Aratea

A name given to the Latin translations of the Phaenomena and Prognostica of Aratus (q.v.), made by Cicero, Germanicus, and Avienus. The original has been translated into English, with notes, by Poste (1880). Cicero has quoted nearly all of his own version, and there are besides 480 lines extant in a single fragment. We have the version of Germanicus entire, with scholia (ed. princeps, Bologna, 1474, best recent edition by Breysig, Berlin, 1867); and also that of Avienus in 1877 lines (ed. princeps, Venice, 1488). See Schaubach, De Arati Interpretibus Romanis (Meiningen, 1817); and the article Aratus.

(τὰ Ἀράτεια). Two sacrifices offered every year at Sicyon in honour of Aratus, a general of the Achaeans, who was honoured as a hero. See Plut. Arat.ch. 53.