Pausanias (King)

Pausanias ( Greek Παυσανίας Pausanías ) was a king of Sparta from the house of the Agiads . He was the grandson of the commander of the same name during the Persian Wars and the son of King Pleistoanax . During his exile from 445 to 426 BC The young Pausanias became king, but was still under the tutelage of his uncle Cleomenes . Pausanias finally took over the royal dignity after the death of his father in 408 BC. And ruled until 395 BC. Chr.

First reign

Since his father was accused of bribery by the enemy Athens , the latter went in 445 BC. In exile. Pausanias, who succeeded him, must have been a child at the time, because 427 BC. His uncle Cleomenes led the army against Athens in his place. This attack was intended to prevent the Athenians from conquering Mytilene . Although Cleomenes was successful, it fell to the enemy. Due to an oracle , Pleistoanax returned in 426 BC. Back to the throne.

Second reign

As Pausanias' father 408 BC. He finally took over the government at a difficult point in time. Pausanias was a supporter of a strong social faction of Sparta, which tried to tame the aggressive line that had led Sparta to victory over Athens in the great Peloponnesian War and to calm Greece down again by means of moderate politics. They also endeavored to return to the traditional Spartan policy of confining themselves to the Peloponnese . She wanted to give the Greek cities back their autonomy and dissolved the oligarchic governments set up in many places by the Spartan general Lysandros in the last years of the war. The main figures of the more aggressive foreign policy current were Pausanias' later colleague Agesilaus II and Lysandros, the great hero of the war.

An intervention by the Lacedaemonian army under the leadership of the king resolved around 402 BC. BC also the unstable government structure of Lysander, who became Harmost of Athens after the war . In recognition of Pausanias' moderation, the Spartians who fell in this operation against the Athenians were finally buried in a state grave (!) In the Kerameikos of Athens, the so-called Lacedaemonian grave. At home he was brought to justice for this. The 28 geronts , the ephors and King Agis II passed the verdict. There was an acquittal, with 14 Geronten and Agis voting against him.

The fate of one of his main opponents also became his: Lysandros could not contain his ambitions and was fatally wounded in an unnecessary attack on the city of Haliartos in 395. The Spartan army under King Pausanias, which Lysander should have waited for, arrived shortly afterwards , picked up the dead and withdrew to Sparta. Pausanias acted completely appropriately, since no regular war was planned anyway, but only a kind of police action against Thebes , which refused to meet its alliance obligations. Sparta did not have the strength to fight on two fronts at the same time, because at the time of the intervention there was an army in Asia Minor in the Spartan-Persian war . At home, during his absence and through the shock of Lysandros' death, the opposing party had gained the upper hand and Pausanias was charged with deliberately delaying his arrival at Haliartus and not avenging Lysandros death.

In exile

Pausanias went to his retirement from Boeotia to Tegea into exile, without waiting for the outcome of his trial. He was sentenced to death in Sparta and therefore sought refuge in the sanctuary of Athena Alea . In his place his son Agesipolis became king and his successor was Pausanias' second son Cleombrotos . According to Xenophon, he seems to have died of illness very soon in Tegea. But elsewhere he says that Pausanias brought about the withdrawal of the Argolic-minded inhabitants and representatives of the people after his son had the city of Mantineia in 385 BC. Had conquered. According to other modern findings, he lived until at least 381 and devoted himself in exile a. a. constitutional considerations on the Spartan constitution.

The political end of Pausanias had serious consequences for Sparta: Since Lysandros was dead and Pausanias had been driven out, Sparta had no experienced general in the motherland. So, because the failure before Haliartus led to the Corinthian War , for better or worse King Agesilaus had to be ordered back from his successful campaign against the Persian satraps in Asia Minor and thus largely abandoned the campaign against the Persian Empire.

swell

• Diodor , Bibliothéke historiké , 14, 17 (Engl.)
• Pausanias , Travel in Greece , 3, 5, 1 - 7.
• Plutarch , Lysander , 100, 21; 100, 31. (Eng.)
• Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica (Eng.)
• Thucydides , History of the Peloponnesian War , 3, 26.
• Xenophon , Hellenika , 2, 4, 18-39; 3, 5, 17-25; 5, 2, 3 - 6. (Eng.)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Thucydides 3:26.
2. ↑ Xenophon , Hellenika 2,4,33.
3. ↑ Xenophon, Hellenika 3.5.
4. ↑ Xenophon, Hellenika 5.2.

literature

• Manfred Clauss : Sparta. An introduction to its history and civilization. Beck, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-406-09476-7 (Beck's elementary books).
• Lukas Thommen : Sparta. Constitutional and social history of a Greek polis . Metzler, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-476-01964-0 .
• Karl-Wilhelm Welwei : Sparta. The rise and fall of an ancient great power. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-608-94016-2 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Pleistoanax	King of Sparta 445-426 BC Chr.	Pleistoanax
Pleistoanax	King of Sparta 408–395 BC Chr.	Agesipolis I.