The account, that Philometor wished to conquer Syria for himself, must probably be understood as meaning that he had formed the design of recovering the ancient Egyptian possessions, Coele-Syria and Phoenicia. Otherwise, why should he have given his daughter to a second pretender to the throne? 28. Demetrius II. surnamed Nicator, 145-141, and for the second time, 130-126. The disbanding of his father's mercenaries having roused the indignation of the army, the cruelty of his favourite Lasthenes kindled a sedition in the capital, which could not be quenched without the assistance of the Jews, under their high priest and military chieftain, Jonathan.--While affairs were in this posture, Diodotus, subsequently called Tryphon, a dependent of Balas, excited an insurrection, by bringing forward Antiochus, the latter's son, and even, with the help of Jonathan, seating him on the throne of Antioch: soon after, Tryphon, having by treachery got Jonathan into his power, removed Antiochus by murder, and assumed the diadem himself.--Notwithstanding Demetrius kept his footing only in a part of Syria, he was enabled to obey the call of the Grecian colonists in Upper Asia, and support them against the Parthians, who had overrun the country as far as the Euphrates.--Although victorious in the commencement of the contest, he was soon after taken by the Parthians, and remained ten years a prisoner, though treated meanwhile as a king. 29. In order to maintain herself against Tryphon, Cleopatra marries the younger, and better brother, Antiochus of Sida, (Sidetes); he being at first in alliance with the Jews,--who, however, were soon after subdued--defeats and overthrows Tryphon. Being now lord and master of Syria, he undertakes a campaign against the Parthians; at the commencement, befriended by the subjects of the Parthians, he is successful, but soon afterwards is attacked in winter quarters by those very friends, and cut to pieces, together with all his army. If the accounts of the wanton licentiousness of his army are not exaggerations, they furnish the clearest proof of the military despotism of those times. By continued pillage and extortion, the wealth of the country had been collected in the hands of the soldiers; and the condition of Syria must have been pretty nearly the same as that of Egypt under the Mamluk sultans. 30. Meanwhile Demetrius II. having escaped from prison, again seated himself on the throne. But being now still more overbearing than before, and meddling in the Egyptian affairs, Ptolemy Physcon set up against him a rival in the person of Alexander Zebinas a pretended son of Alexander Balas; by him he was defeated and slain.