…Apamea, and several other cities, disgusted with the tyranny of Demetrius, acknowledges the authority of Alexander.

The name "Zabinas" means "the purchased slave", and is applied to him, deprecatingly, in response to a report that he had been bought by Ptolemy as a slave.

For reasons unknown, Alexander II is the only late Seleucid not to use epithets on his coins.

Several of his coins are extant.

Zabinas at a battle in Damascus in 126 BCE manages to defeat Demetrius II, who flees to Ptolemais but his wife Cleopatra Thea closes the gates against him.

He is killed on a ship near Tyre, after his wife deserts him.

His miserable death, after being captured and possibly tortured, is a fitting epitaph to the many shortcomings of his reign.

Demetrius II was certainly incapable of handling the developing threats to the Seleucid empire, but his reputation for cruelty was probably undeserved.

He was only around fourteen at his coronation, and the real power was in the hands of others.

He is succeeded by his queen Cleopatra Thea and then by two of their sons, Seleucus V Philometor and Antiochus VIII Grypus.

Cleoptara Thea herself now takes power and soon also kills her oldest surviving son, Seleucus V.

Two different motives are given as reason for this deed: according to one version, he had attempted to claim the throne without her agreement (Livy, periochae 60; Justin 39.1.9); according to the other version, she was afraid that he might avenge the assassination of his father (Appian, Syriaca 69).

Ptolemy VIII no longer supports his pretender for the Seleucid throne, Alexander II Zabinas, by 124 BCE, instead backing Antiochus VIII Grypus, the son of Demetrius II Nicator and Cleopatra Thea.

Ptolemy marries his daughter Tryphaena, borne by his second wife Cleopatra III, to Antiochus VIII and sends him reinforcements.

Cleopatra Thea has ruled Syria from 125 BCE, sharing the throne with her son, Antiochus VIII Grypus, to legitimize her reign.

Either he or his half brother Antiochus IX Cyzicenus is probably identical with the ephemeral child ruler Antiochus Epiphanes, who was crowned by Cleopatra Thea after the death of Antiochus VII but before Demetrius II returned to Antioch.

Epiphanes, who is known from coins, was deposed—but not killed—when Demetrius II was restored in 129 BCE.

Since the demise of Demetrius, Alexander II Zabinas has ruled parts of Syria, but had soon run out of Egyptian support and is in his turn defeated by Grypus.

Zabinas flees to the Seleucid capital Antiochia, where he plunders several temples.

He is said to have joked about melting down a statuette of the goddess of victory Nike which was held in the hand of a Zeus statue, saying "Zeus has given me Victory".

Enraged by his impiety, the Antiochenes cast Zabinas out of the city.

He soon falls into the hands of robbers, who deliver him up to Antiochus, by whom he is put to death, in 122 BCE.