page_title: Aratus of Sicyon
section_title: Taking the Acrocorinth
hierarchical_section_title: Aratus of Sicyon / Strategos of the Achaean League / Taking the Acrocorinth
caption_attribution_description: English: The Acrocorinth.
context_page_description: Aratus of Sicyon was a politician and military commander of Hellenistic Greece. He was elected strategos of the Achaean League 17 times, leading the League through numerous military campaigns including the Cleomenean War and the Social War.
  Aratus was exiled to Argos at the age of seven, after his father, the magistrate of Sicyon, was killed in a coup. In 251 BC, he led an expedition composed of other exiles which freed Sicyon from tyranny, and assumed power in the city. Sicyon joined the Achaean League, in which Aratus would later be elected strategos. In his first major campaign as strategos, he seized the Macedonian-held citadel of Acrocorinth, previously believed impregnable.
  After conquering the Acrocorinth, Aratus pursued the Achaean League's expansion. When the Spartan king Cleomenes III conquered the Achaean cities of Argos and Corinth, Aratus succeeded in securing an alliance with his erstwhile enemy, Macedon. Cleomenes III was defeated at the Battle of Sellasia by the joint forces of the Achaean League and Antigonus III Doson, the regent of Macedon.
context_section_description: In 245 BC, Aratus was elected strategos of the Achaean League. He went on to hold this position every two years until his death, with only a few interruptions. Aratus' career was marked by the expansion of the League. His first known act as strategos was to pillage the countryside of Locris and Calydon. He also led a 10,000-strong army to help the Boeotians against the Aetolian League.
  In his second term, Aratus focused on capturing the Acrocorinth, the acropolis of Corinth. The city of Corinth controlled entry to the Peloponnese, and was an important trading post. The Acrocorinth was a formidable fortress, built on a hill nearly 2,000 feet (610 m) high. It had a freshwater source, was surrounded by cliffs, and was capped by a massive, walled citadel. Antigonus Gonatas controlled the Acrocorinth with a strong garrison under his commander Persaeus. In 243 BC, Aratus learned from Syrian mercenaries that there was a less steep access route to the hill, where the wall was also at its lowest point. By midsummer that year, Aratus was ready to attack the Acrocorinth.
  Aratus assembled his army in Sicyon. The majority waited on the road between Sicyon and the Acrocorinth, while Aratus himself went to the city with a select force of 400 men. Eight were sent forward to overwhelm the guards before 100 soldiers scaled the walls with ladders. Each was barefoot to minimise noise. They encountered a group of guards on entering the city, and  killed three. But a fourth escaped and raised the alarm. Aratus and his soldiers got as far as the citadel itself, attempting to scale its walls as defenders hurled projectiles down on them. In the meantime, 300 more soldiers had scaled the outer walls, but then struggled to find Aratus inside the city. The waiting Achaean army below was at risk of being trapped between the citadel's defenders and a group of Macedonian soldiers arriving from the city, but was saved by those 300 soldiers, who were able to attack and rout the Macedonians from behind. The 300 men then went back to support their commander at the citadel. Weather conditions proved favourable for Aratus:
  (…) the light of the full moon also made their arms appear more numerous to the enemy than they really were, owing to the length of their line of march, and the echoes of the night gave the impression that the shouts proceeded from many times the number there really were.
  — Plutarch, Parallel Lives, Life of Aratus, 22, 5
  Aratus' soldiers scaled the walls of the citadel and the garrison surrendered. By dawn, the Achaeans held both citadel and city, in a victory owing partly to luck but also to good planning and nerve. The storming of the near-impregnable Acrocorinth was another major accomplishment for Aratus, following his taking of Sicyon. Very few achieved the feat; among those who did was Demetrius I, "the Besieger". Aratus went on to capture Lechaeum, the harbour of Corinth, and secure the 25 Macedonian warships docked there. He garrisoned the captured citadel with 400 Achaeans and 50 watchdogs.
caption: The hill on which the Acrocorinth stood
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