Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/787

 DEMETRIUS

707

DEMIURGE

his assistant. But the bishop died very soon, and Heraclas succeeding him, Origen returned to Alexan- dria.

Ada S.S., 9 Oct.: Westcott in Did. Christ. Biog.. a. v. Deme- trius: Harnack, Gcsch. der allchr. Lit., I, 330, II, ii (i. c. ChranoL, II). 23; BARnENHEWER, Gesch. der altkirchl. Lit.. II, 158; see also Origen; on the Alexandrian succession and the date see Hahnack, Grseh. der allehrist. Lit.. II, i. 202-7; Chap- man in Rev. beiird. (Jan.. 1902), 34. On the Creation of New Sees by Heracla: Lighteoot, Comm. on Philippians (1895), 230; the essay on the Christ. Ministry is reprinted in his Biblical Essay.i; MlCHlELS, Origine de Vepiscopat (Louvain, 1901), 348; Hah- NACK, Expansion of Christianity. II, 79, 90, 308 (tr., London and New York, 1905). A fragment ascribed to Demetrius by PiTRA in his Analeda Sacra. II, 345, is probably by a cer- tain Demetriu-s Callatianus mentioned by Strabo.

John Chapman.

Demetrius, the name of two Syrian kings men- tioned in the Old Testament and two other persons in the New Testament.

(a) Demetrius Soter, or the Saviour, so called be- cause he saved the Babylonians from the tyranny of the satrap Her.aclides, reigned from 162 to 1.50 n. c. Ho was the son of Seleucus Philopator, and spent his early years as a hostage in Rome, petitioning the Scii.ite in vain for permission to return to his country. With the assistance, however, of his friend, the historian Polybius, he escaped to Tripolis in Phoe- nirin, formed a party, murdered Antiochus V, his f isin, with Lysias, the chancellor, ascended the till lino of the Seleucidse, and was acknowledged ii\ Home. A Jewi.sh party, dissatisfied with Judas ^i iihabeus, invited Demetrius to interfere in their fi'our. Demetrius appointed Alcimus as high- piii St and sent his general Bacchides with an army u, his support. Soon after, as Alcimus' position SI' ihihI secure, Bacchides left. As Judas, however, fjii \v stronger, Alcimus again appealed for help. De- II M trills sent as general Nicanor, who first tried to r i| tiiro Jiuias by strategy, but then met him at Kap- li, I llama and lost the battle. Nicanor entered Jeru-

I. vented his wrath on the priests, and threatened -troy the Temple. Judas met Nicanor again at 1 ii-Horon and utterly routed his army. Nicanor fell in tho battle (161 B. c). Two months later Deme- trius, for the third time, sent a Syrian army into Pales- tine under Bacchides, who defeated and slew Judas in the battle of Bcrea, garrisoned some Jewish towns, and rotiirnod. .\ Syrian army entered Palestine under the same Bacchides for the fourth time in 158 B. c, but the Macli:iboaii party had recovered its strength, and a tri'.ity ended the campaign. Meanwhile a pretender h;iil arisoti to the Syrian throne in the person of Alex- ander Balas. Both Demetrius and Alexander were anxious to gain tho support of the Jews. Alexander offered to Jonathan Machabeus the purple and a dia- dem, which he accepted in 153 B. c. Demetrius subse- quently offered still greater privileges to the Jews and uieir leader, but the Jews remained faithful to Alex- ander. In 1.50 B. c. .\lexander and his allies defeated Demetrius, "who valiantly fought with undaunted courage in the thick of the battle and w-as .slain", (I Mach., vii, ix, x; II Mach., xiv, xv; Justin, XXXV, i.)

