Aratus

Plutarch

Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. XI. Perrin, Bernadotte, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1926.

And so he died,[*](In 213 B.C.) at Aegium, while general for the seventeenth time, and the Achaeans were very desirous that he should have burial there and memorials befitting his life. But the Sicyonians regarded it as a calamity that he should not be buried in their city, and persuaded the Achaeans to surrender his body to them.

They had, however, an ancient law that no one should be buried inside the city walls, and the law was supported by strong feelings of superstition. So they sent to Delphi to get advice in the matter from the Pythian priestess, and she gave them the following oracular answer:—

  1. Would’st thou, O Sicyon, pay Aratus lasting honour for the lives he saved,
  2. And join in pious funeral rites for thy departed lord?
  3. Know that the place which vexes or is vexed by him
  4. Is sacrilegious, be it in earth or sky or sea.

When the oracle was brought to them the Achaeans were all delighted, and the Sicyonians, in particular, changing their mourning into festival, at once put on garlands and white raiment and brought the body of Aratus from Aegium into their city, amid hymns of praise and choral dances; and choosing out a commanding place, they buried him there, calling him founder and saviour of the city.