leaving Philip, his son by Chryseïs, still a child. Former wives of Demetrius were Stratonice, the daughter of the Seleucid king Antiochus I., Phthia the daughter of Alexander of Epirus, and Nicaea, the widow of his cousin Alexander. The chronology of these marriages is a matter of dispute.
See Thirlwall, History of Greece, vol. viii. (1847); Ad. Holm, Griech. Gesch. vol. iv. (1894); B. Niese, Gesch. d. griech. u. maked. Staaten, vol. ii. (1899); J. Beloch, Griech. Gesch. vol. iii. (1904). (E. R. B.)
DEMETRIUS, the name of three kings of Syria.
Demetrius I. (d. 150 B.C.), surnamed Soter, was sent to Rome as a hostage during the reign of his father, Seleucus IV. Philopator, but after his father’s death in 175 B.C. he escaped from confinement, and established himself on the Syrian throne (162 B.C.) after overthrowing and murdering King Antiochus V. Eupator. He acquired his surname of Soter, or Saviour, from the Babylonians, whom he delivered from the tyranny of the Median satrap, Timarchus, and is famous in Jewish history for his contests with the Maccabees. Hated for his vices, Demetrius fell in battle against the usurper, Alexander Balas, in 150 B.C.
Demetrius II. (d. 125 B.C.), surnamed Nicator, son of Demetrius I., fled to Crete after the death of his father, but about 147 B.C. he returned to Syria, and with the help of Ptolemy VII. Philometor, king of Egypt, regained his father’s throne. In 140 B.C. he marched against Mithradates, king of Parthia, but was taken prisoner by treachery, and remained in captivity for ten years, regaining his throne about 129 B.C. on the death of his brother, Antiochus VII., who had usurped it. His cruelties and vices, however, caused him to be greatly detested, and during another civil war he was defeated in a battle at Damascus, and killed near Tyre, possibly at the instigation of his wife, a daughter of Ptolemy VII., who was indignant at his subsequent marriage with a daughter of the Parthian king, Mithradates. His successor was his son, Antiochus VIII. Grypus.
Demetrius III. (d. 88 B.C.), called Euergetes and Philometor, was the son of Antiochus VIII. Grypus. By the assistance of Ptolemy X. Lathyrus, king of Egypt, he recovered part of his Syrian dominions from Antiochus X. Eusebes, and held his court at Damascus. In attempting to dethrone his brother, Philip Epiphanes, he was defeated by the Arabs and Parthians, was taken prisoner, and kept in confinement in Parthia by King Mithradates until his death in 88 B.C.
DEMETRIUS, a Greek sculptor of the early part of the 4th
century B.C., who is said by ancient critics to have been notable
for the life-like realism of his statues. His portrait of Pellichus,
a Corinthian general, “with fat paunch and bald head, wearing
a cloak which leaves him half exposed, with some of the hairs of
his head flowing in the wind, and prominent veins,” was admired
by Lucian. He was contrasted with Cresilas (q.v.), an idealizing
sculptor of the generation before. Since however the peculiarities
mentioned by Lucian do not appear in Greek portraits before
the 3rd century B.C., and since the Greek art of the 4th century
consistently idealizes, there would seem to be a difficulty to
explain. The date of Demetrius above given is confirmed by
inscriptions found on the Athenian Acropolis.
(P. G.)
DEMETRIUS, a Cynic philosopher, born at Sunium, who lived
partly at Corinth and later in Rome during the reigns of Caligula,
Nero and Vespasian. He was an intimate friend of Thrasea
Paetus and Seneca, and was held in the highest estimation for his
consistent disregard of creature comfort in the pursuit of virtue.
His contempt for worldly prosperity is shown by his reply to
Caligula who, wishing to gain his friendship, sent him a large
present. He replied, “If Caligula had intended to bribe me, he
should have offered me his crown.” Vespasian banished him,
but Demetrius laughed at the punishment and mocked the
emperor’s anger. He reached the logical conclusion of Cynicism
in attaching no real importance to scientific data.
DEMETRIUS DONSKOI[1] (1350–1389), grand duke of Vladimir
and Moscow, son of the grand duke Ivan Ivanovich by his second
consort Aleksandra, was placed on the grand-ducal throne of
Vladimir by the Tatar khan in 1362, and married the princess
Eudoxia of Nizhniy Novgorod in 1364. It was now that Moscow
was first fortified by a strong wall, or kreml (citadel), and the
grand duke began “to bring all the other princes under his will.”
