Editing Demetrius I Poliorcetes (section)

==Biography==

===Early career===
Demetrius served with his father, [[Antigonus I Monophthalmus]], during the [[Second War of the Diadochi]]. He participated in the [[Battle of Paraitakene]] where he commanded the cavalry on the right flank. Despite the Antigonid left flank, commanded by [[Peithon]], being routed, and the center, commanded by Antigonus, being dealt heavy losses at the hands of the famous [[Silver Shields]], Demetrius was victorious on the right, and his success there ultimately prevented the battle from being a complete loss.

Demetrius was again present at the conclusive [[Battle of Gabiene]]. Directly after the battle, while Antigonus held the betrayed [[Eumenes]], Demetrius was one of the few who implored his father to spare the Greek successor's life.

At the age of twenty-one he was left by his father to defend [[Syria]] against [[Ptolemy I Soter|Ptolemy]] the son of [[Lagus]]. He was defeated at the [[Battle of Gaza (312 BC)|Battle of Gaza]], but soon partially repaired his loss by a victory in the [[Battle of Myus]], against a general of Ptolemy, [[Cilles]].<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last1=Wheatley |first1=Pat |title=Demetrius the besieger |last2=Dunn |first2=Charlotte |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-883604-9 |location=Oxford, United Kingdom |pages=76}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Wheatley |first=Pat |date=1998 |title=The Chronology of the Third Diadoch War, 315-311 B. C. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1088670 |url-status=live |journal=Phoenix |volume=52 |issue=3/4 |pages=257–281 |doi=10.2307/1088670 |issn=0031-8299 |jstor=1088670 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240413214652/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1088670 |archive-date=2024-04-13 |access-date=2024-06-09}}</ref> 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'' ({{langx|el|Σωτήρ}}, "Saviour").<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Demetrius (Macedonian kings)|display=Demetrius s.v. Demetrius I|volume=7|page=982}}</ref> 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, Libya|Cyrene]].<ref>Plutarch, ''Life of Demetrius'', 14.1-2.</ref> Antigonus sent Demetrius instructions to sail to Cyprus and attack Ptolemy's positions there.
[[File:Battle between Ptolemy and Demetrius Poliorcetes off Salamis.jpg|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 [[Rhodes|Rhodians]] in an unsuccessful attempt to support his naval campaign. In the campaign of 306 BC, he defeated Ptolemy and [[Menelaus (general)|Menelaus]], Ptolemy's brother, in the naval [[Battle of Salamis in Cyprus (306 BC)|Battle of Salamis]], completely destroying the naval power of [[Ptolemaic Egypt]].<ref name="EB1911" /> Demetrius conquered Cyprus in 306 BC, capturing one of Ptolemy's sons.<ref name="walk">Walter M. Ellis, ''Ptolemy of Egypt'', Routledge, London, 1994, p. 15.</ref> Following the victory, Antigonus assumed the title "king" and bestowed the same upon his son Demetrius. In 305 BC, he endeavoured to punish the [[Rhodes|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.<ref name="EB1911" /> Among his creations were a [[battering ram]] {{convert|180|ft|m}} long, requiring 1000 men to operate it; and a wheeled [[siege tower]] named "[[Helepolis]]" (or "Taker of Cities") which stood {{convert|125|ft|m}} tall and {{convert|60|ft|m}} wide, weighing {{convert|360000|lb|kg}}. After failing to conquer Rhodes the weapons were abandoned. With the bronze from these weapons used by the Rhodians to construct the Colossus of Rhodes.

[[File:Coin of Demetrius I of Macedon.jpg|thumb|194x194px|Demetrius I Poliorcetes portrayed on a [[tetradrachm]] coin|left]]
In 304 BC, he returned a second time to Greece as liberator, and reinstated the [[Corinthian League]], but his licentiousness and extravagance made the Athenians long for the government of Cassander.<ref name="EB1911" /> Among his outrages was his courtship of a young boy named Democles the Handsome. The youth kept on refusing his attention but one day found himself cornered at the baths. Having no way out and being unable to physically resist his suitor, he took the lid off the hot water cauldron and jumped in. His death was seen as a mark of honor for himself and his country. In another instance, Demetrius waived a fine of 50 talents imposed on a citizen in exchange for the favors of Cleaenetus, that man's son.<ref name="Plutarch, Life of Demetrius">Plutarch, ''Life of Demetrius''</ref> 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.<ref name="Plutarch, Life of Demetrius" />

