Abantidas

Who was Abantidas?

Abantidas, the son of Paseas, became tyrant of the ancient Greek city-state of Sicyon after murdering Cleinias, the father of Aratus, 264 BC. After the assassination, Abantidas had the remaining friends and relations of Cleinias banished or put to death; Aratus, who was then only seven years old, narrowly escaped death by fleeing into the house of Soso, Abantidas' sister, who happened to be married to Prophantus, the late Cleinias' brother. Abantidas was fond of literature, and was accustomed to attending the philosophical discussions of Deinias and Aristotle the dialectician, in the agora of Sicyon: on one of these occasions, with the complicity of the two rhetors, he was murdered by his enemies. He was succeeded as tyrant of Sicyon by his father, Paseas, who was later put to death by Nicocles.