, and it was
remembered that he had taken upon himself to have inscribed on
the tripod at Delphi, which was dedicated by the Hellenes as the
first-fruits of the spoil of the Medes, the following couplet:

The Mede defeated, great Pausanias raised
This monument, that Phoebus might be praised.

At the time the Lacedaemonians had at once erased the couplet, and
inscribed the names of the cities that had aided in the overthrow of
the barbarian and dedicated the offering. Yet it was considered that
Pausanias had here been guilty of a grave offence, which, interpreted
by the light of the attitude which he had since assumed, gained a
new significance, and seemed to be quite in keeping with his present
schemes. Besides, they were informed that he was even intriguing with
the Helots; and such indeed was the fact, for he promised them freedom
and citizenship if they would join him in insurrection and would
help him to carry out his plans to the end. Even now, mistrusting the
evidence even of the Helots themselves, the ephors would not consent
to take any decided step against him; in accordance with their regular
custom towards themselves, namely, to be slow in taking any irrevocable
resolve in the matter of a Spartan citizen without indisputable proof.
At last, it is said, the person who was going to carry to Artabazus the
last letter for the King, a man of Argilus, once the favourite and most
trusty servant of Pausanias, turned informer. Alarmed by the reflection
that none of the previous messengers had ever returned, having
counterfeited the seal, in order that, if he found himself mistaken in
his surmises, or if Pausanias should ask to make some correction, he
might not be discovered, he undid the letter, and found the postscript
that he had suspected, viz. an order to put him to death.

On being shown the letter, the ephors now felt more certain. Still, they
wished to hear Pausanias commit himself with their own ears. Accordingly
the man went by appointment to Taenarus as a suppliant, and there built
himself a hut divided into two by a partition; within which he concealed
some of the ephors and let them hear the whole matter plainly. For
Pausanias came to him and asked him the reason of his suppliant
position; and the man reproached him with the order that he had
written concerning him, and one by one declared all the rest of the
circumstances, how he who had never yet brought him into any danger,
while employed as a