Demetrius II Aetolicus son of Antigonus II Gonatas and Phila, reigned as King of Macedonia from the winter of 239 to 229 BC. He belonged to the Antigonid dynasty and was born in 275 BC. He had already distinguished himself during his father's lifetime by defeating Alexander II of Epirus at Derdia and so saving Macedonia There is a possibilitythat his father had already elevated him to position of power equal to his own before his death. If this had occurred it would be in 256 or 257 BC. On his accession, Demetrius faced a coalition of enemies which included the two great leagues. Usually rivals, the Aetolian and Achaean Leagues now became allies against the Macedonian power. He succeeded in dealing this coalition severe blows, wresting Boeotia from their alliance. The revolution in Epirus, which substituted a republican league for the monarchy, gravely weakened his position. During his reign, his kingdom extended into Euboea, Magnesia, Thessaly and its environs, excluding Dolopia and possibly Peparethos and Achaea Phthiotis. In 236 BC, he invaded Boeotia, making the Boeotians submit immediately. In 234 BC due to a federal republic replacing the monarchy in Epirus, which led to the events of 231 BC, Demetrius hired Agron for military aid against the advancing Aetolians. His kingdom was not threatened by the Illyrian Ardiaei, ruled by Agron, despite them having gathered the greatest force in their history, but Epirus needed some sort of force to deter them. At the end of his reign, Demetrius defended his domain from the tribal peoples of the north. A battle with the Dardanians turned out disastrously, and he died shortly afterwards, leaving Philip, his son by Chryseis, still a child, on the throne.
Marriage and family
Demetrius married four times, though the chronology of these marriages is a matter of dispute.
Chryseis, probably a former war prisoner turned concubine, whom he married around 237 BC when she bore him a son, Philip V of Macedon. After Demetrius' death, she remarried to his successor, Antigonus III Doson.
Informationregarding the life of Demetrius is drawn mainly from inscriptions, as only Plutarch writes of him, in Life of Aratus, and Polybius makes scarce mention of him.
