Antiochus II Theos

Antiochus II Theos was a Greek king of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire who reigned from 261 to 246 BC. The younger son of Antiochus I Soter and Stratonice, he came to the throne after his elder brother Seleucus was executed for rebellion in 267 BC. He fought the Second Syrian War against Ptolemaic Egypt, gained Miletus and Ephesus on the Aegean coast, and took the title Theos, meaning God, after removing the tyrant Timarchus from Miletus. The peace of 253 BC required him to divorce his first wife Laodice and marry Berenice, daughter of Ptolemy II. When he went back to Laodice and died suddenly in 246 BC, rumours of poisoning spread and a succession struggle opened that led to the Third Syrian War. His reign also saw satraps in the east, Diodotus and Andragoras, begin the drift toward the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and Parthia.