Aratus
- A Greek poet of Soli, in Cilicia, who fl. B. C. 250; author of an astronomical poem, entitled Φαινόμενα, which Cicero, and afterwards Caesar Germanicus, translated into Latin, Cic. de Or. 1, 16, 69; id. Rep. 1, 22, 56; id. N. D. 2, 41; Ov. Am. 1, 15, 16; Stat. S. 5, 3, 23 (Ărătŭs, Paul. Nol. Carm. 19, 125; Sid. Carm. 23, 112).—
- II Aratus of Sicyon, a distinguished Greek general, founder of the Achaean League, Cic. Off. 2, 23, 81 (v. his life written by Plutarch).
- 1. Gr. dichter (ca. 270 v. Chr.) uit Cilicië, schrijver v.e. gedicht over astronomie, dat door Cicero in het Latijn vertaald is; — adj. Arātēus en Arātīus, a, um [carmen];
- 2. Gr. veldheer uit Sicyon (271—213 v. Chr.), initiatiefnemer v.d. Achaeïsche Bond.
(Ἄρατος), of Sicyon, lived from B. C. 271 to 213. The life of this remarkable man, as afterwards of Philopoemen and Lycortas, was devoted to an attempt to unite the several Grecian states together, and by this union to assert the national independence against the dangers with which it was threatened by Macedonia and Rome.
Aratus was the son of Cleinias, and was born at Sicyon, B. C. 271. On the murder of his father by Abantidas [Abantidas], Aratus was saved from the general extirpation of the family by Soso, his uncle's widow, who conveyed him to Argos, where he was brought up. When he had reached the age of twenty, he gained possession of his native city by the help of some Argians, and the cooperation of the remainder of his party in Sicyon itself, without loss of life, and deprived the usurper Nicocles of his power, B. C. 251. (Comp. Plb. 2.43.)
Through the influence of Aratus, Sicyon now joined the Achaean league, and Aratus himself sailed to Egypt to obtain Ptolemy's alliance, in which he succeeded. In B. C. 245 he was elected general (στρατηγός) of the league, and a second time in 243. In the latter of these years he took the citadel of Corinth from the Macedonian garrison, and induced the Corinthian people to join the league. It was chiefly through his instrumentality that Megara, Troezen, Epidaurus, Argos, Cleonae, and Megalopolis, were soon afterwards added to it. It was about this time that the Aetolians, who had made a plundering expedition into Peloponnesus, were stopped by Aratus at Pellene (Plb. 4.8), being surprised at the sack of that town, and 700 of their number put to the sword. But at this very time, at which the power of the league seemed most secure, the seeds of its ruin were laid. The very prospect, which now for the first time opened, of the hitherto scattered powers of Greece being united in the league, awakened the jealousy of Aetolia, and of Cleomenes, who was too ready to have a pretext for war. [Cleomenes.] Aratus, to save the league from this danger, contrived to win the alliance of Antigonus Doson, on the condition, as it afterwards appeared, of the surrender of Corinth. Ptolemy, as might be expected, joined Cleomenes; and in a succession of actions at Lycaeum, Megalopolis, and Hecatombaeum, near Dyme, the Achaeans were well nigh destroyed. By these Aratus lost the confidence of the people, who passed a public censure on his conduct, and Sparta was placed at the head of a confederacy, fully able to dictate to the whole of Greece, --Troezen, Epidaurus, Argos, Hermione, Pellene, Caphyae, Phlius, Pheneus, and Corinth, in which the Achaean garrison kept only the citadel.-- It was now necessary to call on Antigonus for the promised aid. Permission to pass through Aetolia having been refused, he embarked his army in transports, and, sailing by Euboea, landed his army near the isthmus, while Cleomenes was occupied with the siege of Sicyon. (Plb. 2.52.) The latter immediately raised the siege, and hastened to defend Corinth; but no sooner was he engaged there, than Aratus, by a masterstroke of policy, gained the assistance of a party in Argos to place the Lacedaemonian garrison in a state of siege. Cleomenes hastened thither, leaving Corinth in the hands of Antigonus; but arriving too late to take effectual measures against Aratus, while Antigonus was in his rear, he retreated to Mantineia and thence home. Antigonus meanwhile was by Aratus' influence elected general of the league, and made Corinth and Sicyon his winter quarters. What hope was there now left that the great design of Aratus' life could be accomplished,--to unite all the Greek governments into one Greek nation? Henceforward the caprice of the Macedonian monarch was to regulate the relations of the powers of Greece. The career of Antigonus, in which Aratus seems henceforward to have been no further engaged than as his adviser and guide, ended in the great battle of Sellasia (B. C. 222), in which the Spartan power was for ever put down. Philip succeeded Antigonus in the throne of Macedon (B. C. 221), and it was his policy during the next two years (from 