Demetrius I of Macedon

Demetrius I (ca. 337 BC-283 BC), called Demetrius Poliorcetes (Greek: Δημήτριος Πολιορκητής, Dêmếtrios Poliorkêtês), "the Besieger of Cities", king of Macedonia (294 BC-288 BC). Son and successor of Antigonus I Monophthalmos, he is part of the Antigonid dynasty, founded by his father.

He was given the nickname Polyorcetes (expugnator of cities), for the many he had taken and in opposition to the god Zeus, protector and preserver of cities. However, the biggest siege of all, that of the city of Rhodes (305 BC) was a failure. In commemoration of this victory, the Rhodians erected the famous Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Life

The star of Vergina, usually considered symbol of the Macedonian monarchy.

Currency of Demetrius I. You can read an inscription in Greek, which says ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫♪

Demetrius was the son of Antigonus Monophthalmos, one of the generals called diádocos (Διάδοχοι), who on the death of Alexander the Great took control of almost the entire Macedonian empire. Father and son were, according to historians, the main instigators and participants in the wars and fights that followed the death of Alexander.

He took up arms at a very early age, serving his father in the campaign against Eumenes of Cardia (317-316 BC). At the age of twenty-two, Antigono put him in command of an army for the first time, to defend Syria against Ptolemy I of Egypt, being completely defeated at the Battle of Gaza. Despite this, Demetrius proved to be an efficient general, the best instrument of Antigonus' policy, and soon won a victory around Miunte. In the spring of 310 B.C. C. he was defeated when he tried to expel Seleucus I Nicator from Babylon; in autumn his father would also be defeated. As a result of this Babylonian war, Antigonus lost almost two-thirds of his empire: all the eastern satrapies passed to Seleucus.

After several campaigns against Ptolemy off the coasts of Cilicia and Cyprus, Demetrius set out with a fleet of 250 ships for Athens, liberating the city in 307 B.C. C. of the tyranny of Cassander of Macedonia, expelling the garrison that was destined there under the command of Demetrius de Falero, and besieging and taking Muniquia. After these victories, both he and his father were worshiped by the Athenians as tutelary divinities under the title of Soter (Greek: σωτήρ, "savior" or "benefactor above other benefactors"), as theoi soteres.

In 306 B.C. C. he obtained a very important naval victory over the Egyptian Navy, commanded by Menelaus, Ptolemy's brother, in Salamis in Cyprus, completely destroying his fleet. Presumably, the Victory of Samothrace would commemorate this naval success.

In the same year, Demetrius conquered Cyprus, capturing one of Ptolemy's sons. After the victory, Antigonus assumed the title of king and bestowed it on his son Demetrius as well. In 305 B.C. C., already with the title of king, Demetrius tried to punish the Rhodians, firm allies of Egypt. His ingenuity in designing new siege weapons in his failed attempt to reduce the capital earned him the title of Poliorcetes. Among his creations was a 55 m long battering ram, which required 1,000 men to operate, and a siege tower on wheels, called the "helepolis". (or "taker of cities") about 45 m high and 18 m wide, which needed 3,400 men for its displacement.

He intervened again in Greece from 304 B.C. C., rejecting Cassander and restoring the Panhellenic League of Corinth (302 BC). His father's defeat and death at the Battle of Ipsos deprived him of his territories in Asia Minor, but he still ruled the seas with his powerful fleet and had the help of Seleucus Nicator, who married his daughter Stratonice.

Having reached an agreement with Cassander, Demetrius seized Cilicia, until then held by Pleistarchus, but soon after he concentrated on gaining control of Macedonia, where Cassander's death in 298 BC. C. and his son Philip IV opened a succession dispute between the pretenders Alexander V and Antipater II.

Proclaimed King of Macedonia as Demetrius I in 294 BC. C., he maintained wars with Lysimachus and his ally of his Pyrrhus of Epirus. In 291 B.C. C., he married on the island of Corcyra with Lanassa, the former scorned wife of Pirro. But the combined forces of Pyrrhus, Lysimachus, and Ptolemy managed to drive him out of Macedonia in 288 BC. C.

He went on to Asia and attacked Lysimachus with varying success. Famine and plague destroyed most of his army, so he solicited the support of Seleucus, king of Babylon and Syria. But before reaching Syria hostilities broke out between the two, and after having obtained some advantages over his son-in-law, Demetrius was totally abandoned by his troops and had to surrender to Seleucus.

His son Antigonus offered all his possessions, and even his own person, to obtain his freedom. But it all turned out to be useless, and Demetrius, given to drink and excess, died after a three-year imprisonment (283 BC). The remains of him were given to Antigonus and honored with a grand funeral in Corinth.

His descendants continued on the Macedonian throne until the time of Perseus, when Macedonia was conquered by the Romans in 168 BC. C.. His son Antigonus Gónatas will succeed him as king of Macedonia.

Marriage and children

Demetrius married Phila, a daughter of Philip II of Macedon's old general and later also Alexander's general, Antipater. They had a son, called Antigonus II Gónatas, who also became king of Macedonia, and a daughter named Stratónice whom he gave in marriage to Seleucus I Nicator, king of Babylon and Syria, in 298 BC. c.

Later, he would marry Deidamia, Pirro's sister, with whom he had a son named Alejandro. Who, according to Plutarch, would spend his life as a hostage in Egypt.

She would also accept Lanassa's offer of marriage: she, outraged at seeing herself rejected by her husband, Pyrrhus of Epirus, (after his marriage to two other women of barbarian origin), fled to the Island of Córcira, current Corfu, which had been conquered by his father Agathocles and ceded to Lanassa as a dowry for his first wedding. She from the island she sent a message to Demetrius I of Macedonia, with whom Pyrrhus was at war, to offer him both her hand and the island of Corcyra. Demetrius accepted her offer and, sailing to the island, married her, left a garrison on the island, and returned to Macedonia. These events happened shortly before the end of the war and the fall of Demetrius.

Biography

He was Demetrius in a stature lower than his father, however, of being tall; but of a figure and beauty so extraordinary and admirable, that neither sculptor nor painter could draw him like: he gathered at a time the festive and the grave, the fiero and the beautiful, and with the youthful and daring he was mixed an inimitable apacibility and heroic majesty and regia. For by the same time their customs also gathered the terrible and the funny; for being very kind and the most jovial and voluptuous of the kings while he was given to the gift, to the drink and to the Franciscans, he had on the contrary, when the businesses required the greatest activity, sum vehemence and infatigable constancy.

Plutarco. Life of Demetrius, II.