Demetrius was nomenclator to Caesar and his father before him. When Julius Caesar inherited him, he promised Demetrius he would grant him freedom when the Caesar attained the praetorship. In order to keep his promise he needed to find a replacement for the older man, and that is how Caesar came to purchase Polybius.
Demetrius was born in 118 BC in the city of Rome. His father was captured as a child by the Romans and his mother was the daughter of a woman enslaved in the Battle of Corinth in 146 BC. In that year, Rome captured and burned the city, killing all the men and selling the women and children into slavery. He was raised in the Caesar household and at the age of twenty he became nomenclator to Julius Caesar's father. Demetrius, like all slaves, desired his freedom, but didn't share Polybius' strong desire to be free. He was content to wait until Caesar granted him liberty after many devoted years of service.
