Pausanias (Sparta)

Pausanias ( Greek Παυσανίας Pausanias ), son of Cleombrotus , was a member of the Spartan royal family of Agiaden and v of 479-470. Regent instead of the young king Pleistarchus , after his father Leonidas 480 BC. Had fallen to Thermopylae. As one of the two army kings of Sparta, he led the Spartan land army in the Persian Wars and after the final victory over the Persians in 479 BC. For ten years the joint fleet of the Athenians and Spartans, until he was recalled to his homeland, accused of high treason and starved to death in a temple where he had fled as an asylum seeker. The most important sources about his life are Herodotus and the report of Thucydides about the prehistory of the Peloponnesian War, while later authors like Plutarch or Cornelius Nepos copy without being able to add further facts. In research, the year of Pausanias' death is 470 BC. In the case of Thucydides only the times “once” and “then” are given (Thucydides I 128.1 and I 133.1).

Pausanias is consistently portrayed negatively in the ancient sources as a cruel, arrogant and despotic commander who allegedly entered into secret negotiations with the Persians in order to make himself ruler of Greece. As evidence, Thucydides handed down an alleged letter from Pausanias to King Xerxes: “Pausanias, the leader of Sparta (...) makes you the proposal, if you agree to marry your daughter and subordinate Sparta and the rest of Hellas to you . [He believes] that he can achieve that (...) If you like something about it, send a reliable man across the sea through whom we can negotiate in future ”(quoted from Thucydides I 128). Cornelius Nepos builds up his report in the biographies of famous men like an accusatory speech that does not contain a positive word about Pausanias and ends with the remark: "So Pausanias tarnished his great war glory with a dishonorable end." ("Sic Pausanias magnam belli gloriam turpi morte maculavit ”; quoted from Cornelius Nepos, Pausanias 5,4) Overall, one should be careful with judgments about his“ bad ”character or his“ inglorious ”role in Greek history, since the report that has come down to us is biased and distorted into the opposite could.

479 BC Pausanias defeated the Persians in the decisive battle of Plataiai as the general of the Spartans and then dedicates a golden bowl from the Persian booty to the Delphic Apollo with the following inscription: “Lord of the Hellenes in the field, destroyer of the Persian army, Pausanias is here, Phoibos , the memorial to you. ”(quoted from Thucydides I 132). This inscription was removed again shortly afterwards because the Spartan government considered it “wrong” that an individual citizen of their state should be so singled out (Thucydides said in the same place). The thoroughly self-confident general Pausanias, who wanted to consolidate his reputation and increase his authority as regent instead of the legitimate but underage king, met the resistance of the traditional elites who wanted to prevent his rise.

The following anecdote is characteristic of the distortion with which Pausanias is reported in ancient sources: After the battle of Plataiai, he is said to have served himself a feast with the stolen food from the slaves of the Persian commander, who were also captured to let. According to Herodotus' report, Pausanias proved his spartan upbringing in this episode because he spurned touching this food: “Pausanias ordered the bakers and cooks to prepare a meal (...) Then Pausanias saw the golden and silver couches with beautiful ones Ceilings, the gold and silver tables and the great preparation of the meal. Deeply impressed by all the treasures lying before him, he mockingly ordered his servants to prepare a laconic meal (...) Laughing, Pausanias cried: Greeks, I had you called to prove the folly of the [Persian] who was so sumptuous lives and yet came to us to rob us of our miserable way of life ”(according to Herodotus IX 82). With Cornelus Nepos this anecdote becomes the following: "He turned away from his native customs, he also changed his appearance and his clothes (...) Persian style, the banquets were more lavish than the participants could handle." (quoted from Cornelius Nepos, Pausanias 3,1-2).

