ARA'TUS O;k. _1 rates) 271 213). A distinguished statesman and general of Sicyon. At the time of Aratus's youth, Sieyon was in the hands of tyrants, who were chiefly partisans of the Macedonian kings. Clinias. the father of Aratus. was an active supporter of the opposite side, and, in the course of a party strug gle, he was assassinated, B.C. 240. Many mem bers of his party were obliged to flee from the city, and Aratus was rescued by a relative and taken to Argos. Here he spent his youth and became a recognized leader of the exiled band. In his twentieth year (B.c. 251 ), putting himself at the head of a few followers, he made his way to Sicyon, secretly entered the town, drove out the tyrant, and reestablished a government of the people. Owing to the long rule of the ty rants, he at first met with many difficulties in his efforts at reorganization. but he successfully overcame these, and was recognized as the first man in the state. Under his lead, Sieyon joined the Achwan League, in which it soon rose to a position of first importance. In B.C. 245 he was
made general of the League. an office which he held in the course of his career seventeen times. Through his influence, many other Greek cities joined the confederacy. Tn B.C. 224 the League was hard pressed by the Spartans under Cleo menes• and Aratus found himself obliged to join hands with Antigonus, King of Macedonia. An alliance was made, and the Spartans were defeated at in we. 221; but through this step the Macedonians gained a foothold in Peloponnesus. Aratus was a greater statesman than general, but he was sincere throughout his life in his efforts to enlarge and strengthen the league. He was finally poisoned, in B.C. 213, by order of Philip, the successor of Antigonus. Two annual festivals (the Aratea) were instituted by his countrymen in his honor. Near the end of his life he wrote his memoirs, in thirty books. Consult Miller, Pragmenta Historicorum corum (Paris, 1868-74).