A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

2. King of Orchomenus in Arcadia, son of Hicetas, and grandson of the preceding, was the leader of the Arcadians in the second Messenian war, when they espoused with other nations in the Peloponnesus the side of the Messenians. He was bribed by the Lacedaemonians, and was guilty of treachery at the battle of the Trench; and when this was discovered some years afterwards, he was stoned to death by the Arcadians. His family was deprived of the sovereignty according to Pausanias, or completely destroyed according to Polybius ; but the latter statement at all events cannot be correct, as we find that his son Aristodamus ruled over Orchomenus and a great part of Arcadia. The date of Aristocrates appears to have been about B. C. 680-640. (Strab. viii. p.362 ; Paus. 4.17.4, 22.2, &c., 8.5.8; Plb. 4.33; Plut. de sera Num. Vind. 100.2; Müller, Aeginetica, p. 65, Dor. 1.7.11.)