Pausanias Analysis

Dorieus—since he could not endure to be subject to Cleomenes by remaining in Lacedaemon—departed to establish a colony. Cleomenes, however, as soon as he came to the throne, immediately invaded Argolis, gathering an army from both the Spartans themselves and their allies. When the Argives came forth armed against him, Cleomenes defeated them in battle; nearby was a grove sacred to Argus, son of Niobe, and about five thousand of the Argives fled into this grove after their defeat. Then Cleomenes, who frequently acted from rash impulse, ordered the Helots at that time also to set fire to the grove; thus, the flames overtook the entire grove, and along with its burning the suppliants within it all perished together.

He also made war upon Athens: the first time, winning freedom for the Athenians from the sons of Peisistratus and gaining thereby high esteem among the Greeks for himself and for the Lacedaemonians; later, however, he went again, collaborating with the Athenian Isagoras to impose tyranny upon Athens. But when his hopes failed and the Athenians resolutely fought for their freedom, Cleomenes devastated parts of their land, including the district known as Orgas sacred to the deities of Eleusis; it is said he even cut down this grove. He also sailed to Aegina and arrested the leading men among the Aeginetans who had been party to the Medizing faction and had persuaded their fellow citizens to give earth and water to King Darius, son of Hystaspes.

While Cleomenes was spending time in Aegina, Demaratus, the king from the other royal house, began maligning him among the populace of the Lacedaemonians. When Cleomenes returned from Aegina, he sought to depose Demaratus from kingship, and he bribed the prophetess at Delphi to deliver oracles against Demaratus to the Lacedaemonians, precisely in accordance with his own instructions. He also encouraged Leotychidas, a man of royal lineage and belonging to the same house as Demaratus, to compete with him for the throne.

Leotychides based his arguments on words once spoken by Ariston, who had disowned Demaratus at his birth, due to ignorance asserting that he was not his own son. At that time, the Lacedaemonians, as was their usual practice in all other matters, brought this controversy concerning Demaratus as well before the oracle at Delphi; and the priestess gave them an answer which corresponded exactly to the wishes of Cleomenes.

Demaratus was indeed deprived of his kingship through the hatred of Cleomenes, and not according to justice; Cleomenes himself, afterward, met his end through madness. For, having grasped his sword, he wounded himself, mutilating and hacking all parts of his body. The Argives say his life met such an end because he was thus paying the penalty for the suppliants from Argos; the Athenians say it was because he devastated Orgas; and the Delphians declare it was owing to the gifts he gave the priestess, persuading her to give false oracles about Demaratus.

Indeed, it may well be that the resentments of heroes and gods alike converged together upon Cleomenes. Certainly we know that Protesilaus, a hero in Elaeus, who was not more renowned than Argos, individually exacted vengeance upon Artayctes, a Persian, nor did it ever happen for the Megarians to appease the anger of the Eleusinian divinities after they had cultivated sacred ground. And as for the trial of the oracle, we know of absolutely no other person who ever dared attempt it but Cleomenes alone.

Since Cleomenes had no male children, the rule descended to Leonidas, son of Anaxandrides, the brother of Dorieus on both sides. It was at this time that Xerxes led his army against Greece, and Leonidas faced him at Thermopylae along with three hundred Lacedaemonians. Indeed, there have been many wars among Greeks themselves and also against barbarians, but few can be counted in which the valor of a single man has achieved such high renown, as Achilles in the war against Troy, and Miltiades at Marathon. Yet, to my mind, Leonidas's deed surpasses all that occurred in later times as well as those that came before.

For Xerxes, whose pride exceeded that of all kings who subsequently ruled the Medes and the Persians, and whose exploits displayed such remarkable brilliance, Leonidas, with the small band he led to Thermopylae, would have effectively barred his march, preventing him from even seeing Greece at all or ever setting fire to the city of the Athenians—if only the Trachinian had not guided the troops led by Hydarnes along the narrow path running through Oeta, thus enabling the Persians to encircle the Greeks and thereby overcome Leonidas, after whose defeat the barbarians gained entrance into Greece.

Pausanias, son of Cleombrotus, did not become king; rather, he acted as regent for Pleistarchus, the son of Leonidas, who had been left still a child. He led the Lacedaemonians to Plataea and later sailed with them in ships to the Hellespont. Among the acts of Pausanias, I particularly commend the noble deed concerning the woman of Cos: she was a daughter of Hegetorides, son of Antagoras, a man not without distinction among the Coans, and she had been taken forcibly as a concubine by Pharandates, son of Teaspis, a Persian.

When Mardonius fell in battle at Plataea and the barbarians were defeated, Pausanias sent the woman to Cos along with the jewelry which the Persian had made for her and all other belongings she possessed. Pausanias also refused to dishonor the corpse of Mardonius, despite the suggestion made by Lampon of Aegina.