Pausanias

Elena Franchi (Università di Trento - Facolta di Lettere)

Ed. by Emily Kneebone, University of Nottingham
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.1: Greek Writing and Culture: Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Imperial, -800--100.
Vol. editors: Jonathan Burgess (University of Toronto), Anca Dan (École Practique de Hautes Études PSL), Martine Diepenbroek (University of Johannesburg), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Victoria Fendel (University of Oxford), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Vaios Liapis (Open University of Cyprus), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Mali Skotheim (Ashoka University), Laura Swift (The Open University), Guendalina Daniela Maria Taietti (University of Liverpool)

Dates

Born c. 115
Died c. 180

Places

Active in Roman Greece& Asia Minor

Activities

Primary

Writer / Author

Other

Geographer

Resources

Pausanias' Works

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Pausanias was an ancient Greek author who probably lived in the second century AD (115-180?). His only known work is the

Periegesis Hellados

(

Description of Greece

) in ten books.

Life and times

Life and times

Pausanias never explicitly states where he was born or lived. However, it is generally assumed that he was a native of one of the Greek-