CHAP. XCVI.] DEMETRIUS AND THE MYSTERIES. 521 Demetrius mustered his forces and his Grecian allies for a march into Thessaly against Kassander; but before his departure, he was anxious to be initiated in the Eleusinian mysteries. It was however not the regular time for this ceremony; the Lesser Mysteries being celebrated in February, the Greater in September. The Athenians overruled the difficulty by passing a special vote, enabling him to be initiated at once, and to receive, in immediate succession, the preparatory and the final initiation, between which ceremonies a year of interval was habitually required. Accordingly, he placed himself disarmed in the hands of the priests, and received both first and second initiation in the month of April, immediately before his departure from Athens1. discussion on the fragments of Demochares, Fragm. Hist. Gr. v. ii. p. 446. 1 Diodor. xx. 110. παραδοὺς οὖν αὐτὸν ἄνοπλον τοῖς ἱερεῦσι, καὶ πρὸ τῆς ὡρισμένης ἡμέρας μυηθεὶς, ἀνέζευξεν ἐκ τῶν ̓Αθηνῶν. The account of this transaction in the text is taken from Diodorus, and is a simple one; a vote was passed granting special licence to Demetrius, to receive the mysteries at once, though it was not the appointed season. Plutarch (Demetr. 26) superadds other circumstances, several of which have the appearance of jest rather than reality. Pythodôrus the Daduch or Torch-bearer of the Mysteries stood alone in his protest against any celebration of the ceremony out of time: this is doubtless very credible. Then (according to Plutarch) the Athenians passed decrees, on the proposition of Stratokles, that the month Munychion should be called Anthesterion. This having been done, the Lesser Mysteries were celebrated, in which Demetrius was initiated. Next, the Athenians passed another decree, to the effect, that the month Munychion should be called Boêdromion-after which, the Greater Mysteries (which belonged to the latter month) were forthwith celebrated. The comic writer Philippides said of Stratokles, that he had compressed the whole year into one single month. This statement of Plutarch has very much the air of a caricature, by Philippides or some other witty man, of the simple decree mentioned B.C, 301. March of into Thes saly-he Asia and of Ipsus, in which the four confecompletely derates defeat Anti is slain, and his Asiatic power broken up and par Demetrius conducted into Thessaly an army of Demetrius 56,000 men; of whom 25,000 were Grecian allies -so extensive was his sway at this moment over passes into the Grecian cities'. But after two or three months joins Anti- of hostilities, partially successful, against Kassangonusbattle der, he was summoned into Asia by Antigonus to assist in meeting the formidable army of the allies Ptolemy, Seleukus, Lysimachus, and Kassander. Before retiring from Greece, Demetrius concluded gonus, who a truce with Kassander, whereby it was stipulated that the Grecian cities, both in Europe and Asia, should be permanently autonomous and free from garrison or control. This stipulation served only as an honourable pretext for leaving Greece; Demetrius had little expectation that it would be observed. In the ensuing spring was fought the decisive battle of Ipsus in Phrygia (B.c. 300), by Antigonus and Demetrius, against Ptolemy, Seleukus, and Lysimachus; with a large army and many elephants on both sides. Antigonus was completely defeated and slain, at the age of more than eighty years. His Asiatic dominion was broken up, chiefly to the profit of Seleukus, whose dynasty became from henceforward ascendent, from the titioned. by Diodorus-a special licence to Demetrius to be initiated out of season. Compare another passage of Philippides against Stratokles (Plutarch, Demetr. 12). Diodor. xx. 110. * Diodor. xx. 111. It must have been probably during this campaign that Demetrius began or projected the foundation of the important city of Demetrias on the Gulf of Magnesia, which afterwards became one of the great strongholds of the Macedonian ascendency in Greece (Strabo, ix. p. 436-443, in which latter passage, the reference to Hieronymus of Kardia seems to prove that that historian gave a full description of Demetrias and its foundation). See about Demetrias, Mannert, Geogr. Griech. v. vii. p. 591. CHAP. XCVI.] BATTLE OF IPSUS. 