Aratus   

to desire them to come to him, which they did from all quarters. By
this time the day began to break, and the theatre was filled with
a multitude that were held in suspense by uncertain reports and knew
nothing distinctly of what had happened, until a public crier came
forward and proclaimed that Aratus, the son of Clinias, invited the
citizens to recover their liberty.
Then at last assured that what they had so long looked for was come
to pass, they pressed in throngs to the tyrant's gates to set them
on fire. And such a flame was kindled, the whole house catching fire,
that it was seen as far as Corinth; so that the Corinthians, wondering
what the matter could be, were upon the point of coming to their assistance.
Nicocles fled away secretly out of the city by means of certain underground
passages, and the soldiers helping the Sicyonians to quench the fire,
plundered the house. This Aratus hindered not, but divided also the
rest of the riches of the tyrant amongst the citizens. In this exploit,
not one of these engaged in it was slain, nor any of the contrary
party, fortune so ordering the action as to be clear and free from
civil bloodshed. He restored eighty exiles who had been expelled by
Nicocles, and no less than five hundred who had been driven out by
former tyrants and had endured a long banishment, pretty nearly, by
this time, of fifty years' duration. These returning, most of them
very poor, were impatient to enter upon their former possessions,
and, proceeding to their several farms and houses, gave great perplexity
to Aratus, who considered that the city without was envied for its
liberty and aimed at by Antigonus, and within was full of disorder
and sedition. Wherefore, as things stood, he thought it best to associate
it to the Achaean community, and so, although Dorians, they of their
own will took upon them the name and citizenship of the Achaeans,
who at that time had neither great repute nor much power. For the
most of them lived in small towns, and their territory was neither
large nor fruitful, and the neighbouring sea was almost wholly without
a harbour, breaking direct upon a rocky shore. But yet these above
others made it appear that the Grecian courage was invincible, whensoever
it could only have order and concord within itself and a prudent general
to direct it. For though they had scarcely been counted as any part
of the ancient Grecian power, and at this time it did not equal the
strength of one ordinary city, yet by prudence and unanimity, and
because they knew not how to envy and malign, but to obey and follow
him amongst them that was most eminent for virtue, they not only preserved
their own liberty in the midst of so many great cities, military powers,
and monarchies, but went on steadily saving and delivering from slavery
great numbers of the Greeks.
As for Aratus, he was in his behaviour a true statesman, high-minded,
and more intent upon the public than his private concerns, a bitter
hater of tyrants, making the common good the rule and law of his friendships
and enmities. So that indeed he seems not to have been so faithful
a friend, as he was a reasonable and gentle enemy, ready, according
to the needs of the state, to suit himself on occasion to either side;
concord between nations, brotherhood between cities, the council and
the assembly unanimous in their votes, being the objects above all
other blessings to which he was passionately devoted; backward, indeed,
and diffident in the use of arms and often force, but in effecting
a purpose underhand, and outwitting cities and potentates without
observation, most politic and dexterous. Therefore, though he succeeded
beyond hope in many enterprises which he undertook, yet he seems to
have left quite as many unattempted, though feasible enough, for want
of assurance. For it should seem, that as the sight of certain beasts
is strong in the night but dim by day, the tenderness of the humours
of their eyes not bearing the contact of the light, so there is also
one kind of human skill and sagacity which is easily daunted and disturbed
in actions done in the open day and before the world, and recovers
all its self-possession in secret and covert enterprises; which inequality
is occasioned in noble minds for want of philosophy, a mere wild and
uncultivated fruit of a virtue without true knowledge coming up; as