Demetrius II Aetolicus
Template:Short description Template:Infobox royalty Demetrius II (Greek: Δημήτριος, romanized: Demetrios; Template:Circa 275 - 229 BC), also known as Demetrius Aetolicus, was king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia from 239 until his death in 229 BC.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
BiographyEdit
Demetrius was born in either 275 or 274 BC and was the only child of King Antigonus II Gonatas by Phila, the daughter of Seleucus I.<ref>Carney, Elizabeth Donnelly (2000). Woman and Monarchy in Macedonia. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 182-184. Template:Isbn</ref> He had an elder half-brother named Halcyoneus, but he died in an unknown battle sometime before the death of Antigonus in 239 BC.<ref>Kuzmin 2019, p. 61</ref> He had already distinguished himself during his father's lifetime by defeating Alexander II of Epirus at Derdia and so saving Macedonia Template:Nowrap<ref name="EB1911" /> There is a possibility<ref name="history_macedonia" />Template:Rpthat his father had already elevated him to position of power equal to his own before his death. If this had occurred it would be in 256 or 257 BC.
On his accession, Demetrius faced a coalition of enemies which included the two great leagues. Usually rivals, the Aetolian and Achaean Leagues now became allies against the Macedonian power. He succeeded in dealing this coalition severe blows, wresting Boeotia from their alliance. The revolution in Epirus, which substituted a republican league for the monarchy, gravely weakened his position.<ref name="EB1911"/>
During his reign, his kingdom extended<ref name="history_macedonia" />Template:Rp into Euboea, Magnesia, Thessaly and its environs, excluding Dolopia and possibly Peparethos and Achaea Phthiotis.
In 236 BC, he invaded Boeotia, making the Boeotians submit<ref name="history_macedonia" />Template:Rp immediately.
In 234 BC, due to a federal republic<ref name="illyrians" /> replacing the monarchy in Epirus, which led to the events of 231 BC, Demetrius hired<ref name="cambridge" /> Agron for military aid against the advancing Aetolians. His kingdom was not<ref name="history_macedonia" />Template:Rp threatened by the Illyrian Ardiaei, ruled by Agron, despite them having gathered the greatest force in their history (Template:Circa 231 BC), but Epirus needed some sort of force to deter them.
At some point in 230–229 BC in an unknown location in north-west Macedonia, the Dardani defeated Demetrius who died shortly the next spring at the age of Template:Circa 45.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> His nine year old successor, the future Philip V, was deemed too young to rule by the Macedonian nobility and so Demetrius' half-cousin, Antigonus III Doson, was made regent. The exact location of Demetrius' tomb remains unknown, but was likely in Beroea or Aegae.
Marriage and familyEdit
Demetrius married four times, though the chronology of these marriages is a matter of dispute.<ref name="EB1911"/>
- Stratonice of Macedon, his aunt/cousin, the daughter of the Seleucid king Antiochus I and his aunt Stratonice, by whom he had a daughter called Apama III<ref name="livius_org" /> who married Prusias I of Bithynia. Stratonice left him after he married his second wife.<ref name="women_macedonia" />
- Nicaea, the widow of his cousin Alexander of Corinth, Template:Circa 245/244 BC.<ref name=women_macedonia />
- Phthia (239 BC),<ref name="history_macedonia" />Template:Rp daughter of Alexander II of Epirus, and possibly the mother of Philip V of Macedon (Chryseis has also been suggested as his mother).<ref name="women_macedonia" />Template:Rp<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Chryseis, probably a former war prisoner turned concubine, whom he married around 237 BC. After Demetrius' death, she married his successor, Antigonus.<ref name="women_macedonia" />
Information regarding the life of Demetrius is drawn mainly from inscriptions, as only Plutarch writes of him, in Life of Aratus, and Polybius<ref>cf.2.44.1-2</ref> makes scarce mention of him.<ref name="history_macedonia" />
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