Antiochus II Theos succeeded to his father’s throne in 261 B.C. A protracted war with Ptolemy II dragged on for eleven years, until peace was declared in 250 B.C. Antiochus confirmed the pact by divorcing his wife Laodice, and by marrying Berenice, Ptolemy’s daughter. Four years later he abandoned Berenice and returned to Laodice, who poisoned him and then murdered her rival and her son. Seleucus II Callinicus, the son of Laodice, was acknowledged as king but found himself embroiled in a second war