could not bear the thoughts of going back to Sparta, Xerxes. after his having been possessed of such high commands and employments, to return to a state of equality, that confounded him with the meanest of the citizens; and this was the cause of his entering into a treaty with the Barbarians. Having done this, he entirely laid aside the manners and behaviour of his country; assumed both the dress and state of the Persians, and imitated them in all their expensive luxury and magnificence. He treated the allies with an insufferable rudeness and insolence; never spoke to the officers but with menaces and arrogance; required extraordinary and unusual honours to be paid to him, and by his whole behaviour rendered the Spartan dominion odious to all the confederates. On the other hand, the courteous, affable, and obliging deportment of Aristides and Cimon; an infinite remoteness from all imperious and haughty airs, which only tend to alienate people and multiply enemies; a gentle, kind, and beneficent disposition, which shewed itself in all their actions, and which served to temper the authority of their commands, and to render it both easy and amiable; the justice and humanity, conspicuous in every thing they did; the great care they took to offend no person whatsoever, and to do kind offices and services to all about them: All this, I say, hurt Pausanias exceedingly, by the contrast of their opposite characters, and exceedingly increased the general discontent. At last this dissatisfaction publickly broke out; and all the allies deserted him, and put themselves under the command and protection of the Athenians. Thus did Aristides, says Plutarch, by the prevalence of that humanity and gentleness, which he opposed to the arrogance and roughness of Pausanias, and by inspiring Cimon his colleague with the same sentiments, insensibly draw off the minds of the allies from the Lacedæmonians without their perceiving it, and at length deprived them of the command; not by open force, or by sending out armies and fleets against

Xerxes. them, and still less by making use of any arts or per fidious practices; but by the wisdom and moderation of his conduct, and by rendering the government of the Athenians amiable.

3529.

It must be confessed at the same time, that the Spartan people on this occasion shewed a greatness of soul and a spirit of moderation, that can never be sufficiently admired. For when they were convinced, that their commanders grew haughty and insolent from their too great authority, they willingly renounced the superiority, which they had hitherto exercised over the rest of the Grecians, and forbore sending any more of their generals to command the Grecian armies; chusing rather, adds the historian, to have their citizens wise, modest, and submissive to the discipline and laws of the commonwealth, than to maintain their pre-eminence and superiority over all the Grecian states.

SECT. XV. Pausanias's secret conspiracy with the Per sians. His death.

A. M. UPON the repeated complaints the Spartan Ant. J.C.Commonwealth received on all hands against Pausa475. nias, they recalled him home to give an account of

his conduct. But not having sufficient evidence to convict him of his having carried on a correspondence with Xerxes, they were obliged to acquit him on this first trial; after which he returned of his own private authority, and without the consent and approbation of the republick, to the city of Byzantium, from whence he continued to carry on his secret practices with Artabazus. But, as he was still guilty of many violent and unjust proceedings, whilst he resided there, the Athenians obliged him to leave the place; from whence he retired to Colonæ, a small city of Troas. There he received an order from the Diod. 1. xi. p. 34-36. Cor.

"Thucyd. 1. i. p. 86, & 89. Nep. in Pausan.

Ephori to return to Sparta, on pain of being declar- Xerxes. ed, in case of disobedience, a publick enemy and traitor to his country. He complied with the summons and went home, hoping he should still be able to bring himself off by dint of money. On his arrival he was committed to prison, and was soon afterwards brought again upon his trial before the judges. The charge brought against him was supported by many suspicious circumstances and strong presump tions. Several of his own slaves confessed that he had promised to give them their liberty, in case they would enter into his designs, and serve him with fidelity and zeal in the execution of his projects. But, as it was the custom for the Ephori never to pronounce sentence of death against a Spartan, without a full and direct proof of the crime laid to his charge, they looked upon the evidence against him as insufficient; and the more so, as he was of the royal family, and was actually invested with the administration of the regal office; for Pausanias exercised the function of king, as being the guardian and nearest relation to Plistarchus, the son of Leonidas, who was then in his minority. He was therefore acquitted a second time, and set at liberty.

