Demetrius the Fair: Hellenistic Prince and King of Cyrene

Introduction

Demetrius the Fair, called the Handsome (Greek: Δημήτριος ὁ Καλός; c. 285–249 BC), was a Macedonian-born Hellenistic prince who briefly ruled Cyrene. He was the youngest son of Demetrius I of Macedon and Ptolemais, and through his mother belonged to the Ptolemaic family; his paternal grandparents were Antigonus I Monophthalmus and Stratonice, and his wider kin included Antigonus II Gonatas, Arsinoe II, and Ptolemy II.

Demetrius was summoned from Macedonia to Cyrenaica after the death of King Magas in 249/250 BC. Apama II, Magas’s widow and Demetrius’s niece, offered him the hand of her daughter Berenice II and the kingship of Cyrene in return for his protection of the realm against Ptolemaic influence. He accepted, married Berenice and assumed the throne without recorded opposition.

Contemporary accounts record that, after his accession, Demetrius entered into an affair with Apama II; this provoked Berenice to organize his assassination. Demetrius was killed in the course of that plot and died in Apama’s arms. His known children from an earlier marriage to Olympias of Larissa included Antigonus III Doson, who later became king of Macedon.

Demetrius’s brief rule is chiefly remembered for the dynastic marriage that brought him to Cyrene, his family ties linking the Antigonid and Ptolemaic houses, and his violent removal following a domestic and political scandal; ancient sources preserve his epithet “the Fair” and his identification as Demetrius of Cyrene.