Aratus of Sicyon: The Great Leader of the Achaean Sympolity During the Period 245 and 213

This chapter provides an analysis of Aratus, one of the most influential and important figures of the Achaean federal state. It describes his life and actions that lead to the rise of the Achaean federal state as a leading and robust state in southern Greece and the Peloponnesus. It provides evidence of a series of strategic choices by Aratus regarding geopolitics, the revival of the federal trend throughout Peloponnese, his efforts to confront a formidable and dangerous enemy, Sparta under King Cleomenes III, and his key contribution towards shaping an alliance with the Kingdom of Macedon as a way of repelling the formidable Sparta. It describes how the socio-economic reforms of Sparta under Cleomenes created strong secessionist tendencies among the member city-states of the Achaean federal state, putting the viability of the Achaean federal project at considerable risk. It also describes what measures Aratus took to neutralise these secessionist tendencies. The chapter further provides evidence regarding the lost opportunity for the unification of the whole of the Peloponnesus through the incorporation of Sparta into the Achaean federal state. That never fully materialised not only because of the rivalry between Aratus and Cleomenes but also because of a series of other issues that the chapter describes in detail.