Demetrios of Pharos

Demetrios von Pharos (or Latin : Demetrius ) († 214 BC in Messene ) was an active ruler in the Adriatic region , who played an important role in the First and Second Illyrian Wars and who was then a confidante of King Philip V. of Macedonia .

of Demetrios of Pharos

The epithet indicates an origin from the Greek colony Pharos, today's island of Hvar off the Dalmatian coast. The island and its port (today: Starigrad ) were strategically located, as shipping on the Adriatic could be controlled from here. Demetrios therefore played an important role as ruler of this base both for the Illyrians as the eastern, and for the Romans as the western neighbors of the sea. Since the death of King Agron in 231 BC, Illyria had ruled . His widow Teuta as regent for her underage stepson Pinnes.

During the First Illyrian War, Teuta conquered the island of Korkyra, today's Corfu , and appointed Demetrios of Pharos as governor. However, when the Romans attacked Korkyra, Demetrios overran them and contributed to the fact that Teuta could be defeated relatively quickly by the Romans (228 BC). As a thank you they made Demetrios a kind of client ruler, to whom they left large parts of the previously Illyrian coast in addition to Korkyra.

In order to improve his position further, Demetrios married Triteuta, Agron's first wife and mother of the Pinnes. In addition, Demetrios allied himself with the Macedonian king Antigonus III. Doson against the Spartans under Cleomenes III. and was with 1,600 Illyrian fighters at the Battle of Sellasia in 222 BC. Involved in the Cleomenes was defeated.

After the victory over the Illyrians, Rome had forbidden them to operate with warships south of Lissos. Demetrios, however, together with the Illyrian king Scerdilaidas, continued the Illyrian tradition of raids and set off 90 armed ships, supported by the Aetolian League , to plunder the Achaean city of Pylos in Messenia . This action was not very successful, but the Scerdilaladas subordinate troops landed on the Peloponnesian coast and instead plundered Kynaitha in Arcadia . Demetrios meanwhile drove to the Aegean Sea, where he visited several Cycladic islands. Chased by ships from Rhodes , his fleet called at Kencheai, the Aegean port of Corinth . There he met the representative of Macedonia in Achaia, Taurion, who suggested that he take the fleet by land to the Gulf of Corinth if Demetrios were to take action against the Aetolian League, with which Macedonia was enemies. Demetrios agreed, but he came too late because the Aitolians had already withdrawn from Achaia.

The Mediterranean basin 218 BC Chr.

In the spring of 219 BC BC the Romans sent an army under the consul Lucius Aemilius Paullus against the Illyrians to atone for the breach of the peace treaty. Demetrios then had his domestic political opponents executed and fortified the Dimale base, which, however, could be captured by Rome after seven days. Demetrios withdrew to Pharos, but here, too, the Romans had no major difficulties in breaking the resistance. Demetrios was now forced to flee to the Macedonian court, where the young Philip V ruled after the death of Antigonus .

Demetrios became one of Philip's closest confidants and, according to the report of Polybius , was largely responsible for Philip developing a hatred of the Romans. It was Demetrios who met Philip in the year 217 BC. Chr. Urged not to let the favorable opportunity that resulted from the Roman defeats in the Second Punic War pass by. In the same year Philip attacked the Illyrian king Scerdilaidas, once Demetrios' ally, in order to gain a foothold in Illyria. The special role of Demetrios is illustrated by the Macedonian- Carthaginian alliance treaty of 215 BC directed against Rome . In which Demetrios was expressly assured the restoration of his earlier rights. In the following year, however, Demetrios was killed trying Macedonia to conquer Messene.

literature

• Theodor Büttner-Wobst : Demetrios 44a . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Supplement volume I, Stuttgart 1903, Col. 342-345.
• Edward Herbert Bunbury: Demetrius . In: William Smith (Ed.): Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology . tape 1 : Abaeus – Dysponteus . Little, Brown and Company, Boston 1870, p. 965–966 (English, Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).