Pausanias Analysis

Near the sanctuary of Peitho there is an enclosed precinct sacred to the Roman emperors; this was formerly the house of the tyrant Cleon. For Cleisthenes, son of Aristonymus, grandson of Myron, ruled as tyrant when the lower city still belonged to the Sicyonians, while Cleon was tyrant in the city as it currently stands. Before this house is the hero-shrine of Aratus, who accomplished deeds greater than any other Greek of his time; concerning him, the situation is as follows.

After Cleon had ruled alone, several men of influence were seized by so insatiable a desire for tyranny that even two men, Euthydemus and Timocleidas, held power jointly. However, the people expelled these men and appointed Cleinias, the father of Aratus, as their leader. Not many years afterward, Abantidas established himself as tyrant. Cleinias had already met his end previously; Abantidas caused Aratus to go into exile, or perhaps Aratus himself withdrew of his own accord. Abantidas was later killed by local men, and immediately afterward Paseas, the father of Abantidas, succeeded as tyrant.

Nikokles, having slain him, seized the tyranny himself. Afterwards Aratos attacked this Nikokles, accompanied by Sicyonian exiles and Argive mercenaries; under the cover of darkness—for he undertook the enterprise at night—he escaped the notice of some guards, while others he overcame by force, and thus gained entry within the city walls. By this stage dawn was already breaking, and taking the common people into his party, he advanced swiftly against the tyrant's house. He captured it without difficulty, though Nikokles himself slipped away and fled unseen. Aratos then restored to the Sicyonians an equal constitution, negotiating reconciliation with the returning exiles. He gave back to them their houses and whatever other properties had been sold, himself personally reimbursing those who had purchased them.

As indeed there was fear among all the Greeks of the Macedonians and of Antigonus, when Philip was regent for Demetrius, it was for this reason that he brought the Sicyonians into the Achaean League, though they were Dorians. At once he was appointed general by the Achaeans, led them against the Amphissian Locrians, and ravaged the land of the Aetolians, who were their enemies. While Antigonus held Corinth with a Macedonian garrison established there, he astonished the Macedonians with a sudden attack, defeated and destroyed many in battle, and killed Persaeus, the man commanding the garrison, who had studied philosophy under Zeno son of Mnaseas.

After Aratus liberated Corinth, the Epidaurians and the Troezenians, who inhabited the Argolic coast, together with the Megarians outside the Isthmus, joined the Achaean league. Ptolemy also formed an alliance with the Achaeans. But the Lacedaemonians, and their king Agis son of Eudamidas, had already swiftly captured Pellene in a sudden raid; nevertheless, when Aratus arrived with his army and battle was joined, they were defeated, abandoned Pellene, and withdrew homeward under a truce.

But Aratus, as his power in the Peloponnese advanced, considered it intolerable that Peiraeus and Munychia, as well as Salamis and Sunium, were still held by the Macedonians. Since he had no hope of taking these strongholds by force, he persuaded Diogenes, who commanded the Macedonian garrison, to surrender them for one hundred and fifty talents, of which sum Aratus himself contributed a sixth on behalf of the Athenians. He likewise convinced Aristomachus, who ruled as tyrant in Argos, to restore democracy to the Argives and thus align the city with the Achaean League; moreover, he also captured Mantineia, then controlled by the Lacedaemonians. However, not all things turn out according to man's intentions, for necessity compelled even Aratus himself to enter into alliance with the Macedonians and Antigonus. This came about in the following manner.