Abantidas (in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Ἀβαντίδας), the son of Paseas, became

tyrant A tyrant (), in the modern English usage of the word, is an absolute ruler who is unrestrained by law, or one who has usurped a legitimate ruler's sovereignty. Often portrayed as cruel, tyrants may defend their positions by resorting to re ...

of the

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

city-state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world since the dawn of history, including cities such as ...

of Sicyon in 264 BC after murdering Cleinias, the father of

Aratus Aratus (; grc-gre, Ἄρατος ὁ Σολεύς; c. 315 BC/310 BC240) was a Greek didactic poet. His major extant work is his hexameter poem ''Phenomena'' ( grc-gre, Φαινόμενα, ''Phainómena'', "Appearances"; la, Phaenomena), the ...

. After the assassination, Abantidas had the remaining friends and relations of Cleinias banished or put to death. Aratus, the son of Cleinias, who was then only seven years old, narrowly escaped death by fleeing into the house of Soso, Abantidas' sister, who happened to be married to Prophantus, the late Cleinias' brother. She hid him in the house, and at night sent him secretly off to Argos. Abantidas was fond of literature, and was accustomed to attending the

philosophical Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

discussions of Deinias of Argos and Aristotle the dialectician, in the agora of Sicyon. During one of these occasions in 252 BC, with the complicity of the two rhetors, he was murdered by his enemies. After his death, his father, Paseas succeeded him as tyrant. But later Nicocles killed Paseas.

Notes

References

Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...

''Life of Aratus''
John & William Langhorne (translators), (1770) * Smith, William (ed.); ''

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' (1849, originally published 1844 under a slightly different title) is an encyclopedia/biographical dictionary. Edited by William Smith, the dictionary spans three volumes and 3,700 ...

''
"Abantidas"

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, (1867) Year of birth unknown 252 BC deaths 3rd-century BC Greek people Ancient Greek rulers Ancient Greek tyrants Ancient Greeks who were murdered Ancient Sicyonians {{AncientGreece-bio-stub