and Antony befriend Egypt._

On the death of Ptolemy Euergetes II., his widow, Cleopatra Cocce, would
have chosen her younger son, Ptolemy Alexander, then a child, for her
partner on the throne, most likely because it would have been longer in
the course of years before he would have claimed his share of power; but
she was forced, by a threatened rising of the Alexandrians, to make her
elder son king. Before, however, she would do this she made a treaty
with him, which would strongly prove, if anything were still wanting,
the vice and meanness of the Egyptian court. It was, that, although
married to his sister Cleopatra, of whom he was very fond, he should put
her away, and marry his younger sister Selene; because the mother hoped
that Selene would be false to her husband's cause, and weaken his party
in the state by her treachery.

Ptolemy took the name of Soter II., though he is more often called
Lathyrus, from a stain upon his face in the form of an ivy-leaf, pricked
into his skin in honour of Osiris. He was also called Philometor; and we
learn from an inscription on a temple at Apollinopolis Parva, that both
these names formed part of the style in which the public acts ran in
this reign; it is dedicated by "the Queen Cleopatra and King Ptolemy,
gods Philometores, Soteres, and his children," without mentioning his
wife. Here, as in Persia and Judaaa, the king's mother often held rank
above his wife. The name of Philometor was given to him by his mother,
because, though he had reached the years of manhood, she wished to
act as his guardian; but her unkindness to him was so remarkable that
historians have thought that it was a nickname. The mother and the son
were jointly styled sovereigns of Egypt; but they lived apart, and in
distrust of one another, each surrounded by personal friends; while
Cleopatra's stronger mind and greater skill in kingcraft gained for her
the larger share of power, and the effective control of Egypt.

Cleopatra, the daughter, put away by her husband at the command of her
mother, soon made a treaty of marriage with Antiochus Cyzicenus, the
friend of her late husband, who was struggling for the throne of Syria
with his brother, Antiochus Grypus, the husband of her sister Tryphaana;
and on her way to Syria she stopped at Cyprus, where she raised a large
army and took it with her as her dower, to help her new husband against
his brother and her sister.

With this addition to his army Cyzice