a son of Antigonus and Stratonice, surnamed Poliorcetes or the Besieger. At the age of twenty-two he was sent by his father against Ptolemy, who had invaded Syria, and he was totally defeated near Gaza; but he soon repaired his loss by a victory which he obtained over Cilices, 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 two hundred and fifty 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 Phalerœus. 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 in the greatest luxury at Cyprus, he endeavoured to punish the Rhodians for having deserted his cause; and his ingenuity in devising new instruments of siege, in his attempt to reduce the capital, gained him the appellation of Poliorcetes. His subsequent successes in Greece, 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, B.C. 301. 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 Macedon by the murder of Alexander the son of Cassander, B.C. 294. But here he was continually threatened by Pyrrhus, who took advantage of his occasional absence to ravage the defenceless 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 Macedon, after he had sat on the throne for seven years. He passed into Asia, and attacked, with various success, some of the provinces of Lysimachus; 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, B.C. 284. His remains were given to Antigonus, honoured with a splendid funeral at Corinth, and thence conveyed to Demetrius. His posterity remained in possession of the Macedonian throne till the time of Perseus, who was conquered by the Romans. See Macedonia.

DEMETRIUS I., 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 Heralides from their capital; and is famous in Jewish history for his contests with the Maccabees. Demetrius fell in battle against the usurper Balas, about B.C. 150.

DEMETRIUS II., Nicator, was the son of the preceding, and 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 (B.C. 126).

Phalerœus, an orator and Peripatetic philosopher, so called from the Attic demos of Phalernus, where he was born. He was the son of a poor man named Phanostatus, and was a scholar of Theophrastus. He acquired so much authority at Athens as an orator, that he governed the city 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 Enyricle, rather than to Philadelphia, the son of Berenice. This displeased Philadelphia 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. Demetrius composed more works in prose and in 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. Demetrius except his rhetoric, which is usually printed among the Rhetores Selecti.

Cynic philosopher, and disciple of Apollonius Tyanaeus, to whom he afterwards proved an able antagonist. He spent the greater part of his life at Corinth, and first became famous during the reign of Caligula. The emperor, wishing to gain the philosopher to his interest, sent him a large present; but Demetrius refused it with indignation, and said, "If Caligula wishes to bribe me, let him send me his crown." Vespasian was displeased with his insolence, and banished him; but the Cynic derided the punishment, and bitterly inveighed against the emperor. He lived to an advanced age; and Seneca observes, that nature had brought him forth to show mankind how an exalted genius may live uncorrupted by the vices of the world.