Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Demetrius II. Nicator

For works with similar titles, see Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Demetrius.

DEMETRIUS II., surnamed Nicator, the son of the preceding, lived in exile during the usurpation of Balas. At the head of a body of Cretan mercenaries, and with the assistance of Ptolemy Philometer, whose daughter he married, he regained the throne of Syria. His cruelties and vices, however, ultimately procured his expulsion from the kingdom; and Antiochus, the infant son of Balas, was proclaimed king in his stead. After ten years' captivity in Parthia he succeeded in establishing himself once more upon the throne; but his wife Cleopatra, indignant at his subsequent marriage with a daughter of the Parthian king, procured his assassination (126 B.C.).