Aratus the son of Clinias

Also known as: Aratus · Family: Sicyonian · Role: son of Clinias · First appears: Book 2 · Chapter 7

After the death of his father, Clinias, Abantidas took power and either exiled Aratus or saw him leave of his own accord. In Book 2, Chapter 8, Aratus returned to Sicyon with refugees and Argive mercenaries, stormed Nicocles’s house by night and forced him to flee. He restored the refugees’ houses and goods, granted the Sicyonians isonomy, and brought the city into the Achæan league; he was then chosen its commander in chief. He also persuaded Aristomachus to establish democracy in Argos and join the league.

At Corinth, Aratus defeated the Macedonian garrison and killed its commander, Persæus, freeing the city. After Cleomenes (son of Leonidas) defeated the Achæans at Dyme, Aratus sought help from Antigonus (regent for Philip), despite having fought against Macedonian forces. At Pellene, he and the Sicyonians drove out Agis (son of Eudamidas). Later accounts describe Aratus and the Achæans fighting Cleomenes at Dyme and joining the Messenians in taking Sparta; at Mantinean territory, an Achæan force under Aratus helped defeat Agis, and at Mantinea Aratus’s force fell back as the Arcadians attacked the Lacedæmonians’ flanks.

In Book 2, Chapter 9, Philip (son of Demetrius) poisoned Aratus at Ægium; his body was taken to Sicyon and buried. The accounts also name Aristodama as his mother, while another tradition considered him the son of Æsculapius. Book 8, Chapter 52 calls Aratus and Leosthenes “the benefactors of all Greece”.