Pothinus took pains to enlist her young husband, Ptolemy, on his side, as the quarrel advanced.
Ptolemy was younger, and of a character much less marked and decided than Cleopatra.

Pothinus saw that he could maintain control over him much more easily and for a much longer time than over Cleopatra.

He contrived to awaken the young Ptolemy's jealousy of his wife's rising influence, and to induce him to join in efforts to thwart and counteract it.

These attempts to turn her husband against her only aroused Cleopatra's resentment the more.

Hers was not a spirit to be coerced.
The palace was filled with the dissensions of the rivals.