Listed 2 sub titles with search on: Biographies for destination: "FALIRON Ancient demos PIRAEUS".
(Dimitrios). A native of Phalerum in Attica, and the last of
the more distinguished orators of Greece. He was the son of a person who had been
slave to Timotheus and Conon. But, though born in this low condition, he soon
made himself distinguished by his talents, and was already a conspicuous individual
in the public assemblies when Antipater became master of Athens, for he was obliged
to save himself by flight from the vengeance of the Macedonian party. He was compelled
to quit the city a second time when Polysperchon took possession of it through
his son. Subsequently named by Cassander as governor of Athens (B.C. 317), he
so gained the affections of his countrymen that, during the six years in which
he filled this office, they are said to have raised to him three hundred and sixty
statues. Athenaeus, however, on the authority of Duris , a Samian writer, reproaches
him with luxurious and expensive habits, while he prescribed, at the same time,
frugality to his fellowcitizens and fixed limits for their expenditures. After
the death of his protector, Demetrius was driven from Athens by Antigonus and
Demetrius Poliorcetes (B.C. 306). The people of that city, always fickle, overthrew
the numerous statues they had erected to him, although he had been their benefactor
and idol, and even condemned him to death. Demetrius, upon this, retired to the
court of Alexandria, where he lived upwards of twenty years. It is generally supposed
that he was the individual who gave Ptolemy the advice to found the Museum and
the famous Library. This prince consulted him also as to the choice of a successor.
Demetrius was in favour of the monarch's eldest son, but the king eventually decided
for the son whom he had by his second wife Berenice.
When Ptolemy II., therefore, came to the throne, he revenged
himself on the unlucky counsellor by exiling him to a distant province in Upper
Egypt, where Demetrius put an end to his own life by the bite of an asp (B.C.
282). Cicero describes Demetrius as a polished, sweet, and graceful speaker, but
deficient in energy and power. Plutarch cites his treatise "On Socrates,"
which appears to have contained also a life of Aristides. The works of Demetrius
are lost. There exists, it is true, under his name a treatise on elocution (Peri
Hermeneias), a work full of ingenious observations; but critics agree in making
it of later origin. Besides the treatise on elocution, there exists a small work
on the apophthegms of the Seven Sages, which Stobaeus has inserted in his third
discourse, as being the production of Demetrius Phalereus.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Demetrius Phalereus, the most distinguished among all the literary persons of
this name. He was at once an orator, a statesman, a philosopher, and a poet. His
surname Phalereus is given him from his birthplace, the Attic demos of Phalerus,
where he was born about Ol. 108 or 109, B. C. 345. He was the son of Phanostratus,
a man without rank or property (Diog. Laert. v. 75; Aelian, V. H. xii. 43); but
notwithstanding this, he rose to the highest honours at Athens through his great
natural powers and his perseverance. He was educated, together with the poet Menander,
in the school of Theophrastus. He began his public career about B. C. 325, at
the time of the disputes respecting Harpalus, and soon acquired a great reputation
by the talent he displayed in public speaking. He belonged to the party of Phocion;
and as he acted completely in the spirit of that statesman, Cassander, after the
death of Phocion in B. C. 317, placed Demetrius at the head of the administration
of Athens. He filled this office for ten years in such a manner, that the Athenians
in their gratitude conferred upon him the most extraordinary distinctions, and
no less than 360 statues were erected to him (Diog. Laert. l. c.; Diod. xix. 78;
Corn. Nep. Miltiad. 6). Cicero says of his administration, "Atheniensium rem publicam
exsanguem jam et jacentem sustentavit" (De Re Publ. ii. 1). But during the latter
period of his administration he seems to have become intoxicated with his extraordinary
good fortune, and he abandoned himself to every kind of dissipation (Athen. vi.,
xii.; Aelian, V. H. ix. 9, where the name of Demetrius Poliorcetes is a mistake
for Demetrius Phalereus; Polyb. xii. 13). This conduct called forth a party of
malcontents, whose exertions and intrigues were crowned in B. C. 307, on the approach
of Demetrius Poliorcetes to Athens, when Demetrius Phalereus was obliged to take
to flight (Plut. Demet. 8; Dionys. Deinarch. 3). His enemies even contrived to
induce the people of Athens to pass sentence of death upon him, in consequence
of which his friend Menander nearly fell a victim. All his statues, with the exception
of one, were demolished. Demetrius Phalereus first went to Thebes (Plut. Demnetr.
9; Diod. xx. 45), and thence to the court of Ptolemy Lagi at Alexandria, 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 (Aelian, V. H. iii. 17). During
his stay at Alexandria, he devoted himself mainly to literary pursuits, ever cherishing
the recollection of his own country (Plut. de Exil. p. 602, f.). The successor
of Ptolemy Lagi, however, was hostile towards Demetrius, probably for having advised
his father to appoint another of his sons as his successor, and Demetrius was
sent into exile to Upper Egypt, where he is said to have died of the bite of a
snake (Diog. Laert. v. 78; Cic. pro Rabir. Post. 9). His death appears to have
taken place soon after the year B. C. 283.
Demetrius Phalereus was the last among the Attic orators worthy of
the name (Cic. Brut. 8; Quintil. x. 1. 80), and his orations bore evident marks
of the decline of oratory, for they did not possess the sublimity which characterizes
those of Demosthenes: those of Demetrius were soft, insinuating, and rather effeminate,
and his style was graceful, elegant, and blooming (Cic. Brut. 9, 82, de Orat.
ii. 23, Orat. 27; Quintil. x. 1. § 33); but he maintained withal a happy medium
between the sublime grandeur of Demosthenes, and the flourishing declamations
of his successors. His numerous writings, the greater part of which he probably
composed during his residence in Egypt (Cic. de Fin. v. 9), embraced subjects
of the most varied kinds, and the list of them given by Diogenes Laertius (v.
80, &c.) shews that he was a man of the most extensive acquirements. These works,
which were partly historical, partly political, partly philosophical, and partly
poetical, have all perished. The work on elocution (peri hermeneias) which has
come down under his name, is probably the work of an Alexandrian sophist of the
name of Demetrius. It is said that A. Mai has discovered in a Vatican palimpsest
some genuine fragments of Demetrius Phalereus. For a list of his works see Diogenes
Laertius, who has devoted a chapter to him. (v. 5.) His literary merits are not
confined to what he wrote, for he was a man of a practical turn of mind, and not
a mere scholar of the closet; whatever he learned or knew was applied to the practical
business of life, of which the following facts are illustrations. The performance
of tragedy had greatly fallen into disuse at that time at Athens, on account of
the great expenses involved in it; and 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 (Athen. xiv.; Eustath. ad Hom.). It is also believed
that it was owing to his influence with Ptolemy Lagi that books were collected
at Alexandria, and that he thus laid the foundation of the library which was formed
under Ptolemy Philadelphus. There is, however, no reason whatever for calling
him the first in the series of librarians at Alexandria, any more than there is
for the belief that he took part in the Greek translation of the Septuagint. A
life of Demetrius Phalereus was written by Asclepiadas (Athen. xiii.), but it
is lost.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Aug 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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