Pausanias

Family: Lacedaemonians · Role: commander-in-chief of the Hellenes · First appears: Book 1 · Chapter 4 · Part 2

Pausanias, son of Cleombrotus, was sent from Lacedaemon as commander-in-chief of the Hellenes. He and the allied force subdued most of Cyprus, then compelled Byzantium to surrender. The allies later deserted him for the Athenians, and on his recall to Lacedaemon he was censured for oppression but acquitted on the heaviest charges; the Spartans did not restore him to command, sending Dorkis and others in his place.

After returning to Byzantium, Pausanias secretly sent captured kinsmen of Xerxes to the King, with Gongylus’s help, and sent a letter proposing marriage to the King’s daughter and the subjection of Sparta and Greece. He adopted Persian dress and customs, and his conduct contributed to the confederacy joining the Athenians. After being recalled again, besieged and expelled from Byzantium, he returned to Sparta when ordered to do so. The ephors imprisoned him briefly, then released him; he offered himself for inquiry and was also reported to be conspiring with the Helots, promising them freedom and citizenship if they joined an insurrection.

A former servant exposed a letter ordering his death. Pausanias took sanctuary at the temple of the goddess of the Brazen House, where the ephors sealed him in and starved him; he died soon after being brought out. The Delphic god later ordered his tomb moved to the place of his death. Pausanias was also regent for his first cousin, the minor King Pleistarchus, son of Leonidas, and restored Plataea’s city and territory, declaring it independent and inviolate.