Michael, prince of Tver, appealed however for help to Olgierd,
grand duke of Lithuania, who appeared before Moscow with his
army and compelled Demetrius to make restitution to the prince
of Tver (1369). The war between Tver and Vladimir continued
intermittently for some years, and both the Tatars and the
Lithuanians took an active part in it. Demetrius was generally
successful in what was really a contention for the supremacy.
In 1371 he won over the khan by a personal visit to the Horde,
and in 1372 he defeated the Lithuanians at Lyubutsk. Demetrius
then formed a league of all the Russian princes against the Tatars
and in 1380 encountered them on the plain of Kulikovo, between
the rivers Nepryadvaya and Don, where he completely routed
them, the grand khan Mamai perishing in his flight from the field.
But now Toktamish, the deputy of Tamerlane, suddenly appeared
in the Horde and organized a punitive expedition against
Demetrius. Moscow was taken by treachery, and the Russian
lands were again subdued by the Tatars (1381). Nevertheless,
while compelled to submit to the Horde, Demetrius maintained
his hegemony over Tver, Novgorod and the other recalcitrant
Russian principalities, and even held his own against the Lithuanian
grand dukes, so that by his last testament he was able to
leave not only his ancestral possessions but his grand-dukedom
also to his son Basil. Demetrius was one of the greatest of the
north Russian grand dukes. He was not merely a cautious and
tactful statesman, but also a valiant and capable captain, in
striking contrast to most of the princes of his house.
See Sergyei Solovev, History of Russia (Rus.), vols, i.-ii. (St Petersburg, 1857), &c.; Nikolai Savelev, Demetrius Ivanovich Donskoi (Rus.), (Moscow, 1837). (R. N. B.)
DEMETRIUS PHALEREUS (c. 345–283 B.C.), Attic orator,
statesman and philosopher, born at Phalerum, was a pupil of
Theophrastus and an adherent of the Peripatetic school. He
governed the city of Athens as representative of Cassander (q.v.)
for ten years from 317. It is said that he so won the hearts of
the people that 360 statues were erected in his honour; but
opinions are divided as to the character of his rule. On the
restoration of the old democracy by Demetrius Poliorcetes, he
was condemned to death by the fickle Athenians and obliged to
leave the city. He escaped to Egypt, where he was protected by
Ptolemy Lagus, to whom he is said to have suggested the foundation
of the Alexandrian library. Having incurred the displeasure
of Lagus’s successor Philadelphus, Demetrius was banished to
Upper Egypt, where he died (according to some, voluntarily)
from the bite of an asp. Demetrius composed a large number of
works on poetry, history, politics, rhetoric and accounts of
embassies, all of which are lost.
The treatise Περὶ Ἑρμηνείας (on rhetorical expression), which is often ascribed to him, is probably the work of a later Alexandrian (1st century A.D.) of the same name; it has been edited by L. Radermacher (1901) and W. Rhys Roberts (1902), the last-named providing English translation, introduction, notes, glossary and complete bibliography. Fragments in C. Müller, Frag. Hist. Graec. ii. p. 362. See A. Holm, History of Greece (Eng. trans.), iv. 60.
DEMETRIUS, PSEUDO- (or False), the name by which three
Muscovite princes and pretenders, who claimed to be Demetrius,
son of Ivan the Terrible, are known in history. The real
Demetrius had been murdered, while still a child, in 1591, at
Uglich, his widowed mother’s appanage.
1. In the reign of Tsar Boris Godunov (1598–1605), the first of these pretenders, whose origin is still obscure, emigrated to Lithuania and persuaded many of the magnates there of his tsarish birth, and consequently of his right to the Muscovite throne. His real name seems to have been Yury or Gregory, and he was the grandson of Bogdan Otrepev, a Galician boyar, and a tool in the hands of Tsar Boris Godunov’s enemies. He first appears in history circa 1600, when his learning and assurance seem to have greatly impressed the Muscovite patriarch Job. Tsar Boris, however, ordered him to be seized and examined, whereupon he fled to Prince Constantine Ostrogsky at Ostrog, and subsequently entered the service of another Lithuanian, Prince Wisniwiecki, who accepted him for what he pretended
- ↑ Of the Don.
