Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.Pausanias, active approximately 150-175
History
Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.
Pausanias, active approximately 150-175
Greece -- Antiquities; Greece -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
And during the reign of Areus the son of Acrotatus, Antigonus the
son of Demetrius made an expedition against Athens both by land and
sea. And an Egyptian fleet under Patroclus came to the aid of the
Athenians, and the Lacedæmonians came out in full force with Areus the
king at their head. And Antigonus having closely invested Athens, and
barring the Athenian allies from every approach to the city, Patroclus
sent messengers and begged the Lacedæmonians and Areus to begin the
battle against Antigonus, and when they began he said he would fall on
the rear of the Macedonians, for it was not reasonable that his force
should attack the Macedonians first, being Egyptians and sailors. Then
the Lacedæmonians were eager to bear the brunt of the battle, being
animated by their friendship to the Athenians, and the desire to do
something that posterity would not willingly forget. But Areus, as
their provisions had been consumed, led his army home again. For he
thought it sheer madness not to husband their resources, but lavish
them all on strangers. And Athens holding out for a very long time,
Antigonus made peace on conditions that he might have a garrison at the
Museum. And some time after Antigonus himself withdrew the garrison
there. And Areus had a son Acrotatus, and he had a son Areus, who
was only 8 when he fell sick and died. And as now Leonidas was the
only male left of the family of Eurysthenes, though quite an old man,
the Lacedæmonians made him king. And it so chanced that Lysander, a
descendant of Lysander the son of Aristocritus, especially disliked
Leonidas. He associated with himself Cleombrotus, the son in law of
Leonidas, and having won him over brought against Leonidas various
charges, and the oath he had sworn to Cleonymus his father while quite
a boy that he would destroy Sparta. So Leonidas was deposed from the
kingdom, and Cleombrotus reigned in his room. And if Leonidas had given
way to temper, and (like Demaratus the son of Aristo) had gone and
joined the king of Macedonia or the king of Egypt, he would have got
no advantage from the subsequent repentance of the Spartans. But as it
was when the citizens exiled him he went to Arcadia, and from thence
not many years afterwards the Lacedæmonians recalled him, and made him
king the second time. And all that Cleomenes the son of Leonidas did,
and all his boldness and bravery, and how the Spartan kings came to an
end with him, I have previously recorded in connection with Aratus of
Sicyon. Nor did I omit the details of Cleomenes’ death in Egypt.
CHAPTER VII.
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