ARATUS, one of the rulers of Sicyon, was born in that city, 271 b.c. His father, Clinias, was slain by Abantidas; and Aratus, then seven years of age, only escaped a similar fate through the kindness of Soso, the sister of Abantidas, who had him conveyed secretly to Argos. At the age of twenty he regained without bloodshed his native city of Sicyon, and induced the citizens to join the Achaean League. He obtained assistance in money from Ptolemy, whom he visited, and soon after (215 b.c.) he was elected general of the League. Two years later, when again general, he took Corinth from the Macedonians, and united it to the League. About the same time he defeated the Aetolians at Pellene, and his success drew many other cities into the League, which, under the careful management of Aratus, was rapidly becoming a powerful confederation. Its power, however, roused the jealousy of Cleomenes of Sparta, and in 226 war broke out between the Spartans and Achaeans. Cleomenes was victorious at Lycaeurn, Megalopolis, Hecatombaeum, and Dyme, and completely broke the power of the League. As a last resource, Aratus entered into negotiation with Antigonus of Macedonia, and, by promising to deliver up Corinth, secured his assistance. Antigonus was made general of the League, and in 222 totally defeated Cleomenes in the battle of Sellasia. The general peace which now ensued was broken by the turbulent Aetolians, who invaded Achaea. Aratus having marched against them, suffered so severe a defeat at Caphae that he was accused and tried for mismanagement; his former great services alone saved him from suffering the penalty of failure. Philip of Macedonia, who was then called in to the assistance of the Achaeans, succeeded in establishing peace, but his ambition was roused by the hope of ...obtaining supremacy in Greece. The counsels of Aratus became distasteful to him, and Plutarch does not hesitate to ascribe the death of Aratus, a few years later (213 B,c.), to poison administered by the command of his royal master. The body was conveyed to Sicyon, where a monument was erected as a memorial of his services. Aratus is one of the few great names in later Greek history. He had an intense hatred of tyrants, and devoted his whole life to the attainment of liberty for Greece. His talents as a statesman were great, but their effect was marred by his incompetence and want of success as a general.
ARATUS, a Greek poet, was born at Soli, in Cilicia. The date of his birth is uncertain, but it is known he lived about 270 b,c., and as he was court-physician to Antigonus Gonatas, king of Macedonia, he must have been contemporary with several of the great Alexandrian writers,—
Aristophanes of Byzantium, Aristarchus, and Theocritus. Though not an Alexandrian, Aratus has all the characteristics of that school of poetry. He was learned, and verse furnished him with a vehicle for conveying scientific instruction. His only extant works are two poems, or two fragments of one poem, the first, called Φαινόμενα, in 732 lines, the second, ∆ιoσημειa, in 422 lines. The Phaenomena is a versified imitation or modification of a prose work on astronomy by Eudoxus. It contains little of any value, but one verse has become famous through being quoted by St Paul in his speech from Mars Hill (Acts xvii. 28). The Diosemeia or Prognostics is a treatise on the signs of the weather, accompanied .with practical rules. It is imitated to some extent by Virgil in his Georgies. The poems of Aratus were very popular, particularly among the Romans, who produced three translations, one by Cicero, another by Caesar Germanicus, the third by Festus Avienus. The best modern editions of Aratus are those of Buhle, Buttmann, and Bekker.
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