(Ἄρατος), author of two Greek astronomical poems. The date of his birth is not known; but it seems that he lived about B. C. 270; it is probable, therefore, that the death of Euclid and the birth of Apollonius Pergaeus happened during his life, and that he was contemporary with Aristarchus of Samos, and Theocritus, who mentions him. (Idyll. vi. and vii.)
There are several accounts of his life by anonymous Greek writers: three of them are printed in the 2nd vol. of Buhle's Aratus, and one of the same in the Uranologium of Petavius. Suidas and Eudocia also mention him. From these it appears that he was a native of Soli (afterwards Pompeiopolis) in Cilicia, or (according to one authority) of
256
Tarsus; that he was invited to the court of Antigonus Gonatas, king of Macedonia, where he spent all the latter part of his life; and that his chief pursuits were physic (which is also said to have been his profession), grammar, and philosophy, in which last he was instructed by the Stoic Dionysius Heracleotes.[W.F.D]