DEMETRIO di FALERO. – An Aristotelian, born around 350 B.C.; for 10 years dictator of Athens, from which he fled (307) to Egypt, under Ptolemy Lagides. He contributed to Egyptian legislation. Ptolemy II Philadelphus (286–247), previously his enemy, had him interned as soon as he became king. The report of Pseudo-Aristeas is therefore fanciful, as it attributes the origin of the Greek version of the Septuagint to an intervention by D. with Philadelphus.
BIBL.: E. Schürer, Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes, III, 3rd ed., Leipzig 1898, pp. 308 ff., 446; J.-M. Lagrange, Le judaïsme avant Jésus-Christ, 2nd ed., Paris 1931, pp. 301–30.