f the gods; but they also . . . thought that his banishment would materially advance their designs on Athens" (Thucydides 71). Athens, in turn, cited the Persian War treachery of the Spartan general Pausan ias, who had enriched himself with the spoils of war and even schemed with the Persian king Xerxes to share political power--compounding this by erecting a monument to himself at Delphi. Though accused of treason, Pausanias was eventually buried with Spartan honors, an affront to the gods (Thucydides 75ff). Sparta's specious pretext for war appears to have had the effect of allowing Athens to prosecute its objectives in a defensive rather than offensive posture, al
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