he could get Phocion to accept of nothing, and -could never satisfy Demades. He was as profuse in spending his fortune, as rapacious in acquiring it. He is said to have paid voluntarily a fine of 1000 drachmas a piece for 100 chorus-performers in one of his exhibitions, who, contrary to law, were foreigners. At the marriage of his son Demea, he said to him, "When I married your mother, our next neighbours scarcely knew of it; but kings and princes contribute to the expence of your nuptials." This man at last paid the penalty of his interested policy. Becoming dissatisfied with Antipater, he wrote to his enemy Perdiccas, instigating him to invade Macedonia and Greece, and take the government to himself; adding this expression, "That they now lean ed only on an old rotten staff." His letters His letters happened to be intercepted, and their contents so provoked Cassander the son of Antipater, that he caused his son to be killed before his eyes, and then put him to death, B.C. 322. Plutarch in Phocione & Demosth. Univers. Hist.-A.

DEMARATUS, king of Sparta, succeeded in the throne his father Aristo, and had for his colleague Cleomenes I. He opposed the violent measures of Cleomenes, and accused him before the ephori as the disturber of Greece; for which reason Cleomenes endeavoured to procure his deposition. He brought against Demaratus the charge of illegitimate birth, which, indeed, was not improbable, since he was born seven months after his father's marriage to his mother, who was before the wife of another man. The oracle of Delphi, which was applied to in order to determine the question, being suborned by Cleomenes, decided against Demaratus, who was consequently deposed. The moderation of his temper, however, led him to submit to his fate without complaint, and he was contented to serve his country in inferior magistracies. He also employed himself in the exercises of the stadium, and is recorded as the only king of Sparta who gained a prize at the Olympic chariot-races. As he was one day acting as inspector of the public gymnasium, his successor and cousin, Leotychides, sent a servant to insult him with the question, how he liked this office, after having held that of king? Demaratus indignantly replied, "That he knew the proper weight of both, which the person who sent him did not;-but that this question should prove the cause either of great good or of great misfortune to Sparta." He then covered his face, went home, and, after sacrificing to Jupi

VOL. III.

ter, conjured his mother to inform him sincerely as to the legitimacy of his birth. She told him a tale containing a mixture of the marvellous, which satisfied him. He then resolved for ever to quit his country; and after being pursued to Zacynthus, where the inhabitants refused to deliver him up, he escaped to the court of Darius Hystaspis, about B.C. 492. He was honourably received by the Persian king, who assigned him a liberal maintenance, and treated him as one of royal rank. At the death of Darius he is said to have aided Xerxes in the succession, by suggesting to him the argument, that he alone of the sons of Darius was born while his father was king. He continued to have so much feeling for his country, that when he understood the designs of the Persian against it, he sent advice of it in a pair of writing-tables, on the wood of which he had cut the information, and then covered it with wax. He accompanied Xerxes, however, in his expedition; and several discourses are related by Herodotus as having passed between them on various occasions, which are probably embellishments of the historian. Nothing further is known of him, but that his posterity flourished in Persia to several generations. Herodotus, b. vi. vii.—A.

DEMETRIUS I. surnamed Poliorcetes, king of Macedon, a prince remarkable for the splendor of his character and the variety of his fortune, was the son of Antigonus, one of the captains of Alexander the Great, and was born about B.C. 340. From youth he possessed extraordinary grace and beauty of person, so that no statuary or painter could give his exact resemblance. His manner was equally dignified and attractive; and he was at the same time a most agreeable companion, and a prince of great vigour and activity in public affairs. The cordial friendship and confidence which always prevailed between him and his father, has been already noticed in the life of Antigonus. He was also capable of generous attachment to his companions of the same age. One of these, Mithridates the son of Ariobarzanes, having excited the jealousy of Antigonus, who resolved to put him to death, Demetrius, apprised by his father of his intention under an oath of secrecy, eluded its violation, and yet gave his friend warning, by drawing him apart, and writing on the ground with his spear, "Fly, Mithridates." Ptolemy having invaded Syria, Demetrius was sent with an army to oppose him, and underwent a total defeat at Gaza. His father gave him permission to try his fortune again, when he retaliated by defeating Cilles, the general of Ptolemy, and