221 to 219 B. C.) to make the Achaeans feel how dependent they were on him. This period is accordingly taken up with incursions of the Aetolians, the unsuccessful opposition of Aratus, and the trial which followed. The Aetolians seized Clarium, a fortress near Megalopolis (Plb. 4.6.), and thence made their plundering excursions, till Timoxenus, general of the league, took the place and drove out the garrison. As the time for the expiration of Aratus' office arrived, the Aetolian generals Dorimachus and Scopas made an attack on Plarae and Patrae, and carried on their ravages up to the borders of Messene, in the hope that no active measures would be taken against them till the commander for the following year was chosen. To remedy this, Aratus anticipated his command five days, and ordered the troops of the league to assemble at Megalopolis. The Aetolians, finding his force superior, prepared to quit the country, when Aratus, thinking his object sufficiently accomplished, disbanded the chief part of his army, and marched with about 4000 to Patrae. The Aetolians turned round in pursuit, and encamped at Methydrium, upon which Aratus changed his position to Caphyae, and in a battle, which began in a skirmish of cavalry to gain some high ground advantageous to both positions, was entirely defeated and his army nearly destroyed. The Aetolians marched home in triumph, and Aratus was recalled to take his trial on several charges,--assuming the command before his legal time, disbanding his troops, unskilful conduct in choosing the time and place of action, and carelessness in the action itself. He was acquitted, not on the ground that the charges were untrue, but in consideration of his past services. For some time after this the Aetolians continued their invasions, and Aratus was unable effectually to check them, till at last Philip took the field as commander of the allied army. The six remaining years of Aratus' life are a mere history of intrigues, by which at different times his influence was more or less shaken with the king. At first he was entirely set aside; and this cannot be wondered at, when his object was to unite Greece as an independent nation, while Philip wished to unite it as subject to himself. In B. C. 218, it appears that Aratus regained his influence by an exposure of the treachery of his opponents; and the effects of his presence were shewn in a victory gained over the combined forces of the Aetolians, Eleans, and Lacedaemonians. In B. C. 217 Aratus was the 17th time chosen general, and every thing, so far as the security of the leagued states was concerned, prospered; but the feelings and objects of the two men were so different, that no unity was to be looked for, so soon as the immediate object of subduing certain states was effected. The story told by Plutarch, of his advice to Philip about the garrisoning of Ithome, would probably represent well the general tendency of the feeling of these two men. In B. C. 213 he died, as Plutarch and Polybius both say (Plb. 8.14; Plut. Arat. 52), from the effect of poison administered by the king's order. Divine honours were paid to him by his countrymen, and annual solemnities established. (Dict. of Ant. s. v. Ἀράτεια.) Works
Aratus wrote Commentaries, being a history of his own times down to B. C. 220 (Plb. 4.2), which Polybius characterises as clearly written and faithful records. (2.40.) Assessment
The greatness of Aratus lay in the steadiness with which he pursued a noble purpose, -- of uniting the Greeks as one nation; the consummate ability with which he guided the elements of the stonn which raged about him; and the zeal which kept him true to his object to the end, when a different conduct would have secured to him the greatest personal advantage. As a general, he was unsuccessful in the open field; but for success in stratagem, which required calculation and dexterity of the first order, unrivalled. The leading object of his life was noble in its conception, and, considering the state of Macedon and of Egypt, and more especially the existence of a contemporary with the virtues and abilities of Cleomenes, ably conducted. Had he been supported in his attempt to raise Greece by vigour and purity, such as that of Cleomenes in the cause of Sparta, his fate might have been different. As it was, he left his country surrounded by difficulty and danger to the guiding hand of Philopoemen and Lycortas. (Plut. Aratus and Agis; Polyb. ii. iv. vii. viii.) [C.T.A]
(Ἄρατος), author of two Greek astronomical poems. The date of his birth is not known; but it seems that he lived about B. C. 270; it is probable, therefore, that the death of Euclid and the birth of Apollonius Pergaeus happened during his life, and that he was contemporary with Aristarchus of Samos, and Theocritus, who mentions him. (Idyll. vi. and vii.)
