Aratus Summary and Analysis

Aratus was a famed Greek general who overthrew the tyrant Nicocles and led the Achaeans against Macedonia and Sparta. He was the son of Clinias, a magistrate in the city of Sicyon, who was killed by the Sicyonian tyrant Abantidas when Aratus was a boy. He himself escaped and was taken to Argos, where he was educated and grew into a strong and able young man.

Meanwhile in Sicyon, the tyranny continued under Nicocles. Aratus hatched a plot to return to Sicyon and liberate it from tyranny by secretly scaling the wall of Nicocles' castle and overwhelming him. He was successful in his plot, and hailed as a liberator. Plutarch describes this secret attack in some detail, and writes that while Aratus on the surface seemed to lack boldness and aggression, but that he was the kind of person who was...