Demetrius I Poliorcetes

Demetrius I Poliorcetes (; , , ; ) was a Macedonian Greek nobleman and military leader who became king of Asia between 306 and 301 BC, and king of Macedon between 294 and 288 BC. A member of the Antigonid dynasty, he was the son of its founder, Antigonus I Monophthalmus, and his wife Stratonice, as well as the first member of the family to rule Macedon in Hellenistic Greece.

In 307 BC, Demetrius successfully ousted Cassander's governor of Athens and after defeating Ptolemy I at the Battle of Salamis (306 BC) he gave his father the title of basileus ("king") over a land spanning from the Aegean Sea to the Middle East. He acquired the title Poliorcetes ("the besieger") after the unsuccessful siege of Rhodes in 305. While Antigonus I and Demetrius planned a revival of the Hellenic League with themselves as dual hegemons, a coalition of the diadochi; Cassander, Seleucus I, Ptolemy I, and Lysimachus defeated the two at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, in which Antigonus I was killed and the Asian territory of his empire was lost. In 294, Demetrius managed to successfully seize control of Athens and establish himself as king of Macedon. He ruled until 288 when he was eventually driven out by Pyrrhus and Lysimachus and later surrendered to Seleucus I in Cilicia, dying there in 283. After a long period of instability, Demetrius's son, Antigonus II Gonatas, managed to solidify the dynasty in the kingdom and establish its hegemony over much of Hellenistic Greece.

Demetrius was particularly involved in innovations in poliorcetics, and although not all of his sieges were successful—such as the siege of Rhodes—he left his mark on the history of global siege warfare. This was notably through the extensive use of siege engines, the establishment of effective logistical procedures to support sieges on a much larger scale than previously, the widespread use of amphibious warfare, and finally the very quick pace of execution of his sieges. In the spring of 310, he was soundly defeated when he tried to expel Seleucus I Nicator from Babylon; his father was defeated in the autumn. As a result of this Babylonian War, Antigonus lost almost two thirds of his empire: all eastern satrapies fell to Seleucus.

After 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 BC). After these victories he was worshipped by the Athenians as a tutelary deity under the title of Soter (, "Saviour"). At this time Demetrius married Eurydike, an Athenian noblewoman who was reputed to be descendant from Miltiades; she was the widow of Ophellas, Ptolemy's governor of Cyrene. Antigonus sent Demetrius instructions to sail to Cyprus and attack Ptolemy's positions there.

thumb|Battle between Ptolemy and Demetrius Poliorcetes off Salamis.

Demetrius sailed from Athens in the spring of 306 BC and in accordance with his father's orders he first went to Caria where he summoned the Rhodians in an unsuccessful attempt to support his naval campaign. In the campaign of 306 BC, he defeated Ptolemy and Menelaus, Ptolemy's brother, in the naval Battle of Salamis, completely destroying the naval power of Ptolemaic Egypt. Following the victory, Antigonus assumed the title "king" and bestowed the same upon his son Demetrius. In 305 BC, he endeavoured to punish the Rhodians for having deserted his cause; his ingenuity in devising new siege engines in his (ultimately unsuccessful) attempt to reduce the capital gained him the title of Poliorcetes. He also sought the attention of Lamia, a Greek courtesan. He demanded 250 talents from the Athenians, which he then gave to Lamia and other courtesans to buy soap and cosmetics.

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After Athens' capitulation, Demetrius formed a new government which espoused a major dislocation of traditional democratic forms, which anti Macedonian democrats would have called oligarchy. The cyclical rotation of the secretaries of the Council and the election of archons by allotment, were both abolished. In 294/3 - 293/2 BC, two of the most prominent men in Athens were designated by the Macedonian king, Olympiordoros and Phillipides of Paiania. Their appointment by the King is implied by Plutarch who says that "he established the archons which were most acceptable to the Demos."

King of Macedonia

thumb|230x230px|A fresco in [[Pompeii possibly depicting Lanassa and Demetrius I, ca. 50–40 BC.]]

In 294 BC, he established himself on the throne of Macedonia by murdering Alexander V, the son of Cassander. The Antigonid also engaged in amphibious siege warfare, frequently conducting sieges both by sea and land. This figure is almost certainly exaggerated by the ancient author and would represent the largest concentration of manpower in the entire Hellenistic period, more than two times larger than the force Alexander led in his initial conquests. What the exact source was for Hegel's claim is unclear. Diogenes Laërtius in his short biography of Demetrius Phalereus does not mention this. Apparently Hegel's error comes from a misreading of Plutarch's Life of Demetrius which is about Demetrius Poliorcetes and not Demetrius of Phalereus. Plutarch describes in the work how Demetrius Poliorcetes conquered Demetrius Phalereus at Athens. Then, in chapter 12 of the work, Plutarch describes how Demetrius Poliorcetes was given honors due to the god Dionysus. This account by Plutarch was confusing not only for Hegel, but for others as well.

Others

Plutarch's account of Demetrius's departure from Macedonia in 288 BC inspired Constantine Cavafy to write "King Demetrius" (ὁ βασιλεὺς Δημήτριος) in 1906, his earliest surviving poem on an historical theme.

Demetrius is the main character of the opera Demetrio a Rodi (Turin, 1789) with libretto by Giandomenico Boggio and Giuseppe Banti. The music is set by Gaetano Pugnani (1731-1798).

Demetrius appears (under the Greek form of his name, Demetrios) in L. Sprague de Camp's historical novel, The Bronze God of Rhodes, which largely concerns itself with his siege of Rhodes.

Alfred Duggan's novel Elephants and Castles provides a lively fictionalised account of his life.

Family

Demetrius was married five times:

His first wife was Phila daughter of Regent Antipater by whom he had two children: Stratonice of Syria and Antigonus II Gonatas.
His second wife was Eurydice of Athens, by whom he is said to have had a son called Corrhabus.
His third wife was Deidamia, a sister of Pyrrhus of Epirus. Deidamia bore him a son called Alexander, who is said by Plutarch to have spent his life in Egypt, probably in an honourable captivity.
His fourth wife was Lanassa, the former wife of his brother-in-law Pyrrhus of Epirus.
His fifth wife was Ptolemais, daughter of Ptolemy I Soter and Eurydice of Egypt, by whom he had a son called Demetrius the Fair.

He also had a relationship with a celebrated courtesan called Lamia of Athens, by whom he had a daughter called Phila.

References

Sources

Ancient sources

Plutarch, Life of Demetrius
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, books 19–21
Polyaenus, Stratagems, 4.7
Justin, Epitome of Trogus , books 15–16
Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, 6.252–255

Modern works

Pat Wheatley, Charlotte Dunn : Demetrius the Besieger. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2020, .
R. M. Errington, A History of the Hellenistic World, pp. 33–58. Blackwell Publishing (2008). .
Demetrius I at Livius.org
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