478 BC BC Pausanias conquered Byzantium with 50 ships ( Thucydides I 94) and is said to have aroused discontent among the Greeks because of his imperious behavior (Thucydides I 128). He was accused of medism (= conspiracy with the Persians) and called back to Sparta, but then cleared of all allegations and sentenced to a fine (according to Cornelius Nepos, Pausanias 2,6). Because the government of Sparta had withdrawn command of the fleet from him, Pausanias left the country with a ship and men he had recruited at his own expense and went to Kolonai, a small town on the Bosporus, to fight the war against the Persians to continue (after Thucydides I 131). The stay in Kolonai took place either 477–471 or 472–471 BC. Depending on how research interprets the vague times in Thucydides ("now"). Possibly in the year 471 BC. Pausanias was recalled again or arrested and charged a second time. The accusation was of “imitation of the barbarians” and treason: “[The Lacedaemenians] learned that he was also negotiating with the Helots; And in fact it was like this: He promised them freedom and citizenship if they made common cause with him in the overthrow and in everything. ”(quoted from Thucydides I 132.4). Pausanias is said to have incited the indigenous population, enslaved by the Spartans, to an uprising who “cultivated the Spartans' fields in large numbers and performed slave services. Pausanias wanted to stir up this (...) by promising them freedom. ”(According to Cornelius Nepos, Pausanias 3,6) Here the ancient sources can also be interpreted positively: Pausanias wanted to eliminate the backwardness of his homeland, equal to all residents Giving rights and in this way increasing the number of citizens fit for military service, so that Sparta was able to catch up with Athens in terms of military strength.

Pausanias was acquitted again; this shows that the charges were either fabricated or that Pausanias, as a progressive ruler, had many followers who supported his policies but are not mentioned in the ancient sources. However, a witness in the person of an alleged former pleasure boy was finally found. This is said to have been sent to the Persians in a secret letter, but opened it and thus obtained evidence of the betrayal. The ancient sources (Thucydides I 32-34; Cornelius Nepos, Pausanias 4-5) give a very vivid account of how a secret hiding place under the earth (according to Cornelius Nepos) or behind a double wall (according to Thucydides) was built around the conspiratorial discussions between Pausanias and the witness who is to be intimidated or rewarded with money for his silence. On the basis of the evidence gathered in this way, Pausanias was to be arrested, but he was able to escape to the temple of Athena Chalkioikos . The government had the entrances walled up in order to starve the alleged traitor, who was not allowed to be touched in the temple, to death.

literature

• William T. Loomis: Pausanias, Byzantion and the Formation of the Delian League. A Chronical Note. In: Historia . Volume 39, 1990, pp. 487-492.
• H. Berve, Princely Lords at the Time of the Persian Wars, in: Die Antike 12 (1936), pp. 1–28.
• CW Fornara, Some Aspects of the Career of Pausanias of Sparta, in: Historia 15 (1966), pp. 257-71.

Web links

• Biography of Cornelius Nepos (Latin and German)
• Jona Lendering: Pausanias . In: Livius.org (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cornelius Nepos: Biographies of famous men (de viris illustribus) . Ed .: Peter Krafft and Felicitas Olef-Krafft. Philipp Reclam, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-15-000995-6 , pp. 322 (footnote in the note section) .
2. ↑ Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War . Ed .: Helmuth Vretska and Werner Rinner. Philipp Reclam, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-15-001808-0 , pp. 96 .
3. ↑ Cornelius Nepos: Biographies of famous men . Ed .: Peter Krafft and Felicitas Olef-Krafft. Philipp Reclam, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-15-000995-6 , pp. 53 .
4. ↑ Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War . Ed .: Helmuth Vretska and Werner Rinner. Philipp Reclam, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-15-001808-0 , pp. 99 .
5. ↑ Cornelius Nepos: Biographies of famous men . Ed .: Peter Krafft and Felicitas Olef-Krafft. Philipp Reclam, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-15-000995-6 , pp. 322-23 (note section) .
6. ^ Ernst Rieger: Cornelius Nepos Famous Men . CC Buchners, Bamberg 1989, ISBN 3-7661-5858-9 , pp. 19 (contains the Herodotus passage as an appendix) .
7. ↑ Cornelius Nepos: Biographies of famous men . Ed .: Peter Krafft and Felicitas Olef-Krafft. Philipp Reclam, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-15-000995-6 , pp. 47; 323-24 (Note No. 7) .
8. ↑ Cornelius Nepos: Biographies of famous men . Ed .: Peter Krafft and Felicitas Olaf-Krafft. Philipp Reclam, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-15-000995-6 , pp. 324 (Note No. 10) .