§1.1Pausanias Lacedaemonius magnus homo, sed varius in omni genere vitae fuit: nam ut virtutibus eluxit, sic vitiis est obrutus.
Pausanias the Lacedaemonian was a great man, but fickle in every aspect of life; for as he shone in virtues, so was he overwhelmed by vices.
§1.2huius illustrissimum est proelium apud Plataeas.
His most illustrious achievement is the battle at Plataea.
namque illo duce Mardonius, satrapes regius, natione Medus, regis gener, in primis omnium Persarum et manu fortis et consilii plenus, cum ducentis milibus peditum, quos viritim legerat, et viginti equitum haud ita magna manu Graeciae fugatus est, eoque ipse dux cecidit proelio.
For under his leadership Mardonius, a royal satrap, a Mede by nation, the king's son-in-law, chief among all Persians both brave in hand and full of counsel, with two hundred thousand infantry, whom he had chosen man by man, and twenty thousand cavalry, was put to flight by a not so large force of Greece, and in that battle the leader himself fell.
§1.3qua victoria elatus plurima miscere coepit et maiora concupiscere.
Elated by this victory, he began to disturb many things and to desire greater things.
sed primum in eo est reprehensus, quod ex praeda tripodem aureum Delphis posuisset epigrammate inscripto, in quo haec erat sententia: suo ductu barbaros apud Plataeas esse deletos eiusque victoriae ergo Apollini id donum dedisse.
But first in this he was censured, because from the booty he had placed a golden tripod at Delphi with an inscription engraved, in which this was the meaning: that under his own leadership the barbarians had been destroyed at Plataea, and on account of that victory he had given this gift to Apollo.
§1.4hos versus Lacedaemonii exsculpserunt neque aliud scripserunt quam nomina earum civitatum, quarum auxilio Persae erant victi.
The Lacedaemonians erased these verses and wrote nothing else than the names of those states by whose help the Persians had been conquered.