Paus. 1.1Pausaniās Lacedaemonius magnus homō, sed varius in omnī genere vītae fuit: nam ut virtūtibus ēlūxit, sīc vitiīs est obrutus.Pausanias the Spartan was a great man, but inconsistent in every sphere of life: for just as he shone with virtues, so he was overwhelmed by vices. Paus. 1.2Huius illūstrissimum est proelium apud Plataeās.His most famous achievement is the battle at Plataea. Paus. 1.2Namque illō duce Mardonius, satrapēs rēgius, nātiōne Mēdus, rēgis gener, in prīmīs omnium Persārum et manū fortis et cōnsiliī plēnus, cum ducentīs mīlibus peditum, quōs virītim lēgerat, et vīgintī equitum haud ita magnā manū Graeciae fugātus est, eōque ipse dux cecidit proeliō.For under his command Mardonius, the king's satrap, a Mede by birth and the king's son-in-law, among the foremost of all the Persians both in bravery and in counsel, was put to flight by no very large force from Greece, though he had two hundred thousand infantry, whom he had picked man by man, and twenty thousand cavalry; and in that battle the commander himself fell. Paus. 1.3Quā victōriā ēlātus plūrima miscēre coepit et maiōra concupīscere.Elated by this victory, he began to stir up a great deal of trouble and to covet greater things.
Paus. 1.3Sed prīmum in eō est reprehēnsus, quod ex praedā tripodem aureum Delphīs posuisset epigrammate īnscrīptō, in quō haec erat sententia: suō ductū barbarōs apud Plataeās esse dēlētōs eiusque victōriae ergō Apollinī id dōnum dedisse.But first he was censured for having set up at Delphi, out of the spoils, a golden tripod with an epigram inscribed on it, whose sense was this: that under his leadership the barbarians had been destroyed at Plataea, and that on account of that victory he had given this gift to Apollo. Paus. 1.4Hōs versus Lacedaemoniī exsculpsērunt neque aliud scrīpsērunt quam nōmina eārum cīvitātum, quārum auxiliō Persae erant victī.The Spartans chiselled out these verses and inscribed nothing other than the names of the states by whose help the Persians had been defeated.