Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/669

 ARARAT ARATUS 633 Blackfeet confederacy. In 1822 they were a powerful tribe estimated at 10,000, but in 1842 they had dwindled to 2,500 in 300 lodges, and, with the disappearance of the buffalo, are rap- idly declining. ARARAT (Arm. Masis ; Turk. Agri DagK), a mountain of western Asia, considered a portion of the " mountains of Ararat " on which, ac- cording to Gen. viii. 4, Noah's ark rested after the deluge. It is divided into two peaks, Great Ararat on the N. W. and Little Ararat on the S. E., whose bases blend, while their summits are nearly 7 m. apart. The summit of Great Ararat lies in lat. 39 42' N., Ion. 44 38' E., and is 17,323 feet above the sea level, and 14,320 feet above its base. For more than 8,000 feet below its summit it is constantly covered with snow and ice. Little Ararat is lower by about 4,000 feet, and is free from snow and ice in September and October. The two mountains are of volcanic character, an eruption having taken place from them as lately as July, 1840. The apex of Great Ararat was visited on Oct. 9, 1829, by Parrot. Ararat is the central point of the dividing lines of Ar- menia, and the great landmark between Russia, Turkey, and Persia. ARARAT, or Pilot Mountain, a mountain of North Carolina, in Surrey county, between the Ararat and Dan rivers. It is of a pyramidal form and one third of a mile high ; and its top is a plateau one acre in extent, on which is a gigantic rock 300 feet high. ARAS. See AEAXES. ARATUS. I. A Greek poet, born at Soli in Cilicia, flourished about 270 B. C. He was educated under Dionysius of Heraclea, a Stoic, the principles of which sect he embraced. He was a friend of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and also of Antigonus Gonatas, king of Macedon, at Mount Ararat. whose instigation he embodied most of the as- tronomical knowledge then possessed by the Greeks in two philosophical poems. The first, Phenomena, gave a general description of the heavenly bodies and their movements, while the second, Diosemeia, described their influ- ence on the atmosphere. These poems pos- sess much merit. Aratus is the poet whom St. Paul quotes in his speech on Mars Hill, Acts xvii. 28. The best edition of his works is by Buhle (2 vols. 8vo, Leipsie, 1793, 1801). II. A Greek general and statesman, son of Clinias, born at Sicyon, 271 B. 0., died in 213. On account of the murder of his father and many of his relatives by Abantidas, their enemy in one of the political contests of the time, he was taken while very young to Argos, where he was educated till he reached the age of 20. At this period he succeeded in carrying out, without bloodshed, a revolution he had long plotted with some Argive friends, by which Nicocles, a usurper who had made himself ty- rant of Sicyon, was dethroned and the city set free. Aratus persuaded the citizens to join the Achaean league, of which he was elected general in 245. Reflected in 243, he captured the cita- del of Corinth and expelled its Macedonian garrison. Corinth was easily induced to join the Achseans, and was soon followed by Tro3- zen, Epidaurus, Megara, Cleonse, Argos, and Megalopolis. He now hoped to unite all the governments of Greece ; but the power of the Achaaan league already began to excite the jealousy of the JEtolians, and of Cleomenes III., king of Sparta, who aspired to restore the Spartan hegemony. Its first active en- emy was the latter, who began a war about 224. Aratus defeated him, but only by sum-