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After this tragical event, Alexander Jannæus, the eldest of the imprisoned brothers, was placed upon the throne, B.C.104. Taking advantage of the disordered condition of the Syrian kingdom, he turned his arms against Moab, Gilead, Ammon, and Arabia Petræa, and after several successes laid siege to the port of Ptolemais. The inhabitants called in the aid of Ptolemy Lathyrus, who came to their aid with an army of 30,000 men. But no sooner did he appear before the gates, than the very party which had invoked his aid refused to admit him. On this he turned his arms against Gaza, and Jannæus, while pretending to negotiate with him for a friendly surrender of the place, secretly corresponded with his mother Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, and besought her aid in expelling him from the country. Discovering this, Ptolemy marched into Judæa, defeated Alexander with enormous loss, and to spread the terror of his name, fell upon some villages, murdered the women and children, and cutting their bodies in pieces boiled their flesh.