Latest / The History of Greece: Philosophy, Empire, and Endless Reinvention — Fexingo History / Aratus of Sicyon: The Last Hope of Greek Freedom
Transcript
- Lucas: If you've been walking with us through these conversations about ancient Greece — from the glory of Periclean Athens to the chaos of the Successor kingdoms — you might have noticed a pattern. Brilliant city-states, constant infighting, and then someone bigger rolls in and takes over. Luna: Yeah, it's almost like they couldn't stop themselves from fighting each other long enough to stand together. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the tragedy we're stepping into today — but with a twist. Because in the 3rd century BCE, long after Alexander's empire had shattered, one man tried to do something radical: unite the Greeks not under a king, but under a federal league. His name was Aratus of Sicyon. Luna: Aratus — I've heard the name. He led the Achaean League, right? Lucas: That's right. And if that sounds like a footnote compared to the Peloponnesian War or Alexander's conquests — well, it kind of is, in popular memory. But Polybius, the historian, thought Aratus was one of the most important figures of the Hellenistic age. And for good reason. Lucas: If today's conversation actually helps you see this period in a new light — because honestly, the Hellenistic era is way more than just Alexander's hangover — the way we keep this show ad-free and independent is listener support. You can buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just a way to say this stuff matters to you. Luna: Yeah, and it really does help. Every bit lets us keep digging into these stories nobody else covers. Lucas: So — back to Aratus. He was born in Sicyon, a small city near Corinth, around 271 BCE. His father was a prominent citizen, but when Aratus was just a child, a tyrant named Abantidas seized power and had his father executed. Aratus had to flee into exile. Luna: So he grows up with a personal grudge against tyranny. Lucas: Absolutely. And he doesn't just harbour resentment — he acts on it. At age twenty, in 251 BCE, he organised a daring night raid to liberate Sicyon. He and a small band of exiles slipped into the city at night, overpowered the guards, and called the citizens to rise up. The tyrant at that point — Abantidas had been assassinated, and his father Paseas had taken over — was caught off guard, and Sicyon was free. Luna: That sounds like something out of a thriller. Lucas: It really does. Plutarch tells the story in his Life of Aratus, and it's full of tension — signal fires, secret meetings in the countryside, a narrow escape when a dog almost gave them away. But the key thing is, after freeing Sicyon, Aratus didn't set himself up as the new strongman. Instead, he joined the Achaean League, a federation of city-states in the northern Peloponnese, and he brought Sicyon into it. Luna: So he chooses collective security over personal power. That's unusual for a Greek leader. Lucas: Very unusual. And the Achaean League itself was an interesting experiment. Unlike the Athenian empire or Spartan hegemony, it was a true federation. Member cities kept their local governments but shared foreign policy and military command. They had a federal assembly, elected a general each year — and Aratus ended up being elected general seventeen times over the next few decades. Luna: Seventeen times — that's basically a permanent presidency, but with elections. Lucas: Right. And his big goal was to drive out the Macedonian garrisons that still controlled key points in the Peloponnese, especially Corinth. In 243 BCE, he pulled off another stunning coup — he captured the Acrocorinth, the fortress that guarded Corinth, in a night raid. That gave the League control of the Isthmus and a huge boost in prestige. Luna: So the League is expanding, the Greeks are rallying — and then Sparta comes back into the picture? Lucas: Exactly. And this is where the story gets complicated. Because Sparta, under King Cleomenes III, embarked on a series of radical reforms to revive Spartan power — redistributing land, cancelling debts, reinvigorating the agoge. And he started conquering neighbouring cities, which brought him into conflict with the Achaean League. Luna: So you have two different visions of Greek revival: Aratus's federal league and Cleomenes's reformed Sparta. They should have been allies. Lucas: They should have been, but they weren't. Aratus saw Cleomenes as a tyrant in the making — a king with too much power. And Cleomenes saw the Achaean League as corrupt oligarchs blocking his path. There were attempts at negotiation, but Aratus refused to give Cleomenes any authority within the League. So instead of uniting against Macedon, they fought each other. Luna: And that's when Aratus makes the fateful decision to ally with Macedon. Lucas: Yes. In 224 BCE, Aratus invited Antigonus III Doson, the king of Macedon, to come south and help fight Cleomenes. It was a desperate move — the same Macedon that had oppressed Greece for generations. But Aratus argued it was the lesser evil. The alliance defeated Cleomenes at the Battle of Sellasia in 222 BCE, and Sparta was forced to become a Macedonian ally. But the price was that Macedon re-established its influence in Greece. Luna: So he trades one master for another, and in the end, Greece loses either way. Lucas: Pretty much. Aratus died a few years later, in 213 BCE, and the League continued for a while, but the damage was done. Within a generation, the Romans would use the League's conflicts with Sparta and Macedon as a pretext to intervene, and by 146 BCE, Greece was a Roman province. Luna: It's almost like the Greek city-states were doomed by their own inability to trust each other. Lucas: Aratus tried to build that trust through federalism — a system based on shared interests and constitutions rather than force. But old habits died hard. The Greeks had a word for it: homonoia, 'like-mindedness'. Aratus spent his life trying to create it, but in the end, the forces of division were stronger. Luna: So maybe the real tragedy isn't that Aratus failed — it's that he almost succeeded. Lucas: That's a beautiful way to put it. And it makes you wonder: if the Greeks had managed to unite under a federal system earlier, would they have been able to resist Rome? We'll never know, but it's a question that haunted later thinkers, from Polybius to the American Founders.