Pleistoanax (; reigned 458–409 BC) was an
Agiad King of Sparta. He was the son of regent
Pausanias, who was disgraced for conspiring with
Xerxes. Pleistoanax was most anxious for peace during the so-called
First Peloponnesian War. He was exiled sometime between 446 BC and 444 BC, charged by the
Spartans with taking a bribe, probably from
Pericles (noted as "10 talents necessary expenses" in
Athens' funds), to withdraw from the plain of
Eleusis in
Attica after leading the Peloponnesian forces there following the revolts of
Euboea and
Megara from the
Athenian empire. Accepting such a bribe would have essentially amounted to treason, but some scholars (e.g. Walker, Meyer,
Beloch,
Busolt) doubt this, or at least agree that it is not enough information to explain the happenings. Also some believe that a more probable reason for the withdrawal of Pleistoanax and his advisor
Cleandrides could be that Pericles offered good terms for a peace (e.g. later there was a treaty between Sparta and Athens).