general of the Acheans, conquered Niceles, tyrant of Sicyon. Two years after he surprised Acrocorinthus, and drove out the king of Macedonia; he delivered Argos from its tyrants, and was poisoned by Philip II., king of Macedonia, whom he had newly restored. He was about 62 when he died, the second year of the 141st Olympiad. He was interred at Sicyon, and received the greatest honours from his countrymen.

Greek poet, born at Soli, or Solae, a town in Cilicia, which afterwards changed its name, and was called Pompeiopolis in honour of Pompey the Great. He flourished about the 124th, or, according to some, the 126th Olympiad, in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt. He discovered in his youth a remarkable poignancy of wit, and capacity for improvement; and having received his education under Dionysius Heracleotus, a Stoic philosopher, he espoused the principles of that sect. Aratus was physician to Antigonus Gonatas, the son of Demetrius Pollorctes, king of Macedon. His poem entitled *Phaenomena* describes the nature and motion of the fixed stars, and shows the particular influences of the heavenly bodies, with their various dispositions and relations. He wrote this poem in Greek verse. It was translated into Latin by Cicero, who tells us, in his first book *De Oratore*, that the verses of Aratus are very noble. This piece was translated by others as well as Cicero, there being a translation by Germanicus Caesar, and another into elegant verse by Festus Avienus. An edition of the *Phaenomena* was published by Grotius, at Leyden, in quarto, in 1600, in Greek and Latin, with the fragments of Cicero's version, and the translations of Germanicus and Avienus; all which the editor has illustrated with curious notes. A valuable edition of the *Phaenomena* was published at Oxford, by Fell, in 1672, in 8vo; but the most complete is that of Buhle, published at Leipzig in 1801, in 2 vols. 8vo. There are several other works ascribed to Aratus. Suidas mentions the following—Hymns to Pan; Astrology and Astrothesy; a composition of Antidotes; an *Enarrationes* on Theopropus; an *Hieros* on Antigonus; an Epigram on Phila, the daughter of Antipater and wife of Antigonus; an Epicedium of Cleombrotus; a Correction of the Odyssey; and some Epistles in prose. Virgil, in his Georgics, has imitated or translated many passages from this author; and St Paul has quoted a passage of Aratus. It is in his speech to the Athenians (Acts xvii. 28), wherein he tells them that some of their own poets have said, *Τοῦ γὰρ ἐναντίου ἀπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν ἔστιν*. For we are also his offspring. These words are the beginning of the fifth line of the *Phaenomena*.