52.2
So Taurion made an intimate companion of Aratus, and gave him poison, not of a sharp and violent sort, but one of those which first induce gentle heats in the body, and a dull cough, and then little by little bring on consumption. The thing was not hidden from Aratus, but since it was no use for him to convict the criminal, he calmly and silently drank his cup of suffering to the dregs, as if his sickness had been of a common and familiar type.
52.3
However, when one of his intimate companions who was with him in his chamber saw him spit blood, and expressed surprise, Such, my dear Cephalo, said Aratus, are the wages of royal friendship.
53.1
And so he died,In 213 B.C. at Aegium, while general for the seventeenth time, and the Achaeans were very desirous that he should have burial there and memorials befitting his life. But the Sicyonians regarded it as a calamity that he should not be buried in their city, and persuaded the Achaeans to surrender his body to them.
53.2
They had, however, an ancient law that no one should be buried inside the city walls, and the law was supported by strong feelings of superstition. So they sent to Delphi to get advice in the matter from the Pythian priestess, and she gave them the following oracular answer:— Would’st thou, O Sicyon, pay Aratus lasting honour for the lives he saved, And join in pious funeral rites for thy departed lord? Know that the place which vexes or is vexed by him Is sacrilegious, be it in earth or sky or sea.
53.3
When the oracle was brought to them the Achaeans were all delighted, and the Sicyonians, in particular, changing their mourning into festival, at once put on garlands and white raiment and brought the body of Aratus from Aegium into their city, amid hymns of praise and choral dances; and choosing out a commanding place, they buried him there, calling him founder and saviour of the city.
