Areus
Areus [1]
a king of the Lacedaemonians, whose letter to the high-priest Onias is given in 1 Maccabees 12:20 sq. He is so called in the A. V. in 1 Maccabees 12:20 and in the margin of 1 Maccabees 12:7; but Oniares in 1 Maccabees 12:19, and so in the Greek text Ο᾿Νιάρης (v. r. Ο᾿Νιάρις , Ο᾿Νειάρης ) in 1 Maccabees 12:20, and Darivs ( Δαρεῖος ) in 1 Maccabees 12:7 : there can be little doubt, however, that these are corruptions of Ἀρεύς . In Josephus (Ant. 12:4, 10) the name is written ( Ἀρεῖος ) as in the Vulgate Arsus. There were two Spartan kings of the name of Areus, of whom the first reigned B.C. 309 265, and the second, the grandson of the former, died when a child of eight years old in B.C. 257. There were three high-priests of the name of Onias, of whom the first held the office B.C. 323300. This is the one who must have written the letter to Areus I, probably in some interval between 309 and 300 (Grimm, Zu Maacc. p. 185). See ONIAS. This Areus was foremost in the league of the Greek states against Anti, onus Gonatus (B.C. 280), and when Pyrrhus attacked Sparta (B.C. 272) he repelled him by an alliance with the Arcives. He fell in battle against the Macedonians at Corinth (Smith's Diet. of Class. Biog. s.v.).
