Pausanias of Sparta

Pausanias was the Spartan regent who commanded the Greek army at Plataea and was afterwards starved to death in a temple by his own countrymen. Born into the Agiad royal house, he was the son of Cleombrotus and the nephew of Leonidas, and became regent for Leonidas's young son Pleistarchus. In 479 BC he commanded the combined Greek force — Spartans, Athenians, Corinthians and others, perhaps forty thousand hoplites — against Mardonius's Persian army in Boeotia. The armies faced each other for days while Persian cavalry cut the Greek water supply and harassed the supply lines. Pausanias ordered a night withdrawal to better ground; it went wrong in the dark and the line fragmented, and the Persians attacked what looked like a rout. The Spartans held on the right, Mardonius was killed, and the Persian camp was stormed. Greece was secure. He then led the allied fleet that took Byzantium in 478 BC. His conduct there destroyed him. He was accused of adopting Persian dress and manners, of arrogance towards the allies, and of secret correspondence with Xerxes offering to bring Greece under Persian control in exchange for a royal marriage. The allies transferred command to Athens, which is the immediate origin of the Delian League and so of the Athenian empire. He was recalled and acquitted once, returned to Byzantium privately, and was recalled again. Accused of inciting the helots to revolt, he took refuge in the temple of Athena of the Brazen House on the Spartan acropolis. The ephors walled up the doors and removed the roof, and took him out as he was dying.

• Lived: 510 BCE – 470 BCE
• Nationality: Greek
• Roles: military_leader, regent