Aratus

Aratus OF SOLI (or Pompeiopolis, in Cilicia), a physician and poet of noble birth, a contemporary of Callimachus and Theocritus, lived mostly during the latter part of his life at the court of Antigonus Gonatas of Macedonia, at whose instance he wrote, about 270 B.C., his astronomical poem, Phænomena. This was founded on the astronomical system of Eudoxus of Cnidus, and consisted of 732 verses. He appended to it another poem, Diosemeia, giving rules for prognostication of the weather. A pure style and correct versification mark both poems, but they lack originality and elevation. They were translated into Latin by Cicero, Cæsar Germanicus, and Festus Avienus (q.v.). Aratus was a native of the same province as St Paul, who quotes from him in his speech on Mars' Hill: 'For as certain of your own poets have said, We also are his offspring.' The best editions are by Buttmann (1826), Bekker (1828), and Köchly (1851); and there is a translation of the Phænomena into English verse by Robert Brown (1885).