Aracus (admiral)

Aracus (Ancient Greek: Ἄρακος) was a man of ancient Sparta who served as an ephor in 409 BCE.[1] He was appointed nauarch (ναύαρχος) of the Spartan fleet in 405, with Lysander as his vice-admiral (ἐπιστολεύς); Lysander was to have the actual power, but could not be named nauarch because Spartan law did not allow the same person to hold this office twice.[2][3][4][5]

In 398, Aracus was sent into Asia as one of the commissioners to inspect the state of things there, and to prolong the command of Dercyllidas;[6] and in 369, he was one of the ambassadors sent to Athens,[7] where Ἄρακος (Aracus) should be read instead of Ἄρατος (Aratus), though some sources confuse the names.

References

1. Xenophon, Hellenica ii. 3. ~ 10
2. Plutarch, Lyc. 7
3. Xenophon, Hellenica ii. 1. ~ 7
4. Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica xiii. 100
5. Pausanias, Description of Greece x. 9. ~ 4
6. Xenophon, Hellenica iii. 2. ~ 6
7. Xenophon, Hellenica vi. 5. ~ 33

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William (1870). "Aracus". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. p. 254.