Demetrius

Who is Demetrius?

Demetrius was the younger son of Philip V of Macedon, but his only son by his legitimate wife, the elder brother Perseus being the son of a concubine.

After the battle of Cynoscephalae, Philip was obliged to surrender Demetrius, then very young, to Titus Quinctius Flamininus as a hostage, and he was subsequently sent to Rome in the same capacity in 198 BC. Five years afterwards he was honourably restored to his father, Philip having at this time obtained the favour of Rome by his services in the war against Antiochus the Great.

But this did not last long, and Philip finding himself assailed on all sides by the machinations of Rome, and her intrigues among his neighbours, determined to try to avert, or at least delay, the impending storm, by sending Demetrius, who during his residence at Rome had obtained the highest favour, as his ambassador to the senate.

The young prince was most favourably received, and returned with the answer, that the Romans were willing to excuse all the past, out of good-will to Demetrius, and from their confidence in his friendly dispositions towards them. But the favour thus shown to Demetrius had the effect of exciting against him the jealousy of Philip, and in a still higher degree that of Perseus, who suspected his brother, perhaps not without cause, of intending to supplant him on the throne after his father's death, by the assistance of the Romans.