There are several accounts of his life by anonymous Greek writers: three of them are printed in the 2nd vol. of Buhle's Aratus, and one of the same in the Uranologium of Petavius. Suidas and Eudocia also mention him. From these it appears that he was a native of Soli (afterwards Pompeiopolis) in Cilicia, or (according to one authority) of Tarsus; that he was invited to the court of Antigonus Gonatas, king of Macedonia, where he spent all the latter part of his life; and that his chief pursuits were physic (which is also said to have been his profession), grammar, and philosophy, in which last he was instructed by the Stoic Dionysius Heracleotes. Works
Several poetical works on various subjects, as well as a number of prose epistles, are attributed to Aratus (Buhle, vol. ii. p. 455), but none of them have come down to us, except the two poems mentioned above. These have generally been joined together as if parts of the same work; but they seem to be distinct poems. The first, called Φαινόμενα. consists of 732 verses; the second, Διοσημεῖα (Prognostica), of 422. Φαινόμενα
Eudoxus, about a century earlier, had written two prose works, Φαινόμενα and Ἔνοπτρον, which are both lost; but we are told by the biographers of Aratus, that it was the desire of Antigonus to have them turned into verse, which gave rise to the Φαινόμενα of the latter writer; and it appears from the fragments of them preserved by Hipparchus (Petav. Uranolog. p. 173, &c., ed. Paris. 1630), that Aratus has in fact versified, or closely imitated parts of them both, but especially of the first. The design of the poem is to give an introduction to the knowledge of the constellations, with the rules for their risings and settings; and of the circles of the sphere, amongst which the milky way is reckoned. The positions of the constellations, north of the ecliptic, are described by reference to the principal groups surrounding the north pole (the Bears, the Dragon, and Cepheus), whilst Orion serves as a point of departure for those to the south. The immobility of the earth, and the revolution of the heavens about a fixed axis are maintained; the path of the sun in the zodiac is described; but the planets are introduced merely as bodies having a motion of their own, without any attempt to define their periods; nor is anything said about the moon's orbit. The opening of the poem asserts the dependence of all things upon Zeus, and contains the passage τοῦ γὰρ καὶ γένος ἐσμέν, quoted by St. Paul (Aratus' fellow-countryman) in his address to the Athenians. (Acts 17.28.) From the general want of precision in the descriptions, it would seem that Aratus was neither a mathematician nor observer (comp. Cic. de Orat. 1.16) or, at any rate, that in this work he did not aim at scientific accuracy. He not only represents the configurations of particular groups incorrectly, but describes some phaenomena which are inconsistent with any one supposition as to the latitude of the spectator, and others which could not coexist at any one epoch. (See the article Aratus in the Penny Cyclopaedia.) These errors are partly to be attributed to Eudoxus himself, and partly to the way in which Aratus has used the materials supplied by him. Hipparchus (about a century later), who was a scientific astronomer and observer, has left a commentary upon the Φαινόμενα of Eudoxus and Aratus, occasioned by the discrepancies which he had noticed between his own observations and their descriptions. Διοσημεῖα
The Διοσημεῖα consists of prognostics of the weather from astronomical phaenomena, with an account of its effects upon animals. It appears to be an imitation of Hesiod, and to have been imitated by Virgil in some parts of the Georgics. The materials are said to be taken almost wholly from Aristotle's Meteorologica, from the work of Theophrastus, "De Signis Ventorum," and from Hesiod. (Buhle, vol. ii. p. 471.) Nothing is said in either poem about Astrology in the proper sense of the word. Assessment
