Demades, an Athenian statesman and orator, executed in 318 B. C. He was of low origin, and was supposed to have been a sailor in his youth; but by great talent and unscrupulous demagogism he raised himself to a prominent position at Athens. He belonged to the pro-Macedonian or peace party, and was the virulent opponent of Demosthenes. He fought, however, at Chseronea in defence of Grecian liberty, and was taken prisoner, but Philip restored his freedom, and treated him with marked distinction. This won him still more to the Macedonian cause, and his behavior toward Philip and afterward toward Alexander was so servile as utterly to disgust his countrymen. They however induced him to use his influence to obtain favorable terms for his native city. When, after the destruction of Thebes, Alexander demanded the surrender of Demosthenes, Demades, bribed by the friends of the latter, interceded with the king. Afterward, when Demosthenes and his friends left the city on the approach of Antipater and Craterus, he induced the people to pronounce sentence of death against them. Having been sent as ambassador to Antipater, he was put to death by that general on the discovery of letters in which he urged the enemies of Antipater to attack him.

Demades was a great wit, and excelled as an extemporaneous orator. Cicero and Quintilian both assert that he left no written orations.