A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Anchita
ANCHITA, wife of Cleombrotus, King of Sparta,
Whose love for her country, and hatred of treason, manifested themselves in opposition to the sentiments of nature. Her son Pausanias, who had distinguished himself so nobly at the battle of Platæa, afterwards, by his arrogant and foolish conduct, disgusted his countrymen; whom he also agreed to betray to the king of Persia, on condition of receiving the daughter of that monarch in marriage. His correspondence being discovered, he fled to the temple of Minerva for refuge; from whence it was not lawful to force him, though condemned to death by the Ephori. His pursuers, therefore, contrived to block up the doors with stones; the first of which, in the proud anguish of a Spartan mother, was laid there by Anchita. In this manner, Pausanias perished with hunger, about 471 years before Christ.