Demetrius I Poliorcetes (337 BC-283 BC) was King of Macedon from 294 BC to 288 BC, succeeding Antipater II and preceding Lysimachus and Pyrrhus of Epirus.
Biography[]
Demetrius was the son of Antigonus I Monophthalmus and Stratonice, and, in 315 BC, his father left him to defend Syria from Ptolemy's Egyptian army. He was defeated at Gaza in 312 BC, and he was defeated by Seleucus during the invasion of Babylon in 310 BC. Demetrius later campaigned against Ptolemy in Cilicia and Cyprus, and he took Munychia in Piraeus in 307 BC. In 306 BC, he defeated Ptolemy's fleet off Salamis, completely destroying the naval power of the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Following the victory, Antigonus assumed the title "King" and bestowed the same upon his son. In 305 BC, Demetrius earned the nickname "Poliorcetes" ("the beseieger") for inventing new siege engines during his siege of Rhodes; Ptolemy repelled Demetrius' siege, and he also earned a nickname, "Soter" ("savior"). In 302 BC, he returend to Greece a second time as liberator, and, in 301 BC, the other diadochi united against Antigonus I. At the Battle of Ipsus, Antigonus was killed by a javelin, and Demetrius succeeded him as King of Phrygia. He conquered Athens in 294 BC and created an oligarchy to replace the democracy, and, that same year, he established himself as King of Macedon by murdering Alexander V of Macedon, the son of Cassander. In 291 BC, he secured Boeotia after crushing a rebellion in Thebes, but, in 288 BC, the combined forces of Pyrrhus of Epirus, Ptolemy, and Lysimachus forced him to abandon the Macedonian throne, which was seized by Pyrrhus and Lysimachus. He unsuccessfully besieged Athens in 287 BC, and he attempted to ally with Seleucus, but, before he arrived in Syria, hostilities broke out and he was captured. He died in Seleucus' captivity three years later, and his son Antigonus II Gonatas succeeded him.