Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/983

Rh DEMETRIUS. during promptitude in the execution of hia schemes, he has perhaps never been surpassed ; but pros- perity always proved fatal to him, and -he con- sUintly lost by his luxury and voluptuousness the advantages that he had gained by the vigour and activity which adversity never failed to call forth. His life was in consequence a continued succession of rapid and striking vicissitudes of fortune. It has been seen that he was guilty of some great crimes, though on the whole he can be charged perhaps with fewer than any one of his contempo- raries ; and he shewed in several instances a degree of humanity and generosity very rarely displayed at that period. His besetting sin was his un- bounded licentiousness, a vice in which, says Plutarch, he surpassed all his contemporary mo- narchs. Besides Lamia and his other mistresses, he was regularly married to four wives, Phila, Eurydice, Deidameia, and Ptolemais, by whom he left four sons. The eldest of these, Antigonus Gonatas, eventually succeeded him on the throne of Macedonia. According to Plutarch, Demetrius was remark- able for his beauty and dignity of countenance, a remark fully borne out by his portrait as it appears upon his coins, one of which is annexed. On this his head is represented with horns, in imitation of Dionysus, the deity whom he particularly sought to emulate. (Plut. Demetr. 2; Eckhel, ii. p. 122.) DEMETRIUS. 965 Of his children two bore the same name : — 1. Demetrius, sumamed the Handsome {6 KaKoi), whom he had by Ptolemais, daughter of Ptolemy Soter, and who was consequently brother of Antigonus Gonatas. He was first mar- ried to Olympias of Larissa, by whom he had a son Antigonus, sumamed Doson, who afterwards suc- ceeded to the throne of Macedonia. (Euseb. Arm. i. p 161, fol. ed.) After the death of Magas, king of Gyrene, his widow, Arsinoe, wishing to obtain support against Ptolemy, sent to Macedonia to offer the hand of her daughter Berenice, and with it the kingdom of Gyrene, to Demetrius, who readily embraced the offer, repaired immediately to Gyrene, and established his power there without opposition. How long he continued to hold it we know not ; but he is said to have given general offence by his haughty and impopular manners, and carried on a criminal intercourse with his mother- in-law, Arsinoe. This was deeply resented by the young queen, Berenice, who caused him to be assassinated in her mother's arms. (Justin, xxvi. 3 ; Euseb. Arm. i. pp. 157, 158 ; Niebuhr's Kleine, Schri/len. p. 229 ; Droysen, Hellenism, ii. p. 292, &c.) According to a probable conjecture of Droy- ti«n's (ii. p. 215), it must have been this Deme- trius, and not, as stated by Justin (xxvi. 2), the Bon of Antigonus Gonatas, who defeated Alexander of Epeirus when he invaded Macedonia. 2. Demetrius, sumamed the Thin (^ Xcittos), whom he Ijad by an Illyrian woman, and of whom nothing is known but his name mentioned by Plutarch. (Plut. Demeir. 53.) [E. H. B.] DEME'TRI US (Aij^rirpios) II., king of Macb. DONiA, was the son of Antigonus Gonatas, and succeeded his father in B. c. 239. According to Justin (xxvi. 2), he had distinguished himself as early as b. c. 266 or 265, by the defeat of Alexan- der of Epeims, who had invaded the territories of his father : but this statement is justly rejected by Droysen {Hellenismus^ ii. p. 214) and Niebuhr (Kleine Schrijl. p. 228) on account of his extreme youth, as he could not at this time have been above twelve years old. (See, however, Euseb. Arm. i. p. 160; Thirl wall's Greece, vol. viii. p. 90.) Of the events of his reign, which lasted ten years, B. c. 239-229 (Polyb. ii. 44 ; Droysen, ii. p. 400, not.), our knowledge is so imperfect, that very op- posite opinions have been formed concerning his character and abilities. He followed up the policy of his father Antigonus, by cultivating friendly relations with the tyrants of the different cities in the Peloponnese, in opposition to the Achaean league (Polyb. ii. 44), at the same time that he engaged in war with the Aetolians, which had the effect of throwing them into alliance with the Achaeans. We know nothing of the details of this war, which seems to have arisen for the possession of Acamania ; but though Demetrius appears to have obtained some successes, the Aeto- lians on the whole gained ground during his reign. He was assisted in it by the Boeotians, and at one time also by Agron, king of lUyria. (Polyb. ii. 2. 46, XX. 5 ; Schorn, Gesch. Grieche7ilands, p. 88 ; Droysen, ii. p. 440 ; Thirlwall's Greece, viii. pp. 118 — 125.) We learn also that he suffered a great defeat from the Dardanians, a barbarian tribe on the north-western frontier of Macedonia, but it is quite uncertain to what period of his reign we are to refer this event. (Prol, Trogi Pompeii, lib. xxviii. ; Liv. xxxi. 28.) It was probably towards the commencement of it that Olympias, the widow of Alexander of Epeirus, in order to secure his support, gave him in marriage her daughter Phthia (Justin, xxviii. 1), notwithstanding which he ap- pears to have taken no steps either to prevent or avenge the death of Oljnnpias and her two sons. Demetrius had previously been married to Strato- nice, daughter of Antiochua Soter, who quitted him in disgust on his second marriage with Phthia, and retired to Syria. (Justin, /. c. ; Euseb. Arm. i. p. 164; Joseph, c. Apion. i. 22; Niebuhr's Kleine Schriften, p. 255.) [E. H. B.] COIN OF DEMETRIUS II. DEMETRIUS (ATi^uTfrpjos), a Greek of the island of Pharos in the Adriatic. He was in the service of the Illyrians at the time that war first broke out between them and Rome, and held Corcyra for the Illyrian queen Teuta ; but treach- erously surrendered it to the Roman fleet, and< became a guide and active ally to the consuls in all their subsequent operations. (Polyb. ii. 11.) His services were rewarded, after the defeat and