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 πfat êpp.yvda<s, which is often ascribed to him, is probably the work of a later Alexandrian of the same name....

DEMETRIUS I., king of Macedonia, a son of Antigonus and Stratonice, surnamed Poliorcetes, or the Besieger. Both father and son play an important part in the vicissitudes of the Macedonian empire after the death of Alexander the Great. Demetrius grew up to be a beautiful young man, reared in the fulness of the new Macedonian life, devoted to Greek science, and inspired with an eager ambition to rival the ancient heroes of his race. He united with these lofty aims a love of Oriental magnificence which formed at once the chief splendour and the principal weakness 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 ...

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 Oetolians. 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 Baeotia from the Oetolians. At his death in 232 b.c. Antigonus Doson undertook the government for his son Philip, who was under age.

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 Philometor, 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 Jannaeus. 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.