Description
- Theme: Ancient Greece and Scythians
- Historical Period: 5th century BC
- Scale: 1/24 (Height 75mm)
- Coloring: Unpainted
- Soldier Type: Infantry
Pausanias (Greek: ; died c. 470 BC) was a Spartan regent, general, and war leader for the Greeks who was suspected of conspiring with the Persian king, Xerxes I, during the Greco-Persian Wars. What is known of his life is largely according to Thucydides\' History of the Peloponnesian War, together with a handful of other classical sources. As a son of the regent Cleombrotus and nephew of the warrior king, Leonidas I, Pausanias was a scion of the Spartan royal house of the Agiads but not in the direct line of succession. After Leonidas\' death, while the king\'s son Pleistarchus was still in his minority, Pausanias served as regent of Sparta. Pausanias was also the father of Pleistoanax who later became king. Other sons were Cleomenes and Nasteria. Pausanias was the leader of the Hellenic League created to resist the Persian invasion. He led the Greeks in their victory over Mardonius and the Persians at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC.. While the latter is sometimes seen as a chaotic soldiers battle, others see evidence of both strategic and tactical skill on the part of Pausanias in delaying the engagement until the point where Spartan armor and discipline could have maximum impact. Herodotus concluded that \"Pausanias the son of Cleombrotus and grandson of Anaxandridas won the most glorious victory of any known to us\".