Pausanias Analysis

Now Pleistarchus, the son of Leonidas, having recently assumed the kingship, died, and Pleistoanax, the son of Pausanias who had commanded at Plataea, succeeded to the throne. Pleistoanax had a son, Pausanias, who led an expedition into Attica against Thrasybulus and the Athenians, nominally as an enemy to them, but in reality intending to establish firmly in power those who had been invested with authority by Lysander. Pausanias defeated in battle the Athenians who held the Peiraeus, but immediately after this victory resolved to withdraw his forces and return home, considering it preferable not to aid impious men in increasing their tyranny, nor to bring upon Sparta the most shameful of reproaches.

When he returned from Athens after having fought an unsuccessful battle, his enemies brought him to trial. The court for a king of the Lacedaemonians was held by the men called Elders, twenty-eight in total, along with the magistrates of the ephors, and together with them sat also the king from the other royal house. Fourteen of the Elders, joined by Agis, the king from the other royal house, found Pausanias guilty of wrongdoing.

The remaining charges the court rejected. A short time afterwards, the Lacedaemonians began gathering an army against Thebes—the reason for which expedition I will explain in my account of Agesilaus. At that time, Lysander arrived in Phocis, and having mustered the entire Phocian force without any further delay, entered Boeotia and began assaulting the walls of Haliartus, since the people there were unwilling to revolt from the Thebans. Meanwhile, some Thebans and Athenians had already secretly entered the city; these troops now sallied forth and drew up their ranks before the walls. In the battle that followed, several Lacedaemonians fell, including Lysander himself.

Pausanias had fallen behind in the campaign due to gathering forces from Tegea and elsewhere in Arcadia; but when he reached Boeotia, he learned of the defeat of those who were with Lysander and of Lysander's own death. Nevertheless, he proceeded toward Thebes with his army, fully intending to initiate battle. At this point, the Thebans arrayed themselves opposite him, and it was reported that Thrasybulus was not far away, leading the Athenians. Thrasybulus waited for the Lacedaemonians to begin the battle; once they engaged, he planned himself to attack them from behind.

Therefore Pausanias feared being caught between two separate enemy forces, so he agreed upon a truce with the Thebans and recovered those who had fallen beneath the walls of Haliartus. This did not please the Lacedaemonians, but I praise this decision for the following reason: since Pausanias knew well that defeats for the Lacedaemonians always occurred when they became trapped among the enemy, he feared that, just as had happened at Thermopylae and on the island of Sphacteria, he himself might become the cause of a third disaster for them.

But when the citizens accused him of delay concerning his expedition to Boeotia, he refused to appear before their tribunal and instead sought refuge among the Tegeans as a suppliant of Athena Alea. This sanctuary had, since ancient times, been revered by all Peloponnesians and provided absolute safety to those seeking refuge there. The Lacedaemonians showed evidence of this in the cases of Pausanias and also previously Leotychides, as did the Argives with Chrysis, wherein each had claimed sanctuary by seating themselves as suppliants, and none dared even to begin proceedings to demand their surrender.

After Pausanias had fled, his sons, Agesipolis and Cleombrotus, were still altogether young, and Aristodemus, being their nearest relative, acted as their guardian. The achievement of the Lacedaemonians at Corinth occurred under Aristodemus' leadership.

When Agesipolis had grown to manhood and succeeded to the kingship, he first made war against the Argives among the Peloponnesians. When he had led his army from Tegean territory into Argos, the Argives sent a herald to Agesipolis, proposing a truce between them, based on certain ancient, ancestral agreements established long ago among the Dorians. But he refused to make peace with the herald, and continued his advance with the army, devastating their land as he went. Then a god sent an earthquake; but even so, Agesipolis did not intend to withdraw his forces, although portents such as these were particularly fearful to the Lacedaemonians—and likewise to the Athenians—as compared to other Greeks.

Already he had encamped beneath the Argive wall, but the god struck him repeatedly with earthquakes, which allowed him no respite; some of his troops perished, struck by lightning, while others were driven out of their minds by the thunder. Thus he was reluctantly compelled to withdraw from Argolis, and proceeded instead to set out again on a campaign against the Olynthians. While prevailing in the war, having already captured most of the cities in Chalcidice and confident that he would take Olynthus itself, he was suddenly seized with illness and died soon from it.