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taking him captive, with his camp and military treasures. Demetrius, on this occasion, returned the generosity before shewn by Ptolemy to himself, in restoring his equipage and domestics, by releasing Cilles and his officers, and loading them with favours. He afterwards made an expedition into Arabia, but obtained little success. He next drove Seleucus from Babylon, and laid waste the country; and returning, obliged Ptolemy to raise the siege of Halicarnassus. A treaty followed between Antigonus and the princes confederated against him, which was soon broken; and Demetrius, inflamed with the desire of liberating Greece from the power of Cassander, undertook an expedition into that country, and first landed at Athens. On making proclamation that he was come to free the city, and expel the garrison Cassander had placed in the citadel, he was received with open arms; and Demetrius Phalareus, who governed Athens for Cassander, was obliged to make his submission, and obtain the victor's protection. He placed a blockade round Munychia the citadel, and then marched to Megara, which he took. He declared that city free, and paid a respectful visit to Stilpo, a celebrated philosopher who resided in it. Returning before Munychia, he brought the garrison to surrender, and demolished the fortress. He then assembled the people of Athens, and solemnly restored their ancient democratic government, adding to this favour a large present of corn and timber. The Athenians, whose genius was then debased by the meanest servility, and whose inventive faculties were chiefly exercised in adulation, preserved no moderation in their flattery of Demetrius and his father. They not only gave them the title of kings, but nominated them their protecting deities, and appointed a priest to serve them, whose name, and not that of the archon as formerly, should distinguish the year. They created two new tribes, which they called by the names of these princes, and changed the name of the month Munychion to Demetrion. From Greece, Demetrius was called by his father to conduct the war against Ptolemy. He raised an army in Cilicia, and assembling a numerous fleet, proceeded to Cyprus. He there defeated Menelaus the brother of Ptolemy, and besieged him in the town of Salamis. Ptolemy himself came with a large fleet to the aid of his brother, and a sea-fight ensued, in which the force of Ptolemy was almost entirely destroyed, and he was obliged to return to Egypt with eight galleys only. The whole island, with all the troops and magazines of

the enemy, were the prize of the victor. Ptolemy's brother and son were among the captives, but were liberated without ransom by Demetrius. With the news of this great success Antigonus was so much elated, that he thenceforth assumed the title of king, and gave it also to his son. Among the captives of Cyprus was Lamia, a celebrated courtezan, whose charms, though now more than mature, captivated her conqueror. Demetrius, indeed, was more than ordinarily sensible to the attractions of beauty. His first marriage with Phila, daughter of Antipater and widow of Craterus, was a connection of interest made in early youth at his father's instigation. He afterwards indulged his inclination in polygamy, nor was he contented with conjugal amours, but entertained' mistresses of all ranks, and went into every excess practised by the most licentious of those times. Lamia, by her experienced arts, long retained an ascendency over him superior to that of any other female, and which subjected him to much raillery. His weakness in this respect, however, did not impede his exertions in business and war. As he had a turn for mechanics, he applied it in the construction of ships and military engines, of a greatness of bulk, and complexity of contrivance, never before seen. He built galleys of fifteen or sixteen banks of oars, which were much admired at the time, though perhaps less useful in service than those of the usual size. His machinery for sieges was suitable to a prince whose name was the taker of towns (Poliorcetes). One of these, called helepolis, a vast tower of nine stories, rolling upon wheels, and concealing numerous engines, had a most formidable appearance, though its prodigious weight rendered it very unwieldy. Every invention of this kind was fully tried in the famous siege of Rhodes, which he undertook in consequence of the attachment of that city to the cause of Ptolemy; but which he was at length obliged to relinquish without success, after it had continued above a year. He gladly made use of the pretext of being summoned by the Athenians to assist them against Cassander. In this expedition he was perfectly successful, driving that leader out of Attica, with the defeat of his rear-guard, and restoring liberty to all the Greek states south of Thermopyla. He took up his quarters for a time at Athens, where his good fortune, and the flatteries of the Athenians, inspired him with every kind of extravagance. He plunged into the grossest debaucheries, and contaminated the Parthenon, or temple of the Virgin Minerva, in which he was lodged, with

every pollution. The people of Athens surpassed even their former servilities of adulation towards him. One instance of their conduct may suffice. Demetrius, after attending an assembly of the states at the Isthmus, in which he was proclaimed general of all Greece, wrote to Athens, expressing his intention of being initiated on his return, and admitted not only to the less, but to the greater mysterics. But these sacred mysteries were celebrated, the first in February, the second in September; and by an express law none were admitted to the greater till they had attended on the less. To obviate this difficulty, a decree was passed, first, that the month which Demetrius chose for the ceremony should be called February, and then that it should be changed into September. Such were the Athenians after they had lost their independence!

