However his fateful decision to repudiate his first wife Laodice and marry a Ptolemaic princess Berenice as part of a peace treaty led to a succession struggle after his death that would shake the empire's foundations and cause large territorial losses.

Antiochus II made some gains in Asia Minor and acquired direct access to Aegean Sea by capturing Miletus and Ephesus.

[5] At around the same time Antiochus II also made some attempt to get a footing in Thrace which details are largely unknown and a mint in the city of Byzantium briefly issued coins in his name.

Antiochus II gave her various land grants throughout Anatolia which are known through inscriptions;[8] such as large estates in the Hellespont,[9] other properties near Cyzicus,[10] Ilion and in Caria.

[7] The then-reigning brother of Berenice Ptolemy III marched from Egypt to support his sister, only to find her and her son murdered by partisans of Laodice.

Chiefly preoccupied with conflicts in the Eastern Mediterranean and with family issues, Antiochus II seems to resorted to appointing independent-minded men such like Diodotus and Andragoras as satraps in the area.

However, posthumous coinage of a popular king was a relatively common practice in the Hellenistic Age and Antiochus II may have minted coins in the name of his half-Sogdian father in order to legitimize both himself and his dynasty.