Pausanias of Orestis

Pausanias of Orestis (Ancient Greek: Παυσανίας ἐκ τῆς Ὀρεστίδος) was a member of Philip II of Macedon's personal bodyguard (somatophylakes).

"About this time it was that Philip, king of Macedon, was treacherously assaulted and slain at Aegae by Pausanias, the son of Cerastes, who was derived from the family of Orestae".

[citation needed] In spite of these claims, there is a problem with the delay between the rape and the revenge: Diodorus supports the attribution of a personal motive to Pausanias, but dates the events that led to the assault on Pausanias to the time of the Illyrian Pleurias, but the last known campaign Philip conducted against the Illyria took place in 344 BC.

The correspondence between these dates would put eight years between Pausanias' rape and the murder of Philip – a long wait for an ostensibly hot-blooded act of personal revenge.

However, as soon as the new king had left Macedon, a memorial to Pausanias was erected by Olympias, Philip's widow and Alexander's mother.