Demetrius was called from Greece by his father, against whom a new league was formed by Cassander, Seleucus, and Lysimachus. In the fatal battle of Ipsus, B.C. 301, Demetrius charged and broke the cavalry of Seleucus, but by pursuing them too far, he left Antigonus exposed to the attack of a superior force, by which he lost his life, with the irretrievable defeat of his army. Demetrius, with the remains of his forces, retreated to Ephesus, and thence embarked for Greece, intending to proceed to Athens; but that city now refused to receive him, and even sent away his wife Deidamia with her retinue. This change in the behaviour of a people who had so highly honoured him, and to whom he was really attached, cut him to the heart, though it was no other than a wise man would have expected. He expostulated with them in moderate terms, and requested them to send him his galleys which lay in their port. They complied, and he sailed to the Chersonesus, where he ravaged the territories of Lysimachus. Here he was agreeably surprised at receiving a message from Seleucus, requesting in marriage his daughter Stratonice, a celebrated beauty, well known by the story of the passion she afterwards inspired in her son-inlaw Antiochus. The marriage took place with great pomp in Syria, and Demetrius then sailed to Cilicia and took possession of it. His wife Deidamia dying at this time, he supplied her place by marrying Ptolemais, the daughter of king Ptolemy; and thus he became closely allied to two of his rivals. He then made an expedition into Greece, and blockaded Athens, which at length surrendered, after having endured great extremities from famine. He treated the city with unexpected lenity, pre

sented it with a large quantity of corn, but left a garrison to control it. He then made an attempt upon Sparta, and having defeated its king Archidamus, was near becoming master of the town, when he received intelligence of the loss of all his possessions in Asia, and of the isle of Cyprus. While deliberating upon the measures to be pursued in this conjuncture, he received an application from Alexander, one of the sons of Cassander king of Macedon, lately dead, to assist him against his brother Antipater. Demetrius proceeded thither, but found the young prince more afraid of him than his brother, with whom he had made an agreement. They had an interview, attended with mutual suspicions. Demetrius, finding he was not wanted, returned as far as Larissa, whither Alexander accompanied him; when at a banquet, the Macedonian prince was basely murdered by order of Demetrius, whose only excuse was, that the other was meditating the same stroke against him. Indeed, treachery does not seem to have been habitually a part of the character of Demetrius. This action strangely terminated in the election of Demetrius to the throne, by the Macedonians, who hated the surviving son of Cassander on account of the murder of his mother. It is to be observed, that Phila, wife to Demetrius, was daughter of Cassander. He thus again became a powerful prince, and might have reigned in tranquillity, had not his restless and enterpris ing spirit led him to new projects against his neighbours. He made war upon the Boeotians, and took Thebes, which afterwards revolted, when he took it a second time. He invaded Thrace, ravaged Etolia, and engaged in war with Pyrrhus king of Epirus. The manners of this martial prince formed a contrast to his own, which was to his disadvantage; and the oriental state which he affected proved offensive to his Macedonian subjects. He was (as Plutarch remarks) quite a theatrical king, attempting to dazzle the eyes of beholders by the extraordinary splendor of his dress, and assum→ ing an artificial stateliness of demeanour. He was difficult of access, and paid little attention to petitioners. Of this contempt he one day gave a very imprudent specimen; for having with apparent good temper received a number of petitions, which he put into the skirt of his robe, when he came to a bridge over the river, he shook them all into the stream. Thus his people gradually lost all attachment to him.

