Page:Aratus The Phenomena and Diosemeia.pdf/9



HEN Cilicia, in the days of Cicero, boasted of being the birth-place of the Poet Aratus, there was reserved for her a far higher honour, the giving birth to one of the noblest of mankind, if true nobility consist in the power of benefiting the human race, and in the exercise of that power to the greatest extent by the most unexampled self-denial. Soli, the native city of Aratus, was not far distant from Tarsus, the birth-place of St Paul; and the fame of the heathen Poet has been considerably enhanced by a passage from his writings having been quoted by his countryman, the christian Apostle. One biographer indeed states that Aratus was a native of Tarsus, and he is occasionally called Tarsensis; but the more probable opinion is, that he was born at Soli, and he is commonly called Solensis. The date of his birth is about 260 years before the Christian æra. The names of his parents were Athedonorus and Letophila, they were persons of some 1