Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 03.djvu/367

LEFT DEMETRIUS 315 DEMOCRACY relinquish the attempt. He afterward defeated Cassander at Thermopylae; but was called to aid Antigonus against Seleucus and Lysimachus, in Asia. The two armies met at Ipsus, 299 B. C ; and after an obstinate battle, the army of Demetrius was defeated, and his father slain, but he himself fled to Ephesus. He, however, mustered a new army, and in 295 B. C. relieved Athens from tyranny. He then slew Alexander, the son of Cas- sander, and seated himself on the throne of Macedonia. At the end of seven years of constant war he was forced to retire into Asia, where he was reduced to dis- tress. He went to the court of Seleucus, his son-in-law; but a difference breaking out between them, war ensued, and De- metrius was defeated. Deserted by his soldiers, he surrendered himself at length to his son-in-law, who exiled him to Pella, in Syria, where he died 283 e. C. DEMETRIUS, Czar of Russia, com- monly called the false Demetrius, was a native of Jaroslav, and a novice in a monastery, where he was tutored by a monk to personate Demetrius, son of the Czar John Vasilowitz, who had been murdered by Boris Gudenow. Having learned his tale, he went into Lithuania, embraced the Roman Catholic religion, and married the daughter of the palatine Sandomir. In 1604 Demetrius entered Russia at the head of a small army, was joined by a number of Russians and Cos- sacks, and defeated an army sent against him. On the death of Boris, the people strangled his son, and placed Demetrius on the throne, but his partiality to the Poles, and contempt of the Greek reli- gion, occasioned an insurrection, and he was assassinated in 1606, after reigning about 11 months. DEMI-BASTION, in fortification, dif- fers from a bastion in having only one flank instead of two and no curtain. DEMIDOV, or DEMIDOFF, a wealthy and influential Russian family, whose head was an armory-founder at Toula. This Demidoff was intrusted by Peter the Great with the business of casting the cannon for that prince's numerous warlike expeditions. In 1725 he discov- ered the mines of Kolyvan, the working of which speedily enriched him. He left a son, NiKlTA, and several grandsons, who distinguished themselves in the same career as their pi'ogenitor, and amassed colossal fortunes. The best known of these are Prokop Demidoff, who v/orked with great profit the iron, copper, and gold mines of the Ural Mountains; born at Moscow about 1730; Nikolay Ni- KITICH, a zealous philanthropist, who founded establishments of public utility, and carried to a great state of perfection the working of mines. His last years he passed in France and Italy, enjoying the society of learned men. Born near St. Petersburg, 1773; died in Florence, 1828. He left two sons, Paul and Ana- TOLE, who, as well as inheriting his for- tune, had also the same high taste, and benevolence. Of these. Count Anatole allied himself to the Bonaparte family, by marrying, in 1840, one of Napoleon's nieces, the Princess Mathilde, daughter of Jerome, and sister of Prince Napoleon. Russia, as well as other countries, owe to him the foundation of many valuable charitable institutions. He died in 1858. DE MILLE, WILLIAM CHURCHILL, an American playwright, born in Wash- ington, N. C, in 1878. He studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and in 1900 became a writer of plays. Among those successfully produced were "Strongheart," "The Warrens of Vir- ginia," "The Land of the Free," and "The Woman." He also prepared and directed many successful moving picture plays. DEMI-LUNE, in fortification, practi- cally the same as a ravelin. DEMI-RELIEF, or DEMI-RILIEVO (demai-ril-i-a'v6), a term applied to sculpture projecting moderately from the face of a wall; half raised, as if cut in two, and half only fixed to the plane. Mezzo-rilievo is a degree between alto and basso-rilievo. DEMISE, (a laying dovvTi), in law a grant by lease; is applied to an estate either in fee-simple, fee-tail, or for a term of life or years. As applied to the crown of England, demise signifies its transmission to the next heir on being laid down by the sovereign at death. DEMISEMIQUAVER, in music, half a semi-quaver, or the 32d part of a semi- breve. DEMIURGE, in some of the Pelopon- nesian states the name of a magistrate, probably corresponding to the tribunes of Rome. It is also a name given by the Platonian philosophei's to an exalted and mysterious agent, by whom God was supposed to have created the universe. He corresponds to the Logos or Word of St. John and the Platonizing Christians of the Early Church. DEMOCRACY, that form of govern- ment in which the sovereign power is in the hands of the people collectively, and is exercised by them either directly or indirectly through elected representa- tives or delegates. The third book of Herodotus describes it as it existed in