Demetrius of Phalerum

Demetrius of Phalerum governed Athens for ten years as a Macedonian appointee and then helped found the Library of Alexandria. Born around 350 BC in the deme of Phalerum, he studied under Theophrastus at the Peripatetic school and was a philosopher and prolific writer before he was a politician. In 317 BC Cassander, the Macedonian regent, installed him as governor of Athens after removing the democratic regime. He held the city until 307 BC. His administration was orderly and unpopular in retrospect. He conducted a census of Athens, recording 21,000 citizens, 10,000 resident foreigners and 400,000 slaves — a figure historians treat with caution but which is among the few such numbers to survive. He passed sumptuary laws restricting expenditure on funerals and banquets, appointed officials to supervise women's conduct, and restricted the property qualification for citizenship. He was said to have erected three hundred statues of himself. He kept the peace and the city prospered, and he presided over it as an intellectual experiment in Aristotelian government by a philosopher. Demetrius Poliorcetes took Athens in 307 BC and he fled. The Athenians condemned him to death in absentia and pulled down the statues. He went to Egypt, where Ptolemy I received him as an adviser. He is credited by several sources with proposing the Library and Museum at Alexandria and with organising its early collection, urging the king to acquire books on kingship and to gather the laws of all nations. He backed the wrong son in the succession, and Ptolemy II placed him under house arrest. He died around 280 BC, reportedly of a snakebite.

• Lived: 350 BCE – 280 BCE
• Nationality: Greek
• Roles: statesman, philosopher, librarian