ARATUS  , of

Soli in Cilicia, Greek didactic poet, a contemporary of Callimachus and Theocritus, was born about 315 B.C . He was invited (about 276) to the court of Antigonus Gonatas of Macedonia, where he wrote his most famous poem, 4atvbp.eva (Appearances, or Phenomena) . He then spent some time with Antiochus I. of Syria; but subsequently returned to Macedonia, where he died about 245 . Aratus's only extant works are two short poems, or two fragments of his one poem, written in hexameters; an imitation of a prose work on astronomy by Eudoxus of Cnidus, and Atooipseia (on weather signs), chiefly from Theophrastus . The work has all the characteristics of the Alexandrian school of poetry . Although Aratus was ignorant of astronomy, his poem attracted the favourable notice of distinguished specialists, such as Hipparchus, who wrote commentaries upon it . Amongst the Romans it enjoyed a high reputation (Ovid, 4mores, i . 15, 16) . Cicero, Caesar Germanicus and Avienus translated it; the two last versions and fragments of Cicero's are still extant . Quintilian (Instil. x . 1, 55) is less enthusiastic . Virgil has imitated the Prognostica to some extentin the Georgics .

One

verse from the opening invocation to Zeus has become famous from being quoted by St Paul (Acts xvii . 28) . Several accounts of his life are extant, by anonymous Greek writers . Editio princeps, 1499; Buhle, 1793; Maass, 1893; Aratea (1892), Commentariorum in Aratum Reliquiae (1898), by the same . English translations: Lamb, 1848; Poste, 188o; R . Brown, 1885; Prince, 1895 . On recently discovered fragments, see H . I . Bell, in Classical Quarterly, April 1907; also Berliner Klassikertexte, Heft v . 1, PP . 47-54 .