Demetrius of Phalerum was an Athenian

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 orator originally from Phalerum, a student of Theophrastus

Theophrastus

Theophrastus , a Greek native of Eresos in Lesbos, was the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He came to Athens at a young age, and initially studied in Plato's school. After Plato's death he attached himself to Aristotle. Aristotle bequeathed to Theophrastus his writings, and...

 and one of the first Peripatetics. Demetrius was a distinguished statesman who was appointed by Cassander

Cassander

Cassander , King of Macedonia , was a son of Antipater, and founder of the Antipatrid dynasty...

 to govern Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

, where he ruled as sole ruler for ten years, introducing important reforms of the legal system while maintaining pro-Cassander

Cassander

Cassander , King of Macedonia , was a son of Antipater, and founder of the Antipatrid dynasty...

 oligarchic rule. He was exiled by his enemies in 307 BC, and he went first to Thebes

Thebes, Greece

Thebes is a city in Greece, situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain. It played an important role in Greek myth, as the site of the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus and others...

, and then, after 297 BC, to the court of Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

. He wrote extensively on the subjects of history

History

History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

, rhetoric

Rhetoric

Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...

, and literary criticism

Literary criticism

Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...

.

Life

Demetrius was born in Phalerum, c. 350 BC. He was the son of Phanostratus, a man without rank or property. He was educated, together with the poet Menander

Menander

Menander , Greek dramatist, the best-known representative of Athenian New Comedy, was the son of well-to-do parents; his father Diopeithes is identified by some with the Athenian general and governor of the Thracian Chersonese known from the speech of Demosthenes De Chersoneso...

, in the school of Theophrastus

Theophrastus

Theophrastus , a Greek native of Eresos in Lesbos, was the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He came to Athens at a young age, and initially studied in Plato's school. After Plato's death he attached himself to Aristotle. Aristotle bequeathed to Theophrastus his writings, and...

. He began his public career about 325 BC, at the time of the disputes concerning Harpalus

Harpalus

For other uses, see Harpalus Harpalus son of Machatas was an aristocrat of Macedon and boyhood friend of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. Being lame in a leg, and therefore exempt from military service, Harpalus did not follow Alexander in his advance within the Persian Empire but...

, and soon acquired a great reputation by the talent he displayed in public speaking. He belonged to the pro-oligarchic party of Phocion

Phocion

Phocion was an Athenian statesman and strategos, and the subject of one of Plutarch's Parallel Lives....

; and he acted in the spirit of that statesman. When Xenocrates

Xenocrates

Xenocrates of Chalcedon was a Greek philosopher, mathematician, and leader of the Platonic Academy from 339/8 to 314/3 BC. His teachings followed those of Plato, which he attempted to define more closely, often with mathematical elements...

 was unable to pay the new tax

Tax

To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...

 on metics (foreign residents) c. 322 BC, and the Athenians threatened him with slavery, he was only saved (according to one story) when Demetrius purchased his debt and paid his tax. After the death of Phocion in 317 BC, Cassander

Cassander

Cassander , King of Macedonia , was a son of Antipater, and founder of the Antipatrid dynasty...

 placed Demetrius at the head of the administration of Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

. He filled this office for ten years, instituting extensive legal reforms. The Athenians conferred upon him the most extraordinary distinctions (almost all of which were revoked after his later expulsion from Athens), and no less than 360 statues

Statues

Statues is a popular children's game, often played in Australia but with versions throughout the world.-General rules:# A person starts out as the "Curator" and stands at the end of a field. Everyone else playing stands at the far end...

 were erected to him. However, Demetrius was unpopular with the lower classes of Athenians and with pro-democratic political factions, who resented the limitations he placed on the democratic franchise and viewed him as little more than a pro-Macedonian puppet ruler.

He remained in power until 307 BC when Cassander's enemy, Demetrius Poliorcetes captured Athens, and Demetrius was obliged to take to flight. It was claimed that during the latter period of his administration he had abandoned himself to every kind of excess, and we are told he squandered 1200 talents a year on dinners, parties, and love affairs. Carystius of Pergamum

Carystius

Carytius of Pergamum was an ancient Greek grammarian who lived at the end of the 2nd century BCE, all of whose works are now lost. Among his works were Historical Notes , On the Dramatic Poets , and On Sotades...

 mentions that he had a lover by the name of Diognis, of whom all the Athenian boys were jealous. After his exile, his enemies contrived to induce the people of Athens to pass the death sentence

Death Sentence

Death Sentence is a short story by the American science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the November 1943 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and reprinted in the 1972 collection The Early Asimov.-Plot summary:...

 upon him, in consequence of which his friend Menander nearly fell a victim. All his statues, with the exception of one, were demolished.

