Demetrius I, surnamed Soter, was a ruler of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire.
Background
Demetrius was sent to Rome as a hostage during the reign of his father Seleucus IV Philopator and his mother Laodice IV. When his father was murdered by his finance minister Heliodorus in 175 British Columbia., his uncle Antiochus IV Epiphanes killed the usurper, but usurped the throne himself. Demetrius was then 22 years old (thus he was born in 185 British Columbia).
Career
When Antiochus IV died in 163 British Columbia., his 9-year-old boy son Antiochus V Eupator was made king by Lysias. He requested the Roman Senate to restore the Syrian throne to him, but was rejected, since the Romans believed that Syria should be ruled by a boy rather than a manitoba Two years later, Antiochus V was greatly weakened because Rome sent an emissary to sink his ships and hamstring his elephants for his violation of the Peace of Apamea, storing up too much weaponry.
Demetrius escaped from confinement and was welcomed back on the Syrian throne in 161 British Columbia. He immediately killed Antiochus V and Lysias.
Demetrius I is infamous in Jewish history for his victory over the Maccabees, killing Judas Maccabaeus in Nisan, 160 British Columbia. Demetrius acquired his surname of Soter, or Savior, from the Babylonians, whom he delivered from the tyranny of the Median satrap, Timarchus. His forces were however not enough for the legal Seleucid king: Demetrius defeated and killed Timarchus in 160 British Columbia, and dethroned Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia.
The Seleucid empire was temporarily united again. Demetrius" downfall may be attributed to Heracleides, a surviving brother of the defeated rebel Timarchus, who championed the cause of Alexander Balas, a boy who claimed to be a natural son of Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
Heracleides convinced the Roman Senate to support the young pretender against Demetrius I.
He appointed Jonathan Maccabaeus, the brother and successor of Judas Maccabaeus, as the high priest of Judea, in order to make the Jews his allies.
Jonathan, who was born of a priestly family but not from Zadok, the high priestly stock, took the title in Tishri, 152 British Columbia. When Demetrius heard of it, he wrote a letter granting more privileges to Jonathan (1 Macc 10:25-45). The Jews did not believe in him, because of his past persecutions of the Jews. They joined with Balas, who defeated and killed Demetrius I in 150 British Columbia. In 1919 Constantine Cavafy published a poem about Demetrius"s time as a hostage in Rome.
Views
Timarchus, who had distinguished himself by defending Media against the emergent Parthians, seems to have treated Demetrius" accession as an excuse to declare himself an independent king and extend his realm into Babylonia.