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* DEME. 105 DEMETKIUS. not become historically important until the time ol C'listlienes (B.C. oOS-507). When Clistheues abolished, tor all but religious purposes, the four old Attic tribes, and substituted in their stead ten new tribes, he first divided the people territo- lially into a hundred denies, and then formed his tribes by arbitrary irroupinys of these denies. The demcs were thus the primitive political units of I he .State. The number of demcs was sub.sequently increased: about B.C. 200 there were 174; the highest number known to have e.xisted is 182. They were variously named, some with gentile or patronymic names, some from the trades carried on in them, some from plants that grew in the neighborhood, and so on. Kach deme had its presiding officer (S-^impxos,dciiiuiclios). its treasurer (roM^aj, /am ias). its controller (d>Ti7pa- ^is, antigrapheus), and other officers, besides its assembly, which was convened l>y the demarch. and wherein was transacted the public business of the deme. There was also for each deme a register wherein were enrolled, for political and other purposes, all the members of that deme. Tonsult: Hermann, Grirchische Alfcrthiimer I Freiburg. 18S2) ; Leake. Denies of Attica (Lon- don, 1820) : Haussouillier. La vie munieipale en Attique (Paris. 1883) ; Wachsmuth. Stadt Athen, vol. ii. (Leipzig, 1890). DEMENTIA. See I.xsaxitt. DEMEKARA, dem'e-rii'ra. A river of Brit- ish Guiana (q.v. ), South America, rising in the mountains of the interior, flowing north almost parallel with the Essequibo, and emptying into the Atlantic at Georgetown (Map: Guiana, British, F 2). It is about 200 miles long. 1% miles broad at its mouth, and navigable by ships of considerable burden for 75 miles. Its iffluents are numerous, though small. At its entrance into the ocean it affords a spacious harbor, obstructed, however, by a bar. DEMESNE, de-men', or DEMAIN' (OF. de- tiioine, domaine. from Lat. dviiiiniiim, right of power). In the feudal system of land tenure, the dominion over land. But the dominion cbnnoted by the term was the actual dominion of the free- hold tenant, and not the theoretical dominion of the King or the mesne lord. It did not signify lordship of land, but the rights and the authority of the inmiediate owner. Such a tenant was said to hold "in his demesne' (in dominio suo) . Blackstone distinguishes accurately between the allodial, or absolute, owner, outside the feudal system, who was described as holding the land "in his demesne,' and the feudal tenant, whose dominion was qualified by adding the phrase 'as of fee,' indicating a real and yet subordinate dominion. But he was probably wrong in using the same term to describe the King's paramoimt lordship. The King, indeed, held lands in his demesne : there were and still are 'demesne lands' of the Crown, but they are the immediate prop- erty of the Crown, owned and controlled by it, and not lands held of the Crown by free- hold tenants. See Ckowx L. ds ; Feudalism ; Tentre. Anrietit demesne is a species of privileged copyhold tenure. sur'iving in a few ancient manors which formed part of the demesne lands of the Crown in the time of the Conqueror, and are so recorded in Domesday Book. These manors may now be in the hands of subjects. Tenure of ancient demesne is sometimes known as customary tenant-right, privileged villeinage, and villein socage. The abolition of the peculiar privileges which attended it, by statute in 1833, has assimilated it closely to ordinary socage tenure. Consult: Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of Enyland; Vinogradotf, Villeinage in liiiyland; Bollock and ilaitland. History of Eiiylish Law (2d ed., London and Boston, 1899). Sec Copyhold; Socage. DEME'TER. See Ceres. DEME'TRIUS (Gk. Ariii-nrpios, DCmetrios). A sculptor of .ttica, who nourished in the early part of the fourth century B.C. He was espe- cially celebrated for the realism of his portraits, and was even censured for his excessively close imitation of natural defects. DEMETRIUS, called Phalekeus (Gk. Arj/iriTpLoi ^oXTjpeus, Demetrios Phalereus) (c.354- 284 B.C.). A (irccian orator and philosopher. He was born at Phalerum in Attica, and was a pupil of the pliiloso])her Theophrastus. In B.C. 317 he was appointed governor of Athens by Cas- sander, and held that office for ten years. His administration was so successful that the Athe- nians erected to him. it is said, 360 statues. When Athens was taken by Demetrius Poliorcetes in B.C. 307, Demetrius Phalereus was obliged to flee, retiring fir.st to Themes, and then to the Court of Ptolemy Lagi at Alexandria. After Ptolemy's death he was banished from Alexandria, and withdrew to Upper Egypt, where he died about B c. 284. Demetrius wrote many historical and philosophical works, but only fragments of these remain. The rhetorical treatise On Style (Ilepl 'EpiJ.rtKlas,Pcri Hermeneias), ascribed to him, is probably a composition of a later date. DEMETRIUS. (1) A young Athenian in love with Herniia in Shakespeare's Midsummer Sight's Dream. (2) The son of Tamora, Queen of the Goths, in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. 13) A friend of Antony in Shakespeare's An- tony and Cleopatra. (4) Celia's princely lover in Fletcher's The Humorous Lieutenant. DEMETRIUS OF BYZANTIUM, bi-zjin'- shr-iini. A Peripatetic philosopher. He is sup- posed to have been the man who tried to dissuade Cato from suicide. Part of his book On Poets is quoted by Athena-us, and some portions of his other writings have been found at Herculaneum. DEMETRIUS OF SU'NIUM. A cynic phi- losopher. Me was a disciple and afterwards an antagonist of Apollonius of Tyana. He lived in great simplicity at Rome in the period from iibout A.D. 40 to' about 80. and enjoyed the friend- ship of Seneca, who observes that Nature made him to show mankind how an exalted genius may live uncorrupted by the vices of the world. DEMETRIUS. The assumed name of four pretenders to the throne of Russia between tiie years ll!03 and 1013. In 1.584 Ivan the Terrible died, leaving two sons, Feodor and Demetrius, the former of whom ascended the throne, but proved a weak ruler, and fell completely under the con- trol of his brother-in-law Boris GodunofV. The second son. Demetrius, was brought up at a dis- tance from the Court, and when only nine or ten yeai-s old cither accidentally killed himself or was put to death. In 1.598 Feodor died also, and Bcuis ascended the throne, but his tyrannical ineasires rendered him very unpopular. In KiO:; a rumor spread through Russia that Demetrius was not