page_title: Aratus of Sicyon
section_title: Youth
hierarchical_section_title: Aratus of Sicyon / Youth
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Karte des Isthmus von Korinth
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: Aratus was born in 271 BC in the northern Peloponnese city-state of Sicyon. His father, Cleinias of Sicyon, had become head magistrate of the city jointly with Timocleidas after the murder of the previous tyrant. Shortly after government stabilised, Timocleidas died. In 264 BC, Abantidas murdered Cleinias, and proclaimed himself tyrant. The seven-year-old Aratus escaped the coup with the help of his aunt who, in the confusion, was able to hide the boy until nightfall and then smuggle him out of Sicyon to Argos. He was raised in Argos by friends of his father, living there until 251 BC.
  In Argos, Aratus initially became known as a good athlete, winning a prize in the pentathlon. But he remained focused on the idea of freeing his home city's from tyranny. Despite his youth, he was able to gain widespread support among fellow exiles, becoming the leader of the exiles' party.
  In Sicyon, Abantidas was killed by two philosophers. Abantidas was replaced by his own father, who was subsequently killed and replaced by Nicocles. Aratus began to seek support from the kings of Macedon and Egypt. Plutarch reports that Nicocles' main cause of concern about Aratus was the younger man's elevated connections.
caption: Location of Sicyon
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