R. W. Moss.
DEMETRIUS lU sumamed XniTup, 'Con- queror,' wa.s sent by liis father, O. Soter, for safety to Cnidus after the success of Balas seemed prob- able (Justin, xxxv. 2). For several years he re- mained in exile ; but as soon as the unpoiiularity of Balas gave him an opportunity, he landed (B.C. 147) with an army of Cretan mercenaries on the Cilician cotust. The entire country rallied to him except Judsea, where Jonathan still supported Balas. But Ptolemy Philoniotor declared in his favour, and their combined forces inflicted a fatal
defeat upon Balas (B.C. 145) on the banks of th« CEnoparas, from which event D. derived his surname (1 Mac 11""" ; Jos. Ant. xm. iv. 8 ; App. Syr. 67 ; Liv. Epit. Iii.). Jonathan now set him- self to separate Judica from the Syrian Empire, and besieged the citadel in Jems. ; but D. per- suaded him to raise the siege on the addition of three Samaritan provinces to Judaea, and the exemption of the country thus enlarged from tribute (1 Mac ll*"'^ ; Jos. Ant. XIII. iv. 9). When the excesses of D. had estranged his subjects. Try phon ( Diodotus), a former general of Balas, set up the latter's son as a pretender to the throne ; but D. obtained the help of Jonathan by promising the removal of the Syrian garrisons from Jud;ea, and put down the revolt (1 Mac 11"""; Jos. Ant. XIII. V. 2, 3). On Jonathan's return to Judaea the revolt broke out again, and Tryphon made himself master of Antioch. As D. failed to keep hia promise to the Jews, they now took the side of Tryphon, and drove the royal forces out of Ccele- Syria (1 Mac IP^"'*; Jos. Ant. XIU. v. 6-11). D. withdrew from the S. part of his kingdom ; but when Tryphon, who had secured the Syrian cro\vn for himself, attempted to reduce Judaea, Jonathan's brother Simon attached himself to D., and ex- tracted from him a formal recognition of independ- ence (I Mac 13**"*^; Jos. Ant. XIU. vi. 7). Soon after D. invaded the dominions of the king of Parthia, by whom, in B.C. 138, he was taken prisoner (1 Mac 14''* : though Jos. Ant. XIII. v. 11, Justin, xxxvi. 1, and App. Syr. 67, 68, arrange the events in a different order, and support B.C. 140 as the date of the disaster). The imprisonment lasted for ten years, at the close of which D. was liberated by the Parthian king, who was engaged in war with Antiochus Sidetes, brother of D. (Jos. Ant. XIII. viii. 4 ; Ens. Chron. ed. Schoene, i. 255). D. recovered the kingdom (B.C. 128), and at once undertook a war against Ptolemy Physkon of Egypt. Ptolemy thereupon claimed the Syrian crown for Alexander Zabmas, who was announced to be the son of Balas (Eus. Chron. i. 257), or of Sidetes (Justin, xxxix. 1). D. was conquered by Zabinas at Damascus, and fled to Ptolemais, and thence to Tyre, where in B.C. 125 he was murdered (Jos. Ant. XUI. ix. 3), possibly at the instigation of his wife Cleopatra (App. Syr. 68 ; Liv. Epit. Ix.).
R. W. Moss. DEMETRIUS III. (sumamed Eflxaipos, ' Pros- perous,' and on coins Theos, Soter, Philometor, etc.) was a son of Antiochus Grypus, and grand- son of D. Nikator. On the death of his father civil wars ensued, in the course of wliieh two of his elder brothers lost their lives, whilst Philip, the third, secured a part of Syria, and D. established himself in Coele-Syria, with Damascus as his capital, by the aid of Ptolemy Lathyrus, king of Cyprus (Jos. Ant. XIII. xiii. 4). In Judaea, too, civil war broke out between Alexander Jannaeuii and his Pharisee subjects. The latter invited the assistance of D. (Jos. Ant. XIII. xiii. 5; Wars, I. iv. 4), who possibly regarded it as a good opportunity to extend his kingdom to its ancient limits on tiie West and the South. He entered the country with a large army, was joined by the insurgent Jews, and defeated Jannicus in a pitched battle near Shechem (Jos. Ant. XIII. xiv. 1 ; Wars, I. iv. 5). But the desertion of the Jews, who either pitied the plight of Jannieus (Jos. Wars, ib.) or more probably feared the re-establishment of Syrian supremacy, made it impossible for D. to follow up the victory, and he withdrew to Beroea (Aleppo). The town was occupied by Philip, who, when bo.sieged by his brother, called the I'arthiana to his aid. D. was in turn shut up closely within his encampment and starved into surrender. Ha was sent as a prisoner to Arsacea IX., by whom ha
590
DEMETRIUS
DEMON, DEVIL
was detained in captivity until his death (Jos. Ant. xm. xiv. 3). The dates of the reign of D. cannot be fixed with precision ; bat coins of his are known, dated from the Seleucid year 217 to 224, i.e. approximately from B.C. 95 to 88 (Eckhel, iii. 245 ; Gardner, Catalogue of Gr. Coins in the Brit. Mut. 101). R. W. Moss.
DEMETRIUS (Ai;mi)t/«os).— Two persons of the name are mentioned m NT — the ringleader in the riot at Ephesus (Ac 19**), and a disciple commended by St. John (3 Jn v."). Both of these dwelt either in Ephesus or its vicinity, — the very name is redolent of Ephesian surround- ings, and there is nothing impossible in the sugges- tion that the agitator had become the disciple of good report, and that, therefore, both leferences are to the same man. In its contracted form of Demas this is also the name of one who has an unhappy notoriety as a recreant, ' Demas hath forsaken me ' (2 Ti 4"). He is also mentioned in Col 4" and Philem v.'*, and it is not certain that St. Paul meant to imply anything like utter apostasy. W. MuiB.