ness of his Macedonian prototype. At the age of twenty-two he was sent by his father against Ptolemy, who had invaded Syria; he was totally defeated near Gaza, but soon repaired his loss by a victory which he obtained over Cilles, in the neighbourhood of Myus. After conducting an expedition against Babylon, and engaging in several campaigns against Ptolemy on the coasts of Cilicia and Cyprus, Demetrius sailed with a fleet of 250 ships to Athens, and restored the Athenians to liberty, by freeing them from the power of Cassander and Ptolemy, and expelling the garrison which had been stationed there under Demetrius Phalereus. After this successful expedition he besieged and took Munychia, and defeated Cassander at Thermopylae. His reception at Athens, after these victories, was attended with the greatest servility; and under the title of "The Preserver" the Athenians worshipped him as a tutelary deity. In the next campaign he defeated Menelaus by land, and completely destroyed the naval power of Ptolemy. After an interval spent at Cyprus, he endeavoured to punish the Rhodians for having deserted his cause; and his ingenuity in devising new instruments of siege, in his unsuccessful attempt to reduce the capital, gained him the appellation of Poliorcetes. He returned a second time to Greece as liberator. But traces of Oriental despotism showed themselves, and the licentiousness and extravagance of Demetrius made the Athenians regret the government of Cassander. He soon, however, roused the jealousy of the successors of Alexander; and Seleucus, Cassander, and Lysimachus united to destroy Antigonus and his son. The hostile armies met at Ipsus, 301 B.C. Antigonus was killed in the battle, and Demetrius, after sustaining a severe loss, retired to Ephesus. This reverse of fortune raised him many enemies; and the Athenians, who had lately adored him as a god, refused even to admit him into their city. But he soon afterwards ravaged the territory of Lysimachus, and effected a reconciliation with Seleucus, to whom he gave his daughter Stratonice in marriage. Athens was at this time oppressed by the tyranny of Cassander; but Demetrius, after a protracted blockade, gained possession of the city, and pardoned the inhabitants their former misconduct. The loss of his possessions in Asia recalled him from Greece; and he established himself on the throne of Macedonia by the murder of Alexander, the son of Cassander, 294 B.C. But here he was continually threatened by Pyrrhus, who took advantage of his occasional absence to ravage the defence less part of his kingdom; and at length the combined forces of Pyrrhus, Ptolemy, and Lysimachus, assisted by the disaffected among his own subjects, obliged him to leave Macedonia after he had sat on the throne for seven years. He passed into Asia, and attacked some of the provinces of Lysimachus with varying success; but famine and pestilence destroyed the greater part of his army, and he retired to the court of Seleucus to seek support and assistance. Here he met with a kind reception; but, nevertheless, hostilities soon broke out; and after he had gained some advantages over his son-in-law, Demetrius was totally forsaken by his troops in the field of battle, and became an easy prey to the enemy. His son Antigonus offered Seleucus all his possessions, and even his person, in order to procure his father's liberty; but all proved unavailing, and Demetrius died in the fifty-fourth year of his age, after a confinement of three years, 284 B.C. His remains were given to Antigonus, honoured with a splendid funeral at Corinth, and thence conveyed to Demetrias. His posterity remained in possession of the Macedonian throne till the time of Perseus, who was conquered by the Romans. See Macedonia.
DEMETRIUS II., king of Macedonia, son of Antigonus Gonnatas, who was a son of Demetrius Poliorcetes. He occupied the throne for ten years, but little is known of him. His reign coincided with the period of the Achaean league, which was then strengthened by an alliance with the Œtolians. Only a fragment of Macedonian power remained in Greece; a few towns in the Peloponnesus were held by Macedonian governors. Demetrius offered a slight opposition to the two patriotic leagues, and wrested Bœotia from the Œtolians. At his death in 232 B.C. Antigonus Doson undertook the government for his son Philip, who was under age.
DEMETRIUS I., named Soter, king of Syria, was sent to Rome as a hostage during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes. He contrived, however, to escape from confinement, partly through the assistance of the historian Polybius, and established himself on the throne. He acquired his surname from the Babylonians on account of the expulsion of Heraclides from their capital, and is famous in Jewish history for his contests with the Maccabees. Demetrius fell in battle against the usurper Balas, about 150 B.C.
DEMETRIUS II., surnamed Nicator, the son of the preceding, lived in exile during the usurpation of Balas. At the head of a body of Cretan mercenaries, and with the assistance of Ptolemy Philometer, whose daughter he married, he regained the throne of Syria. His cruelties and vices, however, ultimately procured his expulsion from the kingdom; and Antiochus, the infant son of Balas, was proclaimed king in his stead. After ten years' captivity in Parthia he succeeded in establishing himself once more upon the throne; but his wife Cleopatra, indignant at his subsequent marriage with a daughter of the Parthian king, procured his assassination (126 B.C.).
DEMETRIUS III., called Eucerus, also Euergetes and Philometor, king of Syria, was the fourth son of Antiochus Grypus. By the assistance of Ptolemy Lathyrus he recovered part of his Syrian dominions from Antiochus Eusebes, and held his court at Damascus. He assisted the Jews against Alexander Jannseus. In attempting to dethrone his brother Philip he was defeated by the Arabs and Parthians and taken prisoner. He was kept in confinement in Parthia by king Mithridates until his death.
DEMETRIUS, an orator and Peripatetic philosopher, surnamed Phalereus, from the Attic demos of Phalerus, where he was born. He was the son of a poor man named Phanostratus, and was a scholar of Theophrastus. He governed the city of Athens as representative of Cassander for ten years, and 360 statues were erected to his honour. On the restoration of the old democracy by Demetrius Poliorcetes, he was obliged to leave the city, and escaped into Egypt, where he was protected by Ptolemy Lagus. This king, it is said, having asked his advice concerning the succession of his children to the throne, was advised by Demetrius to leave his crown to the children of Eurydice, rather than to Philadelphus, the son of Berenice. This displeased Philadelphus so much, that when his father died he banished Demetrius; and the unfortunate exile put an end to his life by the poison of an asp (282 B.C.) Demetrius composed more works in prose and verse than any other Peripatetic of his time. His writings treated principally of poetry, history, politics, rhetoric, and accounts of embassies; but none are extant. The treatise Περἱ ἑρμηνεἱας, which is often ascribed to him, is probably the work of a later Alexandrian of the same name.
