Aratus (Greek Aratos) (ca. 315 BC/310 BC – 240 BC) was a Macedonian Greek poet, known for his technical poetry. Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 360s BC 350s BC 340s BC 330s BC 320s BC - 310s BC - 300s BC 290s BC 280s BC 270s BC 260s BC 320 BC 319 BC 318 BC 317 BC 316 BC - 315 BC - 314 BC 313 BC 312... Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 360s BC 350s BC 340s BC 330s BC 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC 290s BC 280s BC 270s BC 260s BC Years: 315 BC 314 BC 313 BC 312 BC 311 BC _ 310 BC _ 309 BC... Centuries: 4th century BC - 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC Decades: 290s BC 280s BC 270s BC 260s BC 250s BC - 240s BC - 230s BC 220s BC 210s BC 200s BC 190s BC Years: 245 BC 244 BC 243 BC 242 BC 241 BC - 240 BC - 239 BC 238 BC... Poets are authors of poems, or of other forms of poetry such as dramatic verse. ...

Biography

He was born in Soli in Cilicia, later spending time at the Syrian court of Antiochus I. His principal patron was the Macedonian king Antigonus II Gonatas, whose victory over the Celts in 277 BC Aratus set to verse. He died in the capital of Macedon, Pella (now located in the periphery of Central Macedonia, Greece). Soli is an ancient city on the island of Cyprus, located west of Kyrenia. ... Silver coin of Antiochus I Antiochus I Soter ( 324/323_262/261 BC reigned 281 BC - 261 BC) was half Persian, his mother Apame being one of those eastern princesses whom Alexander had given as wives to his generals in 324 BC. On the assassination of his father Seleucus I in... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Antigonus Gonatus. ... A Celtic cross. ... Centuries: 4th century BC - 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC Decades: 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC 290s BC 280s BC - 270s BC - 260s BC 250s BC 240s BC 230s BC 220s BC 282 BC 281 BC 280 BC 279 BC 278 BC - 277 BC - 276 BC 275 BC 274... The Vergina Sun, a symbol associated with the Macedonian kingdom Macedon (or Macedonia from Greek ; see also List of traditional Greek place names) was the name of an ancient kingdom located in the northern part of ancient Greece, bordering the Greek kingdom of Epirus on the west and the non... For other places named Pella, see: Pella (disambiguation). ... The peripheries (περιφέρειες) are the subnational divisions of Greece. ... Central Macedonia is one of the thirteen peripheries of Greece, being the central part of Greek region of Macedonia. ...

Writings

Aratus' principal work, the Phaenomena ("Appearances"), versifies one or more works of Eudoxus of Cnidus. In 1,154 hexameters he lays bare the names and movements of the heavenly bodies, and the significance of various weather signs. Technical description is primary, but mythical digressions are frequent. The second half, on weather signs, has sometimes circulated under the title Diosemeia ("Signs from Zeus"), but was not originally separate. Eudoxus of Cnidus (Greek Εύδοξος) (410 or 408 BC - 355 or 347 BC) was a Greek astronomer, mathematician, physician, scholar and friend of Plato. ... Hexameter is a literary and poetic form, consisting of six metrical feet per line as in the Iliad. ... Statue of Zeus Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th-century engraving. ...

Aratus also wrote a number of other poems, many of an astronomical or technical nature. Astrometry: the study of the position of objects in the sky and their changes of position. ...

