Demetrios I PoliorketesPAT WHEATLEY

Demetrios, “the Besieger of Cities” (336–282

BCE), was son of ANTIGONOS I MONOPHTHALMOS,

“the One-Eyed.” He was one of the most bril-

liant figures among Alexander’s “Successors,”

but generally he failed to live up to his promise

and in reality achieved very little for all

his grandiose schemes. The source tradition

for his life is deficient, the only complete treat-

ment being PLUTARCH’s over-contrived biogra-

phy of him, presented in tandem with the

Life of Antony, to exemplify defective character.

Though epigraphic and numismatic evidence

is also vital, the only strictly historical record,

based on the contemporary HIERONYMOS

OF KARDIA (FGrH 154), is that of DIODORUS OF

SICILY 19–20, who partially covers his early life

up to 301 BCE.

Born in 336, Demetrios was raised at his

father’s satrapal capital of Kelainai in PHRYGIA,

and fled with the family to ANTIPATER, away

from the menacing Perdikkas, in 322. A polit-

ical marriage was arranged with Antipater’s

daughter, the much older Phila, in 320, and

their children, ANTIGONOS II GONATAS and

Stratonike, were born soon after. Demetrios

followed his father throughout the campaigns

of the Second War of the Successors (see SUC-

CESSORS, WARS OF), being present at the great

battles of Gabiene and Paraitakene in 317–16,

and gained his first independent command

when he was left to defend Syria in 314. This

ended catastrophically when he was defeated

by PTOLEMY I SOTER and SELEUKOS I NIKATOR at the

battle of Gaza in autumn 312 (Diod.

Sic. 19.80.1–86.5; Just. Epit. 15.1.6–9). He

quickly recovered, however, defeating Killes, a

Ptolemaic general, and conducting campaigns

against the Nabataeans and Seleukos’ generals

in Babylon in 311–10 (Diod. Sic. 19.93–100;

Plut. Demetr. 6–7). He is next heard of leading

an expeditionary force to ATHENS, which he

liberated bloodlessly from DEMETRIOS OF

PHALERON in 307. The Athenians were effusive

in their thanks, declaring Demetrios and

Antigonos to be “savior gods” and establishing

for them cults (Mikalson 1998: 75–104), the

excesses of which culminated by 290 in the

performance of an ithyphallic hymn to honor

Demetrios (Ath. 6.253b–f; Habicht 1997:

92–3).

Demetrios conquered part of the

PELOPONNESE but was directed by his father to

attack Ptolemy’s forces in CYPRUS, which he

did most effectively, winning a famous

naval victory at Salamis in 306 and in

the aftermath capturing the Athenian courte-

san Lamia, who was to influence his personal-

ity profoundly (Wheatley 2003). Following

this, Antigonos and Demetrios declared

themselves kings and mounted an abortive

attack on Egypt. Demetrios’ most famous

exploit was his year-long siege of RHODES in

305–304 (Diod. Sic. 20.81–100; Plut. Demetr.

21–2; see SIEGE), which ultimately failed but

demonstrated his tenacious and innovative

character: he turned siegecraft into an art

form, earning his name “Poliorketes” in the

process. Indeed his massive warships, rams,

and gigantic siege towers, including the

40 m high helepolis (“city-taker”), were to

become wonders of the age. From 305 to

302 Demetrios executed his ageing father’s pol-

icies in Greece, reforming the LEAGUEOFCORINTH

and conquering most of Greece from

CASSANDER (Diod. Sic. 20.102–3). Plutarch

(Demetr. 23–4; 26) records that during this

time Demetrios made himself a byword for

irreverence and degeneracy through his scan-

dalous behavior in Athens, where he held

orgies in the back room (opisthodomos) of the

PARTHENON, and demanded an irregular accel-

erated initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries

(see ELEUSIS, MYSTERIES OF). Though on the verge

of annihilating Cassander, he was recalled by

Antigonos to Asia in 302 to confront the rena-

scent coalition of the other dynasts, but was

directly culpable in the defeat at IPSOS through

his reckless cavalry tactics, which separated

him from the phalanx and resulted in his

father’s death. Demetrios, however, kept his

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,

and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 1995–1997.

© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah09085

1

huge fleet and retained control over Cyprus

and numerous key cities, including Corinth,

Miletos, Ephesos, Tyre, and Sidon, effectively

maintaining a thalassocracy, and harassed

LYSIMACHOS in 299 before forging a marriage

alliance with Seleukos at Rhossos in Syria.

From here his fortunes improved again, as he

took advantage of the petty squabbling

between the victors at Ipsos to take the royal

treasury at Kyinda in Cilicia, reinforce his fleet,

strengthen his control of Phoenicia, and make

a further marriage alliance with PTOLEMY I (Plut.

Demetr. 32). By 296 he returned to Greece,

where, despite losing a large fleet, he took

back Athens from the tyrant Lachares in the

following year (Thonemann 2005) and

campaigned against SPARTA. He opportunisti-

cally appropriated the throne of MACEDONIA

in 294, after a dynastic struggle among

Cassander’s sons. Plutarch (Demetr. 41–2)

asserts that he proved to be a poor king,

given to whimsy and irresponsibility, but he

conducted a number of vigorous campaigns,

consolidating Macedonian control in THESSALY

and central Greece, and founded a new strate-

gic capital, DEMETRIAS, on the Pagasaic gulf in

Magnesia. He controlled Athens through

garrisons, campaigned against the Aitolians

and Thebans, and gained Corcyra through

marriage to Lanassa, a former wife of PYRRHOS.

However, Demetrios’ underpinning ambition

became starkly manifest when, financed by a

voluminous coinage minted at PELLA and

AMPHIPOLIS, he prepared an enormous expedi-

tionary force and fleet, with which he intended

the reconquest of his father’s (and Alexander’s)

realm in Asia. This alarmed the other dynasts,

who in 288 banded together again, and he was

expelled from his kingdom through a union of

his arch-enemy Lysimachos with Pyrrhos, king

of EPIRUS. Athens rebelled, and, now under pre-

ssure from Ptolemy and Pyrrhos, he embarked

in 286 with his army for Asia (Plut. Demetr.

44–6). Hounded by Lysimachos’ son

Agathokles (see AGATHOKLES, SON OF LYSIMACHOS)

and beset by ill-health and desertions, he was

driven to Cilicia and northern Syria and

trapped by Seleukos (285), who placed him in

gilded captivity. There, his constitution ruined

by depression and drink, he died within three

years.

Demetrios offers the best case study for the

evolution of the kingship (basileia) in early

Hellenistic times (see KINGSHIP, HELLENISTIC),

and the dynasty he co-founded would last

until 168. He conceived of his royal title as

personal and irrevocable, reinforced or

undermined by military success or failure and

not dependent on having a territorial base.

Perceptions of “the Besieger” are colored by

Plutarch’s biography, which transmits the

image of a tragic actor, beset by wildly oscillat-

ing fortunes and by a flawed character

(Mastrocinque 1979; Chaniotis 1997). But

Demetrios should be remembered for the

splendor of his ambition and for his scintil-

lating persona, even if the stark reality of his

life was one of fruitless endeavor.

SEE ALSO: Alexander III, the Great; Antigonids;

Kingship, Hellenistic; Perdikkas, son of Orontes;

Ptolemy I; Pyrrhos, king; Seleukos I; Successors,

wars of; Syria (pre-Roman).

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Billows, R. A. (1990) Antigonos the One-Eyed:

147–86. Berkeley.

Bosworth, A. B. (2002) The legacy of Alexander:

246–78. Oxford.

Chaniotis, A. (1997) “Theatricality beyond the

theater: staging public life in the Hellenistic

world.” In B. Le Guen, ed.,De la scene aux gradins:

theatre et representations dramatiques apres

Alexandre le Grand dans les cites hellenstiques:

219–59. Toulouse.

Habicht, C. (1997) Athens from Alexander to Antony:

67–97. Cambridge, MA.

Hammond, N. G. L. and Walbank, F. W. (1988)

A history of Macedonia, vol. 3: 210–38.

Oxford.

Mastrocinque, A. (1979) “Demetrios trago-

doumenos: propaganda e letteratura al tempo

di Demetrio Poliorcete.” Athenaeum

57: 260–76.

Mikalson, J. D. (1998) Religion in Hellenistic

Athens: 75–104. Berkeley.

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Newell, E. T. (1927) The coinages of Demetrios

Poliorcetes. London.

Thonemann, P. (2005) “The tragic king:

Demetrios Poliorketes and the city of Athens.”

In O. Hekster and R. Fowler, eds., Imaginary

Kings: 63–86. Munich.

Wehrli, C. (1968) Antigone et Demetrios. Geneva.

Wheatley, P. V. (1999) “The young Demetrius

Poliorcetes.” Ancient History Bulletin 13: 1–13.

Wheatley, P. V. (2003) “Lamia and the Besieger:

an Athenian hetaera and a Macedonian king.”

In O. Palagia and S. V. Tracy, eds.,

The Macedonians in Athens: 30–6.

Oxford.

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