Antigonus Gonatas was now quite the most powerful person left in Macedon
or Greece, and though Sparta and Athens tried to get the help of Egypt
against him, they could do nothing to shake off his power.
There were twelve little cities in the Peloponnesus, which were all
united together in one league, called the Achaian, each governing itself,
but all joining together against any enemy outside. In the good old
times they had sent men to the wars as allies of Sparta, but they had
never had a man of much mark among them. In the evil times, Sicyon, a
city near Achaia, fell under the power of a tyrant, and about the time
that Pyrrhus was killed, Clinias, a citizen of Sicyon, made a great
attempt to free his townsmen, but he was found out, his house attacked,
and he and his family all put to death, except his son Aratus, a little
boy of seven years old, who ran away from the dreadful sight, and went
wandering about the town, till by chance he came into the house of the
tyrant's sister. She took pity on the poor boy, hid him from her brother
all day, and at night sent him to Argos to some friends of his father, by
whom he was brought up.
When he was only twenty he wrote to friends at Sicyon, and finding them
of the same mind with himself, he climbed the walls at night and met
them. The people gathered round him, and he caused it to be proclaimed
with a loud voice, "Aratus, the son of Clinias, calls on Sicyon to resume
her liberty." The people all began rushing to the tyrant's house. He
fled by an underground passage, and his house was set on fire, but not
one person on either side was killed or wounded. Aratus was resolved to
keep Sicyon free, and in order to make her strong enough, he persuaded
the citizens to join her to the Achaian League; and he soon became the
leading man among all the Achaians, and his example made other cities
come into the same band of union. He further tried to gain strength by
an alliance with Egypt, and he went thither to see Ptolemy III., called
Euergetes, or the Benefactor. It is said that Ptolemy's good-will was
won by Aratus' love of art, and especially of pictures. Apelles, the
greatest Grecian painter, was then living, and had taken a portrait of
one of the tyrants of Sicyon. Aratus had destroyed all their likenesses,
and he stood a long time looking at this one before he could bring
himself to condemn it, but at last he made up his mind that it must not
be spared. Ptolemy liked him so much that he granted him 150 talents for
the city, and the Achaians were so much pleased that they twice elected
him their general, and the second time he did them a great service.
[Picture: Corinth]
In the middle of the Isthmus of Corinth stood the city, and in the midst
was a fort called Acro-Corinthus, perched on a high hill in the very
centre of the city, so that whoever held it was master of all to the
south, and old Philip of Macedon used to call it the Corinthian shackles
of Greece. The king of Macedon, Antigonus III., now held it; but Aratus
devised a scheme to take it. A Corinthian named Erginus had come to
Sicyon on business, and there met a friend of Aratus, to whom he chanced
to mention that there was a narrow path leading up to the Acro-Corinthus
at a place where the wall was low. Aratus heard of this, and promised
Erginus sixty talents if he would guide him to the spot; but as he had
not the money, he placed all his gold and silver plate and his wife's
jewels in pledge for the amount.
On the appointed night Aratus came with 400 men, carrying
scaling-ladders, and placed them in the temple of Juno, outside the city,
where they all sat down and took off their shoes. A heavy fog came on,
and entirely hid them; and Aratus, with 100 picked men, came to the rock
at the foot of the city wall, and there waited while Erginus and seven
others, dressed as travellers, went to the gates and killed the sentinel
and guard, without an alarm. Then the ladders were fixed, and Aratus
came up with his men, and stood under the wall unseen, while four men
with lights passed by them. Three of these they killed, but the fourth
escaped, and gave the alarm. The trumpets were sounded, and every street
was full of lights and swarmed with men; but Aratus, meantime, was trying
to climb the steep rocks, and groping for the path leading up to the
citadel. Happily the fog lifted for a moment, the moon shone out, and he
saw his way, and hastened up to the Acro-Corinthus, where he began to
fight with the astonished garrison. The 300 men whom he had left in the
temple of Juno heard the noise in the city and saw the lights, then
marched in and came to the foot of the rock, but not being able to find
the path, they drew up at the foot of a precipice, sheltered by an
overhanging rock, and there waited in much anxiety, hearing the battle
overhead, but not able to join in it. The Macedonian governor, in the
meantime, had called out his men, and was going up to support the guard
in the fort, blowing his trumpets, when, as he passed these men, they
dashed out on him, just as if they had been put in ambush on purpose, and
so dismayed them in the confusion that they fancied the enemy five times
as many, as the moon and the torches flashed on their armour, and they
let themselves all be made prisoners.
[Picture: View looking across Isthmus of Corinth]
By the time morning had come Corinth was in the hands of the Achaians,
and Aratus came down from the fortress to meet the people in the theatre.
His 400 men were drawn up in two lines at its entrances, and the
Corinthians filled the seats, and shouted with an ecstasy of joy, for it
was the first time for nearly a century that true Greeks had gained any
advantage over Macedonians. Aratus was worn out by anxiety, his long
march, and night of fighting, and as he stood leaning on his spear he
could hardly rally strength to address them, and while giving back to
them the keys of their city, which they had never had since Philip's
time, he exhorted them to join the League, which they did. The
Macedonians were expelled, and Aratus put an Achaian garrison into the
Acro-Corinthus.
His whole care was to get Greece free from the Macedonians, and he drove
them out from city after city, persuading each to join the Achaian League
as it was delivered. Argos was still under a tyrant named Aristippus,
and Aratus made many attempts to turn him out, by his usual fashion of
night attacks. Once he got into the city, and fought there all day,
though he was wounded with a lance in the thigh; but he was obliged to
retreat at night. However, he attacked the tyrant when out on an
expedition, and slew him, but still could not set Argos free, as the
tyrant's son Aristomenes still held it.
However, Lysiades, the tyrant of Megalopolis, was so moved by admiration
for the patriot that he resigned, and the city joined the League. In
fact, Aratus was at this time quite the greatest man in Greece. He beat
the AEtolians, when they were on a foray into the Achaian territories,
and forced them to make peace; and he tried also to win Athens and Sparta
to the common cause against Macedon, but there were jealousies in the way
that hindered his success, and all his enterprises were rendered more
difficult by his weakly health, which always made him suffer greatly from
the fatigue and excitement of a battle.
[Picture: Ruins of a Temple at Corinth]