Editing Cleopatra Thea (section)

===Queen of Demetrius II===
In 147 BC, Demetrius Soter's son [[Demetrius II Nicator|Demetrius II]] invaded Cilicia. Two years later Ptolemy VI brought his army into Syria, ostensibly to help Alexander Balas fight the invaders. Having installed garrisons in the Seleucid coastal cities, he eventually betrayed Alexander outright by seizing Antioch. There he reunited with Cleopatra. In accordance with her father's new political program, she divorced Alexander and married Demetrius II instead.<ref name="Maccabees11">[[I Maccabees]] 11.1-11.19</ref> The marriage deal stated that Ptolemy would help Demetrius take the throne from Alexander; in exchange, Egypt would receive the province of Coele-Syria, which had been Seleucid territory since [[Antiochus III Megas|Antiochus III]] took it from [[Ptolemy V]] in 200 BC. Alexander quelled the Cilician revolt and returned home, confronting Ptolemy and Demetrius in the plain of the river Oeneparas, close to Antioch. In the ensuing battle, Alexander was defeated and Ptolemy was wounded so badly that he died a few days later. Demetrius repudiated his alliance with Egypt and expelled or massacred all of Ptolemy's garrisons in Syria as far as Gaza, reinstating a fragile Seleucid control over the province. The Syrians had hostile memories of his father, and he faced rebellions in Antioch as soon as 144 BC. Demetrius instituted purges, but these aggravated the discontent instead of stifling it. 

Diodotus, a former general of Alexander and probable participant in the Antiochene rebellion, abducted Cleopatra's first son [[Antiochus VI Dionysus|Antiochus VI]] and used him as a figurehead for a secessionist kingdom in Coele-Syria. In 142/1 BC, Diodotus murdered the boy and proclaimed himself as king. During these years of brutal civil war, Cleopatra and Demetrius had at least three children, Seleucus, Antiochus and a daughter called Laodike.