He had reigned about six years in Macedon, when he entertained a design of recovering all the dominions which his father had possessed

Syria, one of whom, Octavius, behaved in so insolent a manner, that he was killed in a popular tumult. Demetrius again applied for leave to depart; and being refused, he made his escape from Rome with the assistance of Polybius the historian, and landed in Syria. He was received as lawful sovereign by the Syrians, and secured his crown by the death of Eupator, who fell into his hands, B.C. 162. He freed the Babylonians from the tyrannical rule of two brothers whom Antiochus had placed over them, for which action they gave hin the title of Soter, or Saviour. He afterHe afterwards, at the instigation of Alcimus, high-priest of the Jews, renewed the war which his predecessors had carried on with that nation, and in the course of which the hero Judas Maccabæus lost his life. By means of repeated solicitations, he obtained an acknowledgment of his regal title from the senate and people of Rome; and he endeavoured still further to conciliate the protection of the Romans to his family, by sending his son to be brought up in their city. In consequence of quarrels with his neighbours, he united against him the kings of Cappadocia, Pergamus, and Egypt; and his son having privately left Rome on account of some disgust, he also incurred the displeasure of that republic. All these powers concurred in giving encouragement to Alexander Balas, an impostor, who laid claim to the crown of Syria (see his life). Demetrius, though much addicted to intemperance and sensual indulgences, was not destitute of martial vigour. He met his rival in the field, and defeated him in the first battle; but Balas, supported by the confederate kings, was soon again in a condition to stand his ground. Demetrius, by his conduct, had lost the attachment of his subjects, who deserted him in numbers. Apprehensive of the final event, he sent his two sons with a great treasure to Gnidus, and resolved to trust his fortune to the decision of another battle. In this, after the greatest exertions of valour, he lost his life, B.C. 150. Univers. Hist.-A.

DEMETRIUS II. king of Syria, surnamed Nicator, son of Demetrius Soter, endeavoured to recover his father's crown from Alexander Balas; and being at length aided by Ptolemy Philometor king of Egypt, whose daughter Cleopatra (then the wife of Balas) he married, he was placed upon the throne B.C. 145. He devoted himself to a life of pleasure, committing the management of affairs to his minister Lasthenes, a man of a cruel disposition, who alienated from him the affections of his sub

jects. The people of Antioch shewing a disposition to mutiny, Demetrius applied to the Jewish high-priest Jonathan, who sent him a body of troops, by whose means the Antiochians were quelled with a dreadful slaughter. In the mean time, Diodotus, named Tryphon, set up Antiochus, the son of Alexander Balas, as competitor to Demetrius, and defeating the latter, set Antiochus upon the throne. Tryphon afterwards murdered Antiochus, and usurped the Syrian throne himself, while Demetrius was indulging himself in debauchery at Laodicea. The Jews, under Simon, however, made an alliance with him against Tryphon; and he soon after received an invitation from some discontented subjects of the Parthians, to aid them in a revolt. Demetrius crossed the Euphrates, and obtained several victories over the Parthians, but was at length defeated and taken prisoner. The Parthian king treated him with kindness, and gave him his daughter Rodogune in marriage, though he still kept him in a state of captivity. Cleopatra, his former wife, now claimed the crown of Syria; and, conceiving herself deserted by her husband, married his younger brother, Antiochus Sidetes, who gained possession of the throne (see his life). After his death, Demetrius, being set at liberty by the Parthian king, recovered the kingdom of Syria. He possessed the throne four years, but was at length driven from it by a rival set up against him by Ptolemy Physcon. He took refuge at Tyre, where he was put to death, according to some historians, by command of his wife Cleopatra, B.C. 126. Univers. Hist.-A.

DEMETRIUS, czar of Russia, commonly called the false Demetrius, passed for the younger son of czar Ivan, or John, Basilovitz, which prince is said to have been assassinated in the eighth year of his age, in 1584, by order of Boris Gudenow (see his life). They who suppose this Demetrius to have been an impostor, relate that he was born at Jaroslaw, of the noble but reduced family of Utropeia or Otrepief; that he entered into a monastery, where he changed his christian name of George for that of Griska or Gregory; that either on his own accord, or at the instigation of an old monk, he entertained a design of personating the murdered prince Demetrius, who would have been about his own age; and that for this purpose he left the monastery, and went to Lithuania, where he entered into the service of a nobleman of high rank named Wiesnovitski. From this time, the history of Demetrius, whether real or counterfeit, comes into