Pausanias

Family: Sparta · Role: king · First appears: Lycurgus

Pausanias, king of Sparta, was the father of Plistoanax and later of Agesipolis, his eldest son, who reigned in his place. He was an intimate friend of Themistocles, who communicated something to him and sought his assistance. As general, Pausanias dealt with Aristides over military matters, asking him to transfer the Athenians to the army’s right wing; when Aristides later tried to complain to him, Pausanias angrily said he was not at leisure.

After the Medes had been driven from Greece, the allies, unable to endure Pausanias’s harshness and pride, revolted to Cimon and Aristides, who asked the Ephors of Sparta to recall him because he was bringing dishonor to Sparta and trouble to Greece. Cimon then displaced him as commander of the Greeks, while Uliades and Antagoras conspired against him and ran their ships into Pausanias’s galley near Byzantium. During this period, Pausanias awoke and, mistaking Cleonice for an assassin, struck her with his poniard, killing her.

Later, when Lysander joined forces in Attica with the kings Agis and Pausanias, Pausanias outwardly appeared to support the tyrants but worked for peace so that Lysander could not again make himself lord of Athens.

Relationship record

Life events

Cimon displaced Pausanias as Greek commander after the allies revolted from Pausanias.(Cimon)
- With: Cimon Aristides
- “The greatest part of the allies, no longer able to endure the harshness and pride of Pausanias, revolted from him to Cimon and Aristides, who accepted the duty, and wrote to the Ephors of Sparta, desiring them to recall a man who was causing dishonor to Sparta, and trouble to Greece.”

Lycurgus

child: Plistoanax “Plistoanax, the son of Pausanias”
parent: Plistoanax “And Plistoanax, the son of Pausanias, when an orator of Athens said the Lacedaemonians had no learning, told him, ”

Themistocles

friends with Themistocles “though he were his intimate friend”
with Themistocles (interaction) “he ventured to communicate it to him, and desired his assistance”

Aristides

with Aristides (interaction) “But he told him, it was not convenient to conceal the matter from Pausanias (because he was general)”
with amompharetus (interaction) “And when Pausanias came to him and told him he did these things by the common vote and determination of the Greeks”
enemies with Uliades “Upon which Uliades, the Samian, and Antagoras of Chios, conspiring together, ran in near Byzantium on Pausanias's galley”
enemies with Antagoras “Upon which Uliades, the Samian, and Antagoras of Chios, conspiring together, ran in near Byzantium on Pausanias's galley”
with Aristides (interaction) “Pausanias spoke to Aristides, desiring him to transfer the Athenians to the right wing of the army”
enemies with Aristides “And when Aristides once was about to complain and expostulate with Pausanias, he told him, with an angry look, that he was not at leisure”

Lysander

with Lysander (interaction) “Having spent some little time about these things, and sent some before to Lacedaemon to tell them he was arriving with two hundred ships, he united his forces in Attica with those of the two kings Agis and Pausanias”
with Lysander (interaction) “Pausanias went, and in words, indeed, professed as if he had been for the tyrants against the people, but in reality exerted himself for peace, that Lysander might not by the means of his friends become lord of Athens again.”

Cimon

enemies with Cimon “The greatest part of the allies, no longer able to endure the harshness and pride of Pausanias, revolted from him to Cimon and Aristides”
with Cleonice (interaction) “Pausanias, who was fallen asleep, awakened and startled with the noise, thought an assassin had taken that dead time of night to murder him, so that hastily snatching up his poniard that lay by him, he struck the girl, who fell with the blow, and died.”
rivals with Cimon “Cimon, taking this advantage, by acts of kindness to those who were suffering wrong, and by his general humane bearing, robbed him of the command of the Greeks”

Comparison of Lucullus with Cimon

with Cimon (Pausanias's victories preceded Cimon's assumption of command.) “Cimon, moreover, when he took the command, found the power of the king broken, and the spirits of the Persians humbled by their great defeats and incessant routs under Themistocles, Pausanias, and Leotychides”

Agis

child: Agesipolis “while his eldest son Agesipolis reigned in his place”

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Extracted from the original text of Plutarch's Lives. Made with Rho MD.