Description of Greece

​The nearby sacred precinct dedicated to the Roman emperors, which is close to the temple of Persuasion, was once the house of Cleon the tyrant; for Cleisthenes, the son of Aristonymus, the son of Myron, became tyrant while the Sicyonians still held the lower city, but Cleon in the present city. In front of this house is a hero-shrine of Aratus, who accomplished the greatest deeds among the Greeks of his own time; and the story concerning him is as follows.

​After Cleon had ruled as sole monarch, a desire for tyranny fell upon many of those in authority, so unrestrainable indeed that even two men, Euthydemus and Timocleidas, ruled as tyrants together. Now the people expelled these, having set up Clineas, the father of Aratus, as their leader; but not many years later Abantidas became tyrant. To Clineas, indeed, death had already occurred even before this; and Abantidas made Aratus an exile, or Aratus himself departed voluntarily. Now some of the local people killed Abantidas, but immediately Paseas, the father of Abantidas, became tyrant;

​and Nicocles, having slain him, became tyrant himself. Aratus, having come against this Nicocles with exiles of the Sicyonians and Argive mercenaries, eluded some of the guards under cover of darkness—for indeed he made the attempt by night—and having forced his way past others, got inside the wall; and—for dawn was already beginning to show—taking the people to his side, he hurried toward the tyrant’s house. And this he captured without difficulty, but Nicocles himself escaped and eluded him. Aratus restored to the Sicyonians an equal citizenship, having reconciled them with the exiles, returning to the exiles their houses and whatever other possessions had been sold, and he himself paid the value to those who had bought them.

​And—for there was a fear among all the Greeks of the Macedonians and of Antigonus, who was guardian of Philip, the son of Demetrius—for this reason he led the Sicyonians, although they were Dorians, into the assembly of the Achaeans. And immediately he was chosen general by the Achaeans, and having led them against the Locrians of Amphissa and into the land of the Aetolians, who were hostile, he ravaged it; and when Antigonus held Corinth and a Macedonian garrison was in it, he struck terror into the Macedonians by the suddenness of his attack, and having conquered them in battle, he destroyed them along with others and Persaeus, who was appointed over the garrison, who had attended Zenon, the son of Mnaseas, for the learning of philosophy.

​And when Aratus had freed Corinth, the Epidaurians and Troezenians, who inhabit the Argolic Coast, and the Megarians outside the Isthmus, joined the assembly, and Ptolemy made an alliance with the Achaeans. But the Lacedaemonians and Agis, the son of Eudamidas, their king, anticipated them by taking Pellene by an inroad, but when Aratus and his army arrived, they were defeated in conflict, and having abandoned Pellene, they withdrew home under a truce.

​But Aratus, as his affairs in the Peloponnese had succeeded, thought it a terrible thing that the Piraeus and Munychia, and also Salamis and Sunium, should be left in the possession of the Macedonians, and—for he did not expect to be able to take them by force—he persuaded Diogenes, the commander of the garrison, to give up the places for one hundred and fifty talents, and of this money he himself contributed a sixth part for the Athenians. He also persuaded Aristomachus, who was tyrant in Argos, to restore democracy to the Argives and to join the Achaean League, and he took Mantinea when the Lacedaemonians held it. But indeed, not all things are accomplished for a man according to his mind, since a necessity befell even Aratus to become an ally of the Macedonians and Antigonus; and it happened in this way.