(b) DEMETRIU.S NiKATOR, or the Conqueror, .son of the above, .succeeded four years after the death of his father in gaining the Syrian throne. Jonathan Mac-

ii habous, remaining faithful to .\lexander unto the end, had opposed tho succession of Demetrius II. Deme- Mb' viceroy, .Vpollonius, who ruled over Ca-lesyria, Id Joppe and .Vshdod for his king, but was driven it and defeated by Jonathan, who destroyed .\shdod id brought a rich booty to Jerusalem. Jonathan led to throw off the Syrian yoke altogether and be- ieeed the fortress of Jerusalem. Dometrivis first citfil Jonathan to Ptnlemais to answer for his rebel- lion, relying upon a pro-Syrian party among the Jews; Vi'i' Jnn.athan boldly continiied the siege of Jeni.s.alem then, nothing daunted, faced Demetrius at Ptole- He demanded an extension of territory and

several pri\-ileges for the Jews, and supported his de- mand by costly gifts. Demetrius did not dare to re- fuse, but agreed to the addition of three Samaritan districts, Ephraim, Lydda, and Ramathaim, to Judea; he freed this extension of Judea from all taxes and con- firmed Jonathan in all his dignities. Demetrius had thus escaped further danger from his Jewish va.ssal but soon after had to encounter Trypho, a former general of Alexander Balas. This man proclaimed Alexan- der's son Antiochus YI king, though as yet only a boy, and the threatening attitude of the people of Antioch brought the throne of Demetrius II into imminent danger. In his distress he appealed to Jonathan, who sent 3000 men to quell the insurrection at Antioch. Demetrius promised to hand over Jerusalem and some other fortresses of Judea to Jonathan. Jonathan stamped out the revolution at Antioch, but Demetrius did not fulfil his promise. Shortly after, Trypho and Antiochus the Pretender captured Antioch and sought the assistance of Jonathan. As Demetrius II had proved himself faithless, Jonathan left his side and went over to Trypho. In conseciuence Demetrius gathered an army against Jonathan, to punish his de- fection, but never risked a battle. When Trypho had murdered -Antiochus VI, Jonathan returned to Deme- trius' allegiance. Trypho was finally defeated by the brother of Demetrius, but Demetrius was made prisoner in a campaign against the Parthians, in whose hands he remained for ten years, the daughter of whose king Mithridates he received in marriage and by whom, under Phraates, he was restoretl to the Syrian throne after defeating his brother Antiochus Sidetes. He was then persuaded to attack the King of Egypt, Ptolemy Physcon. This caused the rise of another Syrian pretender, Alexander Zabinas, who defeated Demetrius near Damascus. Demetrius fled to Tyre, and on landing was there assassinated in 128 B. c. His wife Cleopatra is said to have been privy to the crime. (I Mach., xiii, 41; x, 67; xiv, 3.)

(c) Demetrius, the name of two persons men- tioned in the New Testament. (1) .\cts, xix, 24, mentions Demetrius, a silversmith (ipyvpoK6vos), who made silver shrines for Diana at Ephesus. These shrines (raoi/s; in D. V. "temples") were prob- ably little silver models either of the temple or of the actual shrine {.sacellum) in which the idol was placed, and were used as amulets or objects of piety and souvenirs carried away by thousands of pagan pil- grims. Finding his trade diminished through the spread ot Christianity and the decline of heathen wor- ship, he antl his fellow-craftsmen caused the uproar against St. Paul as narrated in Acts, loc. cit.

(2) St. John the Apostle, in his Third Epistle (v. 12), praises Demetrius to whom "testimony is given by all, and by the truth itself" and apparently opposes him to Diotrephes, who did not receive St. John, and cast out of the Church those that did (verses 9, 10). Nothing more is known of him. Possibly he was the bearer of the letter.

For Demetrius Soter, see Josephcs, Antiquities, XII, x; XIII. ii; Polybius. Histories. Ill, v; XXXI. xu, xix; XXXII, iv XXXnl, xiv. For Demetrius Nikator, Josephcs, .■ln/i<2- MidV.!, XIII, iv sqq.: Justin, Hist. PhU. Lih.,XX\l\. i; .\p- PIAS. .S';/n'«r/i. LxWii. Scin'RER, Ge.'iehichte des jiid. Volk. (4th cd., Leipzig, 1901), I, 216—48; Milman, History of the Jews, X, The Asmoneans.

J. P. Arendzen.

Demiurge. — The word means literally a public worker, Srifuoepyis. Sriiuovpy6^, and was originally used to designate any craftsman plying his craft or tradefortheiiseof thepublic. Soon, however, t<x''(ti)J and other words began to be used to designate the common artisan while demiurge was set aside for the Great Artificer or Fabricator, the ,\rohitect of the uni- verse. At first the words toO K6<rijav were added to distinguish the great Workman from others, but grad- ually Siifuovpy6i became the technical term for the