PAUSANIAS. A Greek traveler and geog rapher, author of `EadJoe Ileptimiatc, Hellados Periegesis, or Guide-book to Greece. Of his early life little is known. He was probably a native of Lydia in Asia Minor, and was certainly at work on his book as late as A.D. 175. though the earlier part seems to have been published some years before. His work, in ten books, is a detailed description of what seemed to him the most important places and monuments in Greece, arranged by districts and in much of the work described in a most systematic fashion. His interest is largely religious, and while other buildings are mentioned, the chief space is de voted to temples and lesser shrines, often with interesting and curious details as to local tra ditions and ceremonies. In general. he pays lit tle attention to recent art or buildings, reserving his admiration for the great works of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. The dry details of topography are relieved by historical digressions, often of no great accuracy, anecdotes, and legends. The style is dry and often obscure, and the manuscripts are not infrequently defective. In spite of its undoubted weaknesses, the book is an invaluable source not merely for the topog raphy and monuments, hut for the local cults, and its value increases with new exploration.
For his history Pausanias of course depended on his predecessors, and for traditions and de scriptions he seems to have used earlier material: but there is no good reason to doubt that his work represents personal travel and investiga tion, and its general accuracy is confirmed by recent discoveries. There are a number of early editions of Pausanias, but the best complete text is that edited by J. H. C. Schubert (Leipzig, 1853-54, often reprinted) ; a new edition with critical and explanatory notes by Hitzig and Blihnner is in course of publication (Leipzig, 180t; et seq.) ; the fullest commentary is by J. G. Frazer, Pau.sauins' Description of Greece, trans lated with commentary (6 vols., London, 1898) ; valuable for Athens is Jahn-Michaelis. Any A thenaruin a Pausania De.seripta 1311 ed., Bonn, 1901) ; Harrison and Verrall, Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens (London, 1890). For the criticism of Pausanias, consult: Kalk mann, Pausanias der Perieget (Berlin. 1886) ; Gurlitt, Pausanias (Gratz, 1S90) ; Heberdey, Die Reisen des Pausanias in Grieehenland (Vienna, 1894).