Whilst the Ephori were thus perplexed for want of clear and plain evidence against the offender, a certain slave, who was called the Argilian, came to them, and brought them a letter, writ by Pausanias himself to the king of Persia, which the slave was to have carried and delivered to Artabazus. It must be observed by the way, that this Persian governor and Pausanias had agreed together, immediately to put to death all the couriers they mutually sent to one another, as soon as their packets or messages were. delivered, that there might be no possibility left of tracing out or discovering their correspondence. The Argilian, who saw none of his fellow-servants, that were sent expresses, return back again, had some suspicion; and when it came to his turn to go, he opened the letter he was entrusted with, in which

Xerxes. Artabazus was really desired to kill him pursuant to their agreement. This was the letter the slave put into the hands of the Ephori; who still thought even this proof insufficient in the eye of the law, and therefore endeavoured to corroborate it by the testimony of Pausanias himself. The slave, in concert with them, withdrew to the temple of Neptune in Tenaros, as to a secure asylum. Two small closets were purposely made there, in which the Ephori and some Spartans hid themselves. The instant Pausanias was informed that the Argilian had fled to this temple, he hasted thither, to enquire the reason. The slave confessed that he had opened the letter; and that finding by the contents of it he was to be put to death, he had fled to that temple to save his life. As Pausanias could not deny the fact, he made the best excuse he could; promised the slave a great reward; obliged him to promise not to mention what had passed between them to any person whatsoever. Pausanias then left him.

Pausanias's guilt was now but too evident. The moment he was returned to the city, the Ephori were resolved to seize him. From the aspect of one of those magistrates, he plainly perceived that some evil design was hatching against him, and therefore he ran with the utmost speed to the temple of Pallas, called Chalcieocos, near that place, and got into it before the pursuers could overtake him. The entrance was immediately stopt up with great stones; and history informs us, that the criminal's mother set the first example on that occasion. They now tore off the roof of the chapel: But as the Ephori did not dare to take him out of it by force, because this would have been a violation of that sacred asylum, they resolved to leave him exposed to the in clemencies of the weather, and accordingly he was starved to death. His corpse was buried not far from that place: But the oracle of Delphi, whom they consulted soon after, declared, that to appease anger of the goddess, who was justly offended

the

on account of the violation of her temple, two statues Xerxes must be set up there in honour of Pausanias, which was done accordingly.

Such was the end of Pausanias, whose wild and inconsiderate ambition had stifled in him all sentiments of probity, honour, love of his country, zeal for liberty, and of hatred and aversion for the Barbarians: Sentiments, which, in some measure, were inherent in all the Greeks, and particularly in the Lacedæmonians.

SECT. XVI. Themistocles, being pursued by the Athenians and Lacedæmonians, as an accomplice in Pausanias's conspiracy, flies for shelter to king Admetus.

X

THEMISTOCLES was also charged with being

an accomplice to Pausanias. He was then in exile. A passionate thirst of glory, and a strong desire to command arbitrarily over the citizens, had made him very odious to them. He had built, very near his house, a temple in honour of Diana, under this title, To Diana, goddess of good counsel; as hinting to the Athenians, that he had given good counsel to their city and to all Greece; and he also had placed his statue in it, which was standing in Plutarch's time. It appeared, says he, from this statue, that his physiognomy was as heroick as his valour. Finding that men listened with pleasure to all the calumnies his enemies spread against him, to silence them, he was for ever expatiating, in all publick assemblies, on the services he had done his country. As they were at last tired with hearing him repeat this so often, How! says he to them, are you weary of having good offices frequently done you by the same persons? He did not consider, that putting them so often in mind * of

X

Thucyd. 1. i. p. 89, 90. Plut. in Themist. c. cxxiii, cxxiv. Corn. Nep. in Themist. c. viii.

*Hoc molestum est. Nam isthac commemoratio quasi exprobratio est· immemoris beneficii. Terent. in Anar.