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Cornelius Nepos · Pausanias §5.1-5.5

Pausanias' Flight to the Temple and Death by Starvation

Passage 5 of 5 · Latin

Summary

The ephors decide to arrest Pausanias in the city, but he detects the trap and flees into a temple. The ephors block the entrance to starve him to death; he dies immediately after being carried out, and is later buried there by order of the Delphic oracle.

§5.1His rebus ephori cognitis satius putarunt in urbe eum comprehendi.
When these things were known, the ephors thought it better that he should be arrested in the city.
quo cum essent profecti et Pausanias placato Argilio, ut putabat, Lacedaemonem reverteretur, in itinere, cum iam in eo esset ut comprehenderetur, ex vultu cuiusdam ephori, qui eum admoneri cupiebat, insidias sibi fieri intellexit. §5.2itaque paucis ante gradibus, quam qui eum sequebantur, in aedem Minervae, quae Chalcioicos vocatur, confugit.
When they had set out thither, and Pausanias, having appeased Argilius as he thought, was returning to Lacedaemon, on the journey, when he was just on the point of being arrested, he perceived from the look of a certain ephor, who wished him to be warned, that a trap was being laid for him. Therefore, only a few steps ahead of those who were pursuing him, he fled for refuge into the temple of Minerva, which is called Chalcioicos.
hinc ne exire posset, statim ephori valvas eius aedis obstruxerunt tectumque sunt demoliti, quo celerius sub divo interiret. §5.3dicitur eo tempore matrem Pausaniae vixisse eamque iam magno natu, postquam de scelere filii comperit, in primis ad filium claudendum lapidem ad introitum aedis attulisse. §5.4hic cum semianimis de templo elatus esset, confestim animam efflavit.
Lest he should be able to escape from there, the ephors immediately blocked up the doors of that temple and tore down the roof, so that he might perish more quickly under the open sky. It is said that at that time the mother of Pausanias was still living, and that she, although already of a very great age, after she learned of her son's crime, was among the very first to bring a stone to the entrance of the temple to shut in her son. When he had been carried out of the temple half-dead, he immediately breathed his last.
sic Pausanias magnam belli gloriam turpi morte maculavit. §5.5cuius mortui corpus cum eodem nonnulli dicerent inferri oportere, quo ii qui ad supplicium essent dati, displicuit pluribus, et procul ab eo loco infoderunt, quo erat mortuus.
Thus Pausanias defiled his great glory in war by a shameful death. When some said that his dead body ought to be carried to the same place where those who had been executed were cast, this displeased the majority, and they buried him far from that place where he had died.
inde posterius dei Delphici responso erutus atque eodem loco sepultus est, ubi vitam posuerat.
Afterward, by the response of the Delphic god, he was dug up from there and buried in the very place where he had ended his life.

Notes

  1. §5.1His rebus ephori cognitis — The subject of the main clause, `ephori`, is embedded within the ablative absolute phrase `his rebus cognitis`. Syntactically, it is equivalent to `His rebus cognitis, ephori satius putarunt...`, where `ephori` serves as the subject of `putarunt`.
  2. §5.1in eo esset ut comprehenderetur — The impersonal idiom `in eo esse ut...` means 'to be on the point of doing something' or 'to be about to happen.' Here, with the imperfect subjunctive `comprehenderetur`, it means 'when he was just on the point of being arrested.'
  3. §5.1admoneri cupiebat — The subject of the passive infinitive `admoneri` (to be warned) is not the ephor (the antecedent of `qui`), but `eum` (Pausanias), meaning 'who wished him (Pausanias) to be warned / wanted someone to warn him.'
  4. §5.2paucis ante gradibus, quam — The ablative of degree of difference `paucis gradibus` (by a few steps) is used with the comparative expression `ante... quam` (earlier than, ahead of), meaning 'a few steps ahead of those who...'
  5. §5.3ad filium claudendum — A gerundive construction expressing purpose, where the gerundive `claudendum` agrees in gender, number, and case with the noun `filium` under the preposition `ad` (in order to shut in her son).
  6. §5.5eodem... quo — The demonstrative adverb `eodem` (to the same place) and the relative adverb `quo` (whither) are used correlatively to mean 'to the same place where...'. A verb of motion such as `inferri` is understood in the relative clause.

Cite this passage

Cornelius Nepos, Pausanias §5.1-5.5. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0588.abo004.humanitext-lat2:5.1-5.5

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