Philippi Melanthonis Epigrammatvm Libri Tres

TO THE ILLUSTRIOUS AND RENOWNED HEROES AND LORDS, LORD BERNHARD AND LORD HERMANN SIMON, COUNTS OF LIPPE, ETC., THEIR LORDS TO BE REVERENTLY HONORED.

When the Persians were ravaging the Greek kingdoms with war,
And the entire Greek crowd was terrified,
Pausanias, burning with greed for gold and gain,
Neglected the law and faith of his fatherland.
The perfidious man betook himself to the thresholds of King Xerxes,
And showed him the easy path of Mars.
Having received five hundred talents of gold from the king,
He prepared to betray Sparta with secret fraud.
He feigned that he sought the safety of his fatherland,
But nevertheless, he plotted treachery night and day.
That he might attempt everything with frauds and deceits, a letter
Was sent to Sparta, written by a treacherous hand.
But the letter full of poison was intercepted,
For the work of treason is prosperous for no one.
Hence, after the wise Ephori Spartan magistrates certainly knew
The mind of Pausanias and the paths of his perfidy,
They attempted to seize the great-souled avenger of Sparta,
But he, cautious, fled into a nearby temple.
When his father saw him held in the sacred shrine,
He soon ordered the doors to be closed with a trembling voice.