DEME'TRIIIS, PlIALE'REUS, so named from the Attic demos of Phalerus, a seaport of Athens, where lie was born about 345 n.c., 'MIS distinguished as an orator and politician. Though descended from a family possessing neither rank nor property, yet by the resolute and persevering exercise of his abilities, he rose to the highest honors at Athens. Having been educated in the school.of Theophrastus, he entered upon public life about 325 B.C., and soon made himself famous by the display of great oratorical talent. In 317 n.c., D. was placed by Cassander at the head of the administration of Athens, which office he discharged with such acceptance for nearly ten years, that the grateful Athenians, during that time, heaped all kinds of honors upon him, and erected to him no less than 360 statues. During the later period of his administration, lie seems to have given himself up to dissipation; and when Demetrius Poliorcetes, kino. of
Macedonia, approached Athens with a besieging army, in 307 B.C., D., having lost the sympathies and co-operation of the Athenians, was obliged to flee. All his statues were demolished except one. D. retired first to Thebes, but afterwards found refuge in the court of Ptolemy Lagi, at Alexandria, where he lived for many years, devoting himself to literary pursuits. On the death of his protector, D. was expelled from the court of Egypt, and retreating to Busiris in Upper Egypt, he is said to have died there from the bite of an asp, 233 B.C. D. was the last of the Attic orators worthy of the name. His style was graceful, insinuating, and elegant; bearing, however, in its luxuriousness and tendency to effeminacy, the marks of a declining oratory. The list of his works (50 in number) given by Diogeues LaOrtius shows him to have been a man of most extensive acquirements.