Demetrius first went to Thebes

Thebes, Greece

Thebes is a city in Greece, situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain. It played an important role in Greek myth, as the site of the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus and others...

, and then (after Cassander's death in 297 BC) to the court of Ptolemy I Soter

Ptolemy I Soter

Ptolemy I Soter I , also known as Ptolemy Lagides, c. 367 BC – c. 283 BC, was a Macedonian general under Alexander the Great, who became ruler of Egypt and founder of both the Ptolemaic Kingdom and the Ptolemaic Dynasty...

 at Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

, with whom he lived for many years on the best terms, and who is even said to have entrusted to him the revision of the laws of his kingdom. During his stay at Alexandria, he devoted himself mainly to literary pursuits, ever cherishing the recollection of his own country. On the accession of Ptolemy Philadelphus, Demetrius was sent into exile to Upper Egypt

Upper Egypt

Upper Egypt is the strip of land, on both sides of the Nile valley, that extends from the cataract boundaries of modern-day Aswan north to the area between El-Ayait and Zawyet Dahshur . The northern section of Upper Egypt, between El-Ayait and Sohag is sometimes known as Middle Egypt...

, where he is said to have died of the bite of a snake

Snake

Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...

. His death appears to have taken place soon after the year 283 BC.

Literary Works

Demetrius was the last among the Attic orators worthy of the name, after which the activity went into a decline. His orations were characterised as being soft, graceful, and elegant, rather than sublime like those of Demosthenes

Demosthenes

Demosthenes was a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide an insight into the politics and culture of ancient Greece during the 4th century BC. Demosthenes learned rhetoric by...

. His numerous writings, the greater part of which he probably composed during his residence in Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, embraced a wide range of subjects, and the list of them given by Diogenes Laërtius

Diogenes Laertius

Diogenes Laertius was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is known about his life, but his surviving Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is one of the principal surviving sources for the history of Greek philosophy.-Life:Nothing is definitively known about his life...

 shows that he was a man of the most extensive acquirements. These works, which were partly historical, partly political, partly philosophical (e.g. Aisopeia, a collection of Aesopic Fables

Aesop's Fables

Aesop's Fables or the Aesopica are a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today...

), and partly poetical, have all perished. The work On Style which has come down under his name, is the work of a later writer, c. 2nd century AD.

Education and Arts

The performance of tragedy had fallen into disuse in Athens, on account of the great expense involved. In order to afford the people less costly and yet intellectual amusement, he caused the Homeric and other poems to be recited on the stage by rhapsodists.

According to Strabo

Strabo

Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...

, Demetrius inspired the creation of the Mouseion, better known as the Library of Alexandria

Library of Alexandria

The Royal Library of Alexandria, or Ancient Library of Alexandria, in Alexandria, Egypt, was the largest and most significant great library of the ancient world. It flourished under the patronage of the Ptolemaic dynasty and functioned as a major center of scholarship from its construction in the...

, which was modeled after the arrangement of Aristotle's school. The Mouseion contained a peripatos (covered walkway), a syssition (room for communal dining) and a categorized organization of scrolls.

Further reading

• Fortenbaugh, W., Schütrumpf, E.
  Eckart Schütrumpf
  Eckart Schütrumpf is a professor of classics at the University of Colorado at Boulder known for his work on political, ethical, rhetorical and poetic issues in Aristotle, Plato, Cicero, and other ancient writers. In 2005 he won a prestigious research prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation...
  
  , (1999), Demetrius of Phalerum: Text Translation and Discussion. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 0-7658-0017-9

External links

• The Peripatos after Aristotle: Origin of the Corpus Aristotelicum on the role of Demetrius in the constitution of the Corpus Aristotelicum
• "Demetrius", On Style at the Internet Archive
  Internet Archive
  The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...