimed at realism on rulers’ coins - no airbrushing or retouching. Grypus’ subjects were supposed to recognize their King. Source: © The Trustees of the British Museum
Cleopatra Thea, the widow of three kings, now took over as the coins issued in her own name with the title “Queen” show (Cat. Gk. Coins, Seleucid Kings, p. 85). She finally achieved what earlier queens such as Eurydice (see chap. 20), Berenice (see chap. 21) or Stratonice (see chap. 23) had attempted, albeit in a Seleucid Kingdom much diminished and with the lingering issue of the eventual majority of her and Demetrius Il’s eldest son, Seleucus V Philometor. In 125 she had him murdered when he claimed the kingship. Thereafter she reigned (as the senior partner - Cat. Gk. Coins, Seleucid Kings, pp. 85-86) with her and Demetrius Il’s next son, Antiochus VIII whose official epithet varied, but who was best known by his well-merited nickname “Grypus” or “hooknose” (see Figure 25.3). In 121 Cleopatra allegedly attempted to murder him too, but he smelled a rat and contrived to have her drink her own poisoned cup (App. Syr. 69; Just. l. c.).
By now the Seleucid Kingdom was confined to Syria. Grypus ruled over it alone for a few years, until his half-brother, Antiochus IX Cyzicenus, a son of Cleopatra Thea and Antiochus VII Sidetes, returned to Syria. In a civil war Grypus and Cyzicenus divided Syria between themselves (Just. XXXIX 2; Jos. Ant. XIII 10,1 [270-272]).
From this point onwards narration of the Seleucid Kingdom’s declining fortunes becomes an idle exercise. Its last rulers with their high-flown names which evoked the grandeur of a bygone age (Seleucus VI Epiphanes; Antiochus X Eusebes; Antiochus XI Epiphanes III; Demetrius III Philopator/Eucaerus; Philip I Philadelphus; Antiochus XII Dionysus; Seleucus VII Philometor II;
Antiochus XIII Asiaticus; Philip II Philoromaeus) were trivial kinglets who divided bits and pieces of Syria among themselves (and with Tigranes II, the King of Armenia) in pointless civil wars until Cn. Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) liquidated what was left of the kingdom in 64 BC.