1st century), a Cynic philosopher from Corinth, who lived in Rome during the reigns of Caligula, Nero and Vespasian (37–71 AD).
Demetrius was the intimate friend of Seneca, who wrote about him often,[1] and who describes him as the perfect man: Demetrius, who seems to have been placed by nature in our times that he might prove that we could neither corrupt him nor be corrected by him; a man of consummate wisdom, though he himself disclaimed it, constant to the principles which he professed, of an eloquence worthy to deal with the mightiest subjects, scorning mere prettinesses and verbal niceties, but expressing with infinite spirit, the ideas which inspired it.
I doubt not that he was endowed by divine providence with so pure a life and such power of speech in order that our age might neither be without a model nor a reproach.
[2]His contempt for worldly riches is shown by his reply to Caligula who, wishing to corrupt him, offered him two hundred thousand sesterces.
[4] We hear of him again in the reign of Vespasian (c. 70 AD), when, curiously, he defended Publius Egnatius Celer against the charges brought against him by Musonius Rufus.