Greek Texts & Translations

And in the official list the year in which he was archon was styled "the year of lawlessness," according to this same Favorinus.

Hermippus tells us that upon the death of Casander, being in fear of Antigonus, he fled to Ptolemy Soter. There he spent a considerable time and advised Ptolemy, among other things, to invest with sovereign power his children by Eurydice. To this Ptolemy would not agree, but bestowed the diadem on his son by Berenice, who, after Ptolemy's death, thought fit to detain Demetrius as a prisoner in the country until some decision should be taken concerning him. There he lived in great dejection, and somehow, in his sleep, received an asp-bite on the hand which proved fatal. He is buried in the district of Busiris near Diospolis.

Here are my lines upon him ^note:

A venomous asp was the death of the wise Demetrius, an asp withal of sticky venom, darting, not light from its eyes, but black death.

Heraclides in his epitome of Sotion's Successions of Philosophers says that Ptolemy himself wished to transmit the kingdom to Philadelphus, but that Demetrius tried to dissuade him, saying, "If you give it to another, you will not have it yourself." At the time when he was being continually attacked in Athens, Menander, the Comic poet, as I have also learnt, was very nearly brought to trial for no other cause than that he was a friend of Demetrius. However, Telesphorus, the nephew of Demetrius, begged him off.

In the number of his works and their total length in lines he has surpassed almost all contemporary Peripatetics. For in learning and versatility he has 5.5.80 no equal. Some of these works are historical and others political; there are some dealing with poets, others with rhetoric. Then there are public speeches and reports of embassies, besides collections of Aesop's fables and much else. He wrote:

Of Legislation at Athens, five books.

Of the Constitutions of Athens, two books.

Of Statesmanship, two books.

On Politics, two books.

Of Laws, one book.

On Rhetoric, two books.

On Military Matters, two books.

On the Iliad, two books.

On the Odyssey, four books.

And the following works, each in one book:

Ptolemy.

Concerning Love.

Phaedondas.

Maedon.

Cleon.

Socrates.

Artaxerxes.

Concerning Homer.

Aristides.

Aristomachus.

An Exhortation to Philosophy.

Of the Constitution.

On the ten years of his own Supremacy.

Of the Ionians.

Concerning Embassies.

Of Belief.

Of Favour.

Of Fortune.

Of Magnanimity.

Of Marriage.

Of the Beam in the Sky. ^note

Of Peace.

On Laws.

On Customs.

Of Opportunity.

Dionysius.

Concerning Chalcis.

A Denunciation of the Athenians.

On Antiphanes.

Historical Introduction.

Letters.

A Sworn Assembly.

Of Old Age.

Rights.

Aesop's Fables.

Anecdotes.

His style is philosophical, with an admixture of rhetorical vigour and force. When he heard that the Athenians had destroyed his statues, "That they may do," said he, "but the merits which caused them to be erected they cannot destroy." He used to say that the eyebrows formed but a small part of the face, and yet they can darken the whole of life by the scorn they express. Again, he said that not only was Plutus blind, but his guide, Fortune, as well; that all that steel could achieve in war was won in politics by eloquence. On seeing a young dandy, "There," quoth he, "is a four-square Hermes for you, with trailing robe, belly, beard and all." ^note When men are haughty and arrogant, he declared we should cut down their tall stature and leave them their spirit unimpaired. Children should honour their parents at home, out-of-doors everyone they meet, and in solitude themselves. 5.5.83 In prosperity friends do not leave you unless desired, whereas in adversity they stay away of their own accord. All these sayings seem to be set down to his credit.

There have been twenty noteworthy men called Demetrius: (1) a rhetorician of Chalcedon, older than Thrasymachus; (2) the subject of this notice; (3) a Peripatetic of Byzantium; (4) one called the graphic writer, clear in narrative; he was also a painter; (5) a native of Aspendus, a pupil of Apollonius of Soli; (6) a native of Callatis, who wrote a geography of Asia and Europe in twenty books; (7) a Byzantine, who wrote a history of the migration of the Gauls from Europe into Asia in thirteen books, and another work in eight books dealing with Antiochus and Ptolemy and their settlement of Libya;