[1] After the Battle of Cynoscephalae, Philip was obliged to surrender Demetrius, then very young, to Titus Quinctius Flamininus as a hostage, and he was subsequently sent to Rome in that capacity.
The young prince was most favourably received, and returned with the answer that the Romans were willing to excuse all the past, out of good-will to Demetrius and from their confidence in his friendly dispositions towards them.
But the favour thus shown to Demetrius had the effect (as was doubtless the design of the senate) of exciting against him the jealousy of Philip, and in a still higher degree that of Perseus, who suspected his brother, perhaps not without cause, of intending to supplant him on the throne after his father's death, with the assistance of the Romans.
A forged letter, pretending to be from Flamininus, appeared to confirm the charge, and Philip was induced to consign him to the custody of Didas, by whom he was secretly put to death, as it was supposed, by his father's order.
Demetrius was 26 years old at the time of his death; he is represented by Livy as a very amiable and accomplished young man, but it may well be doubted whether he was as innocent as he appears in that author's eloquent narrative.