523 coast of Syria eastward to the Caspian Gates and Parthia; sometimes, though imperfectly, farther eastward, nearly to the Indus'. Restoration dominion Lachares makes himself despot sander. Demetrius returns, Lachares. at Athens, under Kas Poliorketes and expels He garri sons Peiræus and The effects of the battle of Ipsus were speedily B.C. 300. felt in Greece. The Athenians passed a decree of the Kasproclaiming themselves neutral, and excluding both sandrian the belligerent parties from Attica. Demetrius, in Greece. retiring with the remnant of his defeated army, and embarking at Ephesus to sail to Athens, was met on the voyage by Athenian envoys, who respectfully acquainted him that he would not be admitted. At the same time, his wife Deidameia, whom he had left at Athens, was sent away by the Athenians under an honourable escort to Megara, while some ships of war which he had left in the Peiræus were also restored to him. Demetrius, indignant at this unexpected defection of a city which had recently heaped upon him such fulsome adulation, was still farther-mortified by the loss of most of his other possessions in Greece. His garrisons were for the most part expelled, and the cities passed into Kassandrian keeping or dominion. His fortunes were indeed partially restored by concluding a peace with Seleukus, who married his daughter. This alliance withdrew Demetrius to Syria, while Greece appears to have fallen more 1 Mr. Fynes Clinton (Fast. Hell. B.C. 301) places the battle of Ipsus in August 301 B.C.; which appears to me some months earlier than the reality. It is clear from Diodorus, (and indeed from Mr. Clinton's own admission) that winter-quarters in Asia intervened between the departure of Demetrius from Athens in or soon after April 301 B.C., and the battle of Ipsus. Moreover Demetrius, immediately after leaving Athens, carried on many operations against Kassander in Thessaly, before crossing over to Asia to join Antigonus (Diodor. xx. 110, 111). 'Plutarch, Demetr. 31. Munychia. B.C. 298296. and more under the Kassandrian parties. It was one of these partisans, Lachares, who, seconded by Kassander's soldiers, acquired a despotism at Athens such as had been possessed by the Phalerean Demetrius, but employed in a manner far more cruel and oppressive. Various exiles driven out by his tyranny invited Demetrius Poliorketes, who passed over again from Asia into Greece, recovered portions of Peloponnesus, and laid siege to Athens. He blocked up the city by sea and land, so that the pressure of famine presently became intolerable. Lachares having made his escape, the people opened their gates to Demetrius, not without great fear of the treatment awaiting them. But he behaved with forbearance, and even with generosity. He spared them all, supplied them with a large donation of corn, and contented himself with taking military occupation of the city, naming his own friends as magistrates. He put garrisons, however, not only into Peiræus and Munychia, but also into the hill called Museum, a part of the walled circle of Athens itself1 (B.c. 298). While Demetrius was thus strengthening himself in Greece, he lost all his footing both in Cyprus, Syria, and Kilikia, which passed into the hands of Ptolemy and Seleukus. New prospects however were opened to him in Macedonia by the death of 1 Plutarch, Demetr. 34,35; Pausan. i. 25, 5. Pausanias states (i. 26, 2) that a gallant Athenian named Olympiodorus (we do not know when) encouraged his fellow-citizens to attack the Museum, Munychia, and Peiræus; and expelled the Macedonians from all of them. If this be correct, Munychia and Peiræus must have been afterwards reconquered by the Macedonians; for they were garrisoned (as well as Salamis and Sunium) by Antigonus Gonatas (Pausanias, ii. 8, 5; Plutarch, Aratus, 34). CHAP. XCVI.] DEMETRIUS IN MACEDONIA. 325 Kassander. feuds among crown of Kassander (his brother-in-law, brother of his wife Death of Phila) and the family feuds supervening thereupon. Bloody Philippus, eldest son of Kassander, succeeded his father, but died of sickness after something more Demetrius than a year. Between the two remaining sons, acquires the Antipater and Alexander, a sanguinary hostility Macedonia. broke out. Antipater slew his mother Thessalonikê, and threatened the life of his brother, who in his turn invited aid both from Demetrius, and from the Epirotic king Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus being ready first, marched into Macedonia, and expelled Antipater; receiving as his recompense the territory called Tymphæa (between Epirus and Macedonia), together with Akarnania, Amphilochia, and the town of Ambrakia, which became henceforward his chief city and residence'. Antipater sought shelter in Thrace with his father-in-law Lysimachus; by whose order, however, he was presently slain. Demetrius, occupied with other matters, was more tardy in obeying the summons; but, on entering into Macedonia, he found himself strong enough to dispossess and kill Alexander (who had indeed invited him, but is said to have laid a train for assassinating him), and seized the Macedonian crown; not without the assent of a considerable party, to whom the name and the deeds of Kassander and his sons were alike odious2. Demetrius became thus master of Macedonia, B.C. 294. together with the greater part of Greece, including Athens, Megara, and much of Peloponnesus. He 1 Plutarch, Pyrrhus, 6. 2 Plutarch, Demetr. 36; Dexippus ap. Syncell. p. 264 seq.; Pausan. ix. 7, 3; Justin, xvi. 1, 2. |