Editing Ptolemy VI Philometor (section)

===Conflicts with Ptolemy VIII and the Seleucids===
[[File:Ptolemy VIII.jpg|thumb|Coin of [[Ptolemy VIII]]]]
Ptolemy VIII was not satisfied with Cyrenaica and went to Rome in late 163 or early 162 BC to request help. The [[Roman Senate]] agreed that the division was unfair, declaring that Ptolemy VIII ought to receive Cyprus as well. [[Titus Manlius Torquatus (consul 165 BC)|Titus Manlius Torquatus]] and [[Gnaeus Cornelius Merula]] were sent as envoys to force Ptolemy VI to concede this, but he procrastinated and obfuscated. On their return to Rome at the end of 162 BC, they convinced the Senate to abandon their alliance with Ptolemy VI and to grant Ptolemy VIII permission to use force to take control of Cyprus.<ref>Polybius 31.10, 17-20</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Grainger|2010|pp=312 & 319–320}}</ref> The Senate offered him no actual support in this endeavour and Cyprus remained in Ptolemy VI's hands.<ref>Polybius 33.11.4-7</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Hölbl|2001|pp=185–7}}</ref><ref name=G325/>

In 162&nbsp;BC, Ptolemy VI was also involved in a scheme to destabilise the Seleucid kingdom. His agents in Rome helped the king's cousin [[Demetrius I Soter|Demetrius I]] escape from captivity and return to Syria to seize control of the Seleucid empire from the under-age king [[Antiochus V]]. Once Demetrius I was in power, however, their interests began to diverge and the prospect of war between the two kingdoms returned.<ref>{{harvnb|Grainger|2010|p=321 & 325}}</ref> In 158 or 154 BC, Ptolemy VI's governor of Cyprus, Archias, attempted to sell the island to Demetrius I for 500 [[Talent (measurement)|talents]], but he was caught and hanged himself before this plot came to fruition.<ref>Polybius 33.5</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Grainger|2010|pp=326–328}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bagnall |first1=Roger |title=The Administration of the Ptolemaic Possessions Outside Egypt |date=1976 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden |page=257}}</ref>

In 154&nbsp;BC, after surviving an assassination attempt which he blamed on his brother, Ptolemy VIII again appealed for assistance against Ptolemy VI to the Roman Senate. The Senate agreed to send a second embassy led by Gnaeus Cornelius Merula and Lucius Minucius Thermus, equipped with troops, in order to enforce the transfer of Cyprus to his control.<ref>Polybius 33.11</ref> In response, Ptolemy VI besieged his younger brother at [[Lapethus]] and captured him, with the help of the [[Cretan League]].<ref>''[[OGIS]]'' 116</ref> He persuaded Ptolemy VIII to withdraw from Cyprus, in exchange for continued possession of Cyrenaica, an annual payment of grain, and a promise of marriage to one of his infant daughters (probably [[Cleopatra Thea]]) once she came of age.<ref>Polybius 39.7; Diodorus 31.33</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Hölbl|2001|pp=187–8}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Grainger|2010|pp=327–328}}</ref>

As a result of the conflict with his brother, Ptolemy VI made particular efforts to advance his eldest son [[Ptolemy Eupator]] as heir. The young prince was made priest of Alexander and the royal cult in 158 BC, when he was only eight years old. At age fourteen, in spring 152&nbsp;BC, Ptolemy Eupator was promoted to full co-regent alongside his parents, but he died in autumn of the same year. This left the succession very uncertain, since Ptolemy VI's remaining son was very young. He began advancing his daughter [[Cleopatra III]], formally deifying her in 146 BC.