The story of Pausanias, the general who defeated the Persians invading Greece and changed the course of history

Weaving together ancient sources, Daniel Ogden tells the gripping story of the enigmatic and controversial Spartan regent to an underage king. Pausanias (ca. 505–ca. 467 BCE) would never have come to power had the Persians not annihilated the Greek forces at Thermopylae in 480 BCE, killing his uncle Leonidas. The next year, Greek forces under the new regent’s command crushed the Persians at the decisive Battle of Plataea. It was a brilliant victory for Pausanias, but his heroic reputation swiftly declined. He was accused of tyrannical ambition, treachery, rape, and murder and came to a grisly and ghostly end, starved to death in Sparta’s Temple of Athena.

In this meticulously researched book—the first full-length biography of Pausanias in English—Ogden searches for the truth behind the ancient stories. Was Pausanias merely misunderstood and misrepresented, or was he an egotist in thrall to his own success? Despite Pausanias’s dark demise, Ogden hails his greatest achievement: by defeating the Persians he ensured the future of Classical Greek culture and the development of Western civilization as we know it.

“There are battles, and then there are decisive battles in world history: prominent among the latter was Plataea in 479 BCE, which found Spartan Regent Pausanias pitted against a force of over 100,000—and winning. Yet his triumph was followed by a tragic end. Daniel Ogden’s lively biography captures well the astonishing highs and lows of an extraordinary figure’s meteoric career.”—Paul Cartledge, author of The Spartans

“Ogden sheds new light on the polarizing figure of Pausanias, who oversaw the decisive Greek victory over the Persians at Plataea but, accused of treachery, suffered a horrific fate afterwards.”—Frances Pownall, University of Alberta

Daniel Ogden is professor of ancient history at the University of Exeter. His recent books include The Dragon in the West and The Werewolf in the Ancient World. He lives in Exeter, UK.