[1] O. Gruppe (_Griechische Mythologie_, ii. 1177, note 1) considers
it "certain" that [Greek: Achaia = Acheloia], although he is unable
to explain the form.
DEMETRIA, a Greek festival in honour of Demeter, held at seed-time, and
lasting ten days. Nothing is known of it beyond the fact that the men
who took part in it lashed one another with whips of bark ([Greek:
morotton]), while the women made obscene jests. It is even doubtful
whether it was a particular festival at all or only another name for the
Eleusinia or Thesmophoria. The Dionysia also were called Demetria in
honour of Demetrius Poliorcetes, upon whom divine honours were conferred
by the Athenians.
Hesychius, s.v. [Greek: morotton]; Pollux i. 37; Diod. Sic. v. 4;
Plutarch, _Demetrius_, 12; Daremberg and Saglio, _Dictionnaire des
antiquites_.
DEMETRIUS, king of Bactria, was the son of the Graeco-Bactrian king
Euthydemus, for whom he negotiated a peace with Antiochus the Great in
206 (Polyb. xi. 34). Soon afterwards he crossed the Hindu Kush and began
the invasion of India (Strabo xi. 516); he conquered the Punjab and the
valley of the Indus down to the sea and to Gujerat. The town Sangala, a
town of the Kathaeans in the Punjab (Arrian v. 22, 2 ff.), he named
after his father Euthydemia (Ptol. vii. 1, 46). That his power extended
into Arachosia (Afghanistan) is proved by the name of a town Demetrias
near Kandahar (Isidor. Charac. 19, cf. Strabo xi. 516). On his coins he
wears an elephant's skin with trunk and teeth on his head; on bronze
coins, which have also an Indian legend in Kharoshti letters (see
BACTRIA), he calls himself the unvanquished king ([Greek: Basileos
aniketou Demetriou]). One of his coins has already the square form used
in India instead of the circular. Eventually he was defeated by the
usurper Eucratides (q.v.), who meanwhile had risen to great power in
Bactria. About his death we know nothing; his young son Euthydemus II.
(known only from coins) can have ruled only a short time. (Ed. M.)
DEMETRIUS, the name of two kings of Macedonia.
1. DEMETRIUS I. (337-283 B.C.), surnamed _Poliorcetes_ ("Besieger"), son
of Antigonus Cyclops and Stratonice. At the age of twenty-two he was
left by his father to defend Syria against Ptolemy the son of Lagus; he
was totally defeated near Gaza (312), but soon partially repaired his
loss by a victory in the neighbourhood of Myus. After an unsuccessful
expedition against Babylon, and several campaigns against Ptolemy on the
coasts of Cilicia and Cyprus, Demetrius sailed with a fleet of 250 ships
to Athens. He freed the city from the power of Cassander and Ptolemy,
expelled the garrison which had been stationed there under Demetrius of
Phalerum, and besieged and took Munychia (307). After these victories he
was worshipped by the Athenians as a tutelary deity under the title of
_Soter_ ("Preserver"). In the campaign of 306 against Ptolemy he
defeated Menelaus (the brother of Ptolemy) in Cyprus, and completely
destroyed the naval power of Egypt. In 305 he endeavoured to punish the
Rhodians for having deserted his cause; and his ingenuity in devising
new instruments of siege, in his unsuccessful attempt to reduce the
capital, gained him the appellation of Poliorcetes. He returned a second
time to Greece as liberator. But his licentiousness and extravagance
made the Athenians regret the government of Cassander. He soon, however,
roused the jealousy of the successors of Alexander; and Seleucus,
Cassander and Lysimachus united to destroy Antigonus and his son. The
hostile armies met at Ipsus in Phrygia (301). Antigonus was killed in
the battle, and Demetrius, after sustaining a severe loss, retired to
Ephesus. This reverse of fortune raised up many enemies against him; and
the Athenians refused even to admit him into their city. But he soon
afterwards ravaged the territory of Lysimachus, and effected a
reconciliation with Seleucus, to whom he gave his daughter Stratonice in
marriage. Athens was at this time oppressed by the tyranny of Lachares;
but Demetrius, after a protracted blockade, gained possession of the
city (294) and pardoned the inhabitants their former misconduct. In the
same year he established himself on the throne of Macedonia by the
murder of Alexander, the son of Cassander. But here he was continually
threatened by Pyrrhus, who took advantage of his occasional absence to
ravage the defenceless part of his kingdom (Plutarch, _Pyrrhus_, 7 ff.);
and at length the combined forces of Pyrrhus, Ptolemy and Lysimachus,
assisted by the disaffected among his own subjects, obliged him to leave
Macedonia after he had sat on the throne for six years (294-288). He
passed into Asia, and attacked some of the provinces of Lysimachus with
varying success; but famine and pestilence destroyed the greater part of
his army, and he solicited Seleucus for support and assistance. But
before he reached Syria hostilities broke out; and after he had gained
some advantages over his son-in-law, Demetrius was totally forsaken by
his troops on the field of battle, and surrendered his person to
Seleucus. His son Antigonus offered all his possessions, and even his
person, in order to procure his father's liberty; but all proved
unavailing, and Demetrius died in the fifty-fourth year of his age,
after a confinement of three years (283). His remains were given to
Antigonus, honoured with a splendid funeral at Corinth, and thence
conveyed to Demetrias. His posterity remained in possession of the
Macedonian throne till the time of Perseus, who was conquered by the
Romans.
See _Life_ by Plutarch; Diod. Sic. xix. xx.; Wilamowitz-Moellendorff,
_Antigonos von Karystos_; De Sanctis, _Contributi alla storia
Ateniese_ in Beloch's _Studi di storia antica_ (1893); Fergusson in
Lehmann's _Beitrage z. alt. Gesch._ (_Klio_) vol. v. (1905); also
authorities under MACEDONIAN EMPIRE.
2. DEMETRIUS II., son of Antigonus Gonatas, reigned from 239 to 229 B.C.
He had already during his father's lifetime distinguished himself by
defeating Alexander of Epirus at Derdia and so saving Macedonia (about
260?). On his accession he had to face a coalition which the two great
leagues, usually rivals, the Aetolian and Achaean, formed against the
Macedonian power. He succeeded in dealing this coalition severe blows,
wresting Boeotia from their alliance. The revolution in Epirus, which
substituted a republican league for the monarchy, gravely weakened his
position. Demetrius had also to defend Macedonia against the wild
peoples of the north. A battle with the Dardanians turned out
disastrously, and he died shortly afterwards, leaving Philip, his son
by Chryseis, 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.)