Later influence

Aratus enjoyed immense prestige among Hellenistic poets, including Theocritus, Callimachus and Leonidas of Tarentum. This assessment was picked up by Latin poets, including Ovid and Virgil. Latin versions were made by none other than Cicero (fragmentary), the near-emperor Germanicus (mostly extant), and the less-famous Avienus (extant). He was also cited in the New Testament, where, in the second half of Acts, 17.28, Saint Paul, speaking of God, quotes the fifth line of Aratus's Phaenomena (Epimenides gets credit for the first half of Acts 17.28): The term Hellenistic (established by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen) in the history of the ancient world is used to refer to the shift from a culture dominated by ethnic Greeks, however scattered geographically, to a culture dominated by Greek-speakers of whatever ethnicity, and from the political dominance... Theocritus, the creator of Ancient Greek bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC. Little is known of him beyond what can be inferred from his writings. ... Callimachus (ca. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC â€“ Tomis, now Constanta AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations. ... A sculpture of Virgil, probably from the 1st century AD. Publius Vergilius Maro (October 15, 70 BC–19 BC), known in English as Virgil or Vergil, is a Latin poet, the author of the Eclogues, the Georgics and the Aeneid, the last being an epic poem of twelve books that... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Marcus Tullius Cicero (standard English pronunciation ; Classical Latin pronunciation ) (January 3, 106 BC – December 7, 43 BC) was an orator and statesman of Ancient Rome, and is generally considered the greatest Latin orator and prose stylist. ... Bust of Germanicus in the Louvre Germanicus Julius Caesar Claudianus, possibly Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus before adoption (15 BC–AD October 10, 19) was a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty of the early Roman Empire. ... Avienus was a Latin writer of the 4th century. ... // What is the New Testament? The New Testament, sometimes called the Greek Testament or Greek Scriptures, is the name given to the part of the Christian Bible that was written after the birth of Jesus. ... The Acts of the Apostles, (Greek Praxeis Apostolon) is a book of the Bible, which now stands fifth in the New Testament. ... An early portrait of the Apostle Paul. ... God is the term used to denote the Supreme Being believed by monotheistic religions to exist and to be the creator and ruler of the Universe. ... Epimenides of Knossos (Crete) was a semi-mythical 6th century BC Greek seer and philosopher-poet, who is said to have fallen asleep for fifty-seven years in a Cretan cave sacred to Zeus, after which he reportedly awoke with the gift of prophecy. ...

Let us begin with Zeus, whom we mortals never leave unspoken.

For every street, every market-place is full of Zeus.

Even the sea and the harbour are full of this deity.

Everywhere everyone is indebted to Zeus.

For we are indeed his offspring... (Phaenomena 1-5).

Authors of twenty-seven commentaries are known; ones by Theon of Alexandria, Achilles Tatius and Hipparchus of Nicaea survive. An Arabic translation was commissioned in the ninth century by the Caliph Al-Ma'mun. A deity or a god, is a postulated preternatural being, usually, but not always, of significant power, worshipped, thought holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, or respected by human beings. ... Theon (c. ... Achilles Tatius (in Greek Aχιλλευς Τατιος) was a Roman era Greek writer whose fame is attached to his only surviving work, the erotic romance The Adventures of Leucippe and Cleitophon. ... For the Athenian tyrant, see Hipparchus (son of Pisistratus). ... The Arabic language (; , less formally, ) is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... (8th century - 9th century - 10th century - other centuries) Events Beowulf might have been written down in this century, though it could also have been in the 8th century Viking attacks on Europe begin Oseberg ship burial The Magyars arrive in what is now Hungary, forcing the Serbs and Bulgars south... This article is on the highest religious and/or temporal title, aspiring universal authority, in Islam; for lower, notably gubernatorial, uses of the Arabic title khalifa, see that article Caliph is the term or title for the Islamic leader of the Ummah, or community of Islam. ... Abu Jafar al-Mamun ibn Harun (786 - October 10, 833) (المأمون) was an Abbasid caliph who reigned from 813 until his death in 833. ...

References

• The best edition of Aratus' work is now Douglas Kidd's Cambridge edition, with translation and commentary.
• The Apostle and the Poet: Paul and Aratus (Dr. Riemer Faber)
• Review of above by Mark Possanza, BMCR (September 1999).
• Hellenistic Bibliography, Aratus and Aratea compiled by Martijn Cuypers
• "Written in the Stars:Poetry and Philosophy in the Phaenomena of Aratus" by Richard L. Hunter, Arachnion 2.
• Suda On-Line: Aratus, with a list of works ascribed to Aratus.

The Suda is a Byzantine encyclopedia.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopaedia. Suda (Σουδα or alternatively Suidas) is a massive 10th century Byzantine Greek historical encyclopædia of the ancient Mediterranean world. ... The Byzantine Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered at its capital in Constantinople. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Nuttall Encyclopaedia is an early 20th century encyclopedia, edited by Rev. ...