Demetrius Phalereus

DEMETRIUS PHALEREUS (c. 345-283 B.c.), Attic orator, statesman and philosopher, born at Phalerum, was a pupil of Theophrastus and an adherent of the Peripatetic school. He governed the city of Athens as representative of Cassander (q.v.) for ten years from 317. On the restoration of the old democracy by Demetrius Poliorcetes, he was condemned to death and obliged to leave the city. He escaped to Egypt, where he was protected by Ptolemy Lagus, to whom he is said to have suggested the foundation of the Alexandrian library. Having incurred the dis pleasure of Lagus's successor Philadelphus, Demetrius was ban ished to Upper Egypt, where he died (according to some, volun tarily) from the bite of an asp. Demetrius composed a large num ber of works on poetry, history, politics, rhetoric and accounts of embassies, all of which are lost.

The

treatise IIepi `EpAnvetas (on rhetorical expression), which is often ascribed to him, is probably the work of a later Alexandrian (1st century A.D.) of the same name ; it has been edited by L. Rader macher (I goi) and W. Rhys Roberts (19(32), the last-named provid ing English translation, introduction, notes, glossary and complete bibliography. Fragments in C. Muller, Frag. Hist. Graec. ii. p. 362. See A. Holm, History of Greece (Eng. trans.), iv. 6o.