The style of these two poems is distinguished by the elegance and accuracy resulting from a study of ancient models; but it wants originality and poetic elevation; and variety of matter is excluded by the nature of the subjects. (See Quint. Inst. 10.1.) That they became very popular both in the Grecian and Roman world (comp. Ov. Am. 1.15. 16) is proved by the number of commentaries and Latin translations. The Introduction to the Φαινόμενα by Achilles Tatius, the Commentary of Hipparchus in three books, and another attributed by Petavius to Achilles Tatius, are printed in the Uranologium, with a list of other Commentators (p. 267), which includes the names of Aristarchus, Geminus, and Eratosthenes. Parts of three poetical Latin translations are preserved. One written by Cicero when very young (Cic. de Nat. Deor. 2.41), one by Caesar Germanicus, the grandson of Augustus, and one by Festus Avienus. Editions
The earliest edition of Aratus is that of Aldus. (Ven. 1499, fol.) The principal later ones are by Grotius (Lugd. Bat. 1600, 4to.), Buhle (Lips. 1793, 1801, 2 vols. 8vo., with the three Latin versions), Matthiae (Francof. 1817, 8vo.), Voss (Heidelb. 1824, 8vo., with a German poetical version), Buttmann (Berol. 1826, 8vo.), and Bekker. (Berol. 1828, 8vo.) Further Information
Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. p. 87; Schaubach, Gesch. d. griech. Astronomie, p. 215, &c.; Delambre, Hist. de l'Astron. Ancienne.) [W.F.D]
(Ἄρατος), of Cnidus, the author of a history of Egypt. (Anonym. Vit. Arat.)
(Ἄρατος) (1) A Greek poet, of Soli in Cilicia, about B.C. 270, contemporary of Callimachus and Theocritus. At the request of the Macedonian king, Antigonus Gonatas, at whose court he lived as physician, he wrote, without much knowledge of the subject but guided by the works of Eudoxus and Theophrastus, two astronomical poems, Phaenomena (Φαινόμενα) and Prognostica (Διοσημεῖα) (aspects of the sky and signs of weather). Without genuine poetic inspiration, Aratus manages his intractable material with considerable tact and dignified simplicity. The language, while not always free from stiffness, is choice, and the versification correct. The poems enjoyed a high repute with the general public, as well as with poets and specialists, and the great astronomer Hipparchus wrote a commentary on them in four books. The Romans also took pleasure in reading and translating them—e. g. Cicero, Germanicus, and Avienus. Eng. trans. by Poste (London, 1880). (See Aratea.) Aratus is mentioned by his contemporary Theocritus in the Sixth and Seventh Idyls, and by St. Paul in his speech (Acts, xvii. 28). Recent edition by Maas.
(2) A Greek patriot, born in Sicyon B.C. 273, who expelled from his native state the tyrant Nicocles, and persuaded his countrymen to join the Achaean League, and in 244 secured the adhesion of Corinth. He afterwards had equal success with other States in southern Greece, so that the League became powerful, exciting the jealousy of the Aetolians, who made war upon it, but were defeated by Aratus aided by Antigonus, and for a time by Philip, nephew of Antigonus. This strong alliance overthrew Cleomenes, king of Sparta. Later, however, Aratus incurred the ill-will of Philip, who destroyed him by poison, B.C. 213. See Plut.
- poet, resides with Antigonus, 1. 2. 3
- son of Clinias: Paus. 2.7.5, Paus. 2.8.1, Paus. 6.12.5, or of Aesculapius: Paus. 2.10.3, Paus. 4.14.8
- a benefactor of Greece: Paus. 8.52.5
- his history: Paus. 2.8.1-Paus. 2.9.5
- expels Macedonians from Acro-Corinth: Paus. 7.8.3
- drives Agis, king of Sparta, out of Pellene: Paus. 7.7.3
- defeated by Cleomenes at Dyme: Paus. 7.7.3
- defeats Lacedaemonians at Mantinea: Paus. 8.8.11, Paus. 8.10.6ff.
- captures Sparta: Paus. 4.29.9
- poisoned by Philip: Paus. 8.50.4
- shrine: Paus. 2.8.1, Paus. 2.9.4, 6
- statues: Paus. 2.7.5, Paus. 6.12.5
- stronghold: Paus. 6.19.6