Aratus of Soli

Aratus of Soli was a Greek poet of the early third century BC who worked at the court of Antigonus Gonatas of Macedon. He is known above all for the Phaenomena, a didactic hexameter poem on the constellations and on weather signs.

The Phaenomena, based on a prose work by the astronomer Eudoxus, was translated into Latin by Cicero and others and remained a school text for centuries. Mair’s Loeb prose translation (1921) is given in the Works section.