History of the Peloponnesian War

And when he was about to expire, imprisoned as he was in the building,[*](The temple would have been polluted if he had been allowed to die there.) they perceived his condition and brought him out of the temple still breathing; but when he was brought out he died immediately.

It was their first intention to cast him into the Caeadas,[*](A cleft in the mountains not far from the city, probably near the modern Mistra, into which in early times prisoners, in later, corpses of criminals, were thrown; cf. Strabo, 7.5.7; Paus. 4.18.3.) where they throw malefactors; but afterwards they decided to bury him somewhere near the city. But the god at Delphi afterwards warned the Lacedaemonians by oracle to transfer him to the place where he died (and he now lies in the entrance to the precinct, as an inscription on some columns testifies), and that they should recompense Athena of the Brazen House with two bodies in place of one, since their act had brought a curse upon them. So they had two bronze statues made and dedicated them to Athena to be a substitute for Pausanias.

Thus it was that the Athenians,[*](cf. 1.128.1) in response to the demand of the Lacedaemonians, ordered them to drive out the curse of Taenarus, seeing that the god also declared it to be a curse.

But when Pausanias was thus convicted of treasonable dealings with Persia, the Lacedaemonians sent envoys to the Athenians and accused Themistocles also of complicity in the plot, in accordance with discoveries they had made in connection with their investigation about Pausanias;

and they demanded that he be punished in the same way. The Athenians agreed, but as he happened to have been ostracised, and, though living in Argos, frequently visited other parts of the Peloponnesus also, they sent some men, accompanied by the Lacedaemonians (who were quite ready to join in the pursuit), with instructions to arrest him wherever they chanced to find him.

But Themistocles, forewarned, fled from the Peloponnesus to Corcyra, since he was a benefactor[*](εὐεργέτης, benefactor, a title of honour bestowed upon him, either because he took the part of the Corcyreans in a dispute with Corinth (Plut. Them. 24), or because he had excused their absence (Schol.) in the Persian war (Hdt. 8.115). Themistocles relied upon the right of asylum, which had doubtless been decreed him as εὐεργέτης.) of the Corcyraeans. As they, however, alleged that they were afraid to keep him and thus incur the enmity of the Lacedaemonians and Athenians, he was conveyed by them across to the mainland opposite.

And being pursued by those who had been appointed to the task, according as they could learn the course he was taking, he was forced in some strait to take lodging with Admetus, king of the Molossians, who was not friendly to him.