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Pausanias was the Agiad King of Sparta; the son of Pleistoanax. He
ruled Sparta from 445 to 426 and again from 408 to 395
Pausanias took his first reign while still a minor, during a time of political
unrest. Around 446, Euboea and Megara rebelled against the Athenian empire and
the Peloponnesian forces under the command of Pleistonax invaded Attica
(Athens) going as far as Eleusis and Thria. His father, Pleistoanax, was
temporarily deposed and exiled after being charged by the Spartans with taking
a bribe, probably from the Athenian leader, Pericles, to withdraw from the
plain of Eleusis in Attica. Pausanias took the throne in 445 and ruled until
426, when his father was recalled and restored as Agiad King of Sparta.
Pleistoanax held this role until his death in 409. In c. 408, Pausanias once
again became the Agiad King of Sparta.
Peloponnesian
war:
Following the Spartan victory over Athens in the Battle of
Aegospotami
in 405, the Spartans were in a position to finally force Athens to
capitulate. Pausanias laid siege to Athens' main city while the Spartan admiral
Lysander's fleet blockaded
the port of Piraeus. This action effectively closed the grain route to Athens
through the Hellespont, thereby starving Athens. Realising the seriousness of
the situation, the Athenian statesman,
Theramenes, started
negotiations with Lysander. These negotiations took three months, but in the
end Lysander agreed to terms at Piraeus. With the capitulation of Athens the
Peloponnesian War ended in 404. Lysander then put in place a puppet government
in Athens with the establishment of the oligarchy of the
Thirty Tyrants under
Critias which included
Theramenes as a leading member. However, in 403 Pausanias was able to undermine
Lysander's dominance of Athens after Pausanias gained the command of the
Peloponnesian League expedition against the Athenian democrats then based in
Piraeus. Despite opposition from Lysander, Pausanias took the opportunity to
promote a reconciliation between the democratic party in Piraeus and the
oligarchs controlling Athens' main city, thus allowing the re-establishment of
democratic government in Athens. Pausanias was able to restore democracy in
Athens while bringing the Athenians, temporarily, into an alliance with Sparta.
Pausanias's actions led to a major conflict with the Spartan ephors. Pausanias
was prosecuted, but then acquitted.
Corinthian War and
Returning to Sparta in 395, Lysander was instrumental in starting a war with
Thebes and other Greek cities, which came to be known as the Corinthian War.
The Spartans prepared to send out an army against this new alliance of Athens,
Thebes, Corinth and Argos (with the backing of the Persians). The Spartans
arranged for two armies, one under Lysander and the other under Pausanias, to
rendezvous at and attack the city of Haliartus, Boeotia. Lysander arrived at
the city while Pausanias's forces were still several days away. Not willing to
wait for Pausanias, Lysander advanced to Haliartus with his troops. In the
ensuing Battle of Haliartus,
Lysander was killed after bringing his forces too near the walls of the city.
Pausanias's army arrived after Lysander's defeat but then left the battle scene
primarily due to Athenian military opposition. King Pausanias negotiated a
cease of fighting so the bodies of the dead were able to be collected for a
proper burial. After, the Spartan army returned to Sparta. Because of his poor
leadership at Haliartus, Pausanias was condemned to death by the Spartans and
replaced as king by his young son Agesipolis I.
However, Pausanias was able to escape execution and fled Sparta to live in
exile in Tegea.
Exile:
While living in Tegea, Pausanias wrote a pamphlet. No fragments of the pamphlet
have survived and its contents or purposes are not clear. However, it seems
that he wrote the pamphlet to criticize his opponents in Sparta accusing them
of violating traditional Spartan laws and advocating the abolition of the
ephors. Pausanias is believed to have outlived his son, Agesipolis I, according
to an inscription found on a monument set up by Pausanias to the memory of his
son in Delphi. The year of Pausanias's death is sometime after 380. He was also
the father of Cleombrotus I.
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