He also roused the jealousy of [[Alexander the Great|Alexander]]'s [[Diadochi]]; [[Seleucus I Nicator|Seleucus]], Cassander and [[Lysimachus]] united to destroy him and his father. The hostile armies met at the [[Battle of Ipsus]] in [[Phrygia]] (301 BC). Antigonus was killed, and Demetrius, after sustaining severe losses, retired to [[Ephesus]]. This reversal of fortune stirred up many enemies against him—the Athenians refused even to admit him into their city. But he soon afterwards [[Campaign of the Chersonese|ravaged the territory of Lysimachus and effected a reconciliation with Seleucus]], to whom he gave his daughter [[Stratonice of Syria|Stratonice]] in marriage. Athens was at this time oppressed by the tyranny of [[Lachares]]—a popular leader who made himself supreme in Athens in 296 BC—but Demetrius, after a protracted blockade, gained possession of the city (294 BC) and pardoned the inhabitants for their misconduct in 301 BC in a great display of mercy, a trait Demetrius highly valued in a ruler.<ref name="EB1911" />

{{multiple image
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| footer            = Bronze portrait head, as of September 2007 housed in the [[Museo del Prado|Prado Museum]], Madrid. This head is no longer identified as [[Hephaestion]], and instead may be Demetrius.<ref>Prado Museum: [http://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/galeria-on-line/galeria-on-line/obra/retrato-en-bronce-de-un-diadoco/?no_cache=1 "Retrato en bronce de un Diádoco"]</ref>
| image1            = Hephaistion Prado bronze head.jpg
| image2            = Diádoco_Retrato._Bronce._300-280_aC_Museo_del_Prado.JPG
}}

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 [[Philippides of Paiania|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."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shear |first1=T. Leslie |title=Kallias of Spettos and The Revolt of Athens in 286 B.C. |date=1978 |publisher=Library of Congress |location=Princeton, New Jersey |isbn=0-87661-517-5 |pages=53–54}}</ref>

===King of Macedonia===
[[File:Wall painting from Room H of the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale MET DP140600.jpg|thumb|230x230px|A fresco in [[Pompeii]] possibly depicting [[Lanassa (wife of Pyrrhus)|Lanassa]] and Demetrius I, ca. 50–40 BC.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}]]
In 294 BC, he established himself on the throne of Macedonia by murdering [[Alexander V of Macedon|Alexander V]], the son of Cassander.<ref name="EB1911" /> He faced rebellion from the [[Boeotians]] but secured the region after [[Siege of Thebes (292-291 BC)|capturing Thebes]] in 291 BC. That year he married [[Lanassa (wife of Pyrrhus)|Lanassa]], the former wife of [[Pyrrhus of Epirus|Pyrrhus]], but his new position as ruler of Macedonia was continually threatened by Pyrrhus, who took advantage of his occasional absence to ravage the defenceless part of his kingdom ([[Plutarch]], ''Pyrrhus'', 7 ff.); at length, the combined forces of Pyrrhus, Ptolemy and Lysimachus, assisted by the disaffected among his own subjects, obliged him to leave Macedonia in 288 BC.<ref name="EB1911" />

After [[Siege of Athens (287 BC)|besieging Athens]] without success he passed into Asia and attacked some of the provinces of Lysimachus with varying success. Famine and pestilence destroyed the greater part of his army, and he solicited Seleucus' support and assistance. However, 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 to Seleucus.

His son [[Antigonus II Gonatas|Antigonus]] offered all his possessions, and even his own person, in order to procure his father's liberty, but all proved unavailing, and Demetrius died after a confinement of three years (283 BC). His remains were given to Antigonus and honoured with a splendid funeral at [[Corinth, Greece|Corinth]]. His descendants remained in possession of the Macedonian throne until the time of [[Perseus of Macedon|Perseus]], when Macedon was conquered by the [[Roman Republic|Romans]] in 168 BC.<ref name="EB1911"/>