Plutarch on the liberation of Athens

Few generals have received the honors that Demetrius I Poliorcetes, son of Antigonus Monophthalmus, received in 307 when he liberated Athens. It was an important event in the Fourth War of the Diadochi (the successors of Alexander the Great), because Demetrius and his father were called kings. A year later, they themselves assumed the title.

The story is told by Plutarch of Chaeronea in his Life of Demetrius (8-10). The translation was made by M.M. Austin.

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[10.1] Returning to Munychia he encamped, expelled the garrison and razed the fort. The Athenians now welcomed him and called for him, and so he came to the city, called the people together and restored to them their ancestral constitution. He added a promise that his father would send them 15.000 measures of grain and enough timber to build 100 warships.

[10.2] And so the Athenians recovered their democracy after fifteen years; in the intervening period since theLamian War and the battle of Crannonnote the constitution had ostensibly been oligarchic, but was in actual fact the rule of one man because of the power exercised by Demetrius of Phalerum.

Demetrius had shown his magnificence and greatness in his benefactions, but the Athenians proceeded to make him offensive and obnoxious through the extravagant honors they voted to him.

[10.3] They were the first to give the title of "kings" to Demetrius and Antigonus, although they had otherwise avoided the name up till now, and it was the only royal prerogative still left to the descendants of Philip and Alexander which others could not touch or share in. They were the only men to call them Savior Gods. They abolished the ancestral eponymous archonshipnote and elected every year a priest of the Saviors, and put his name on the prescripts of decrees and contracts.

[10.4] They also voted to weave their likenesses into the robe of [the statue of the goddess] Athena together with the gods, consecrated the spot where Demetrius had first stepped down from his chariot, placed an altar there and called it the altar of "Demetrius the descending god". They added two more voting districts to the ten existing ones, Demetrias and Antigonis, and raised the numbers of the Council from 500 to 600, since each one of the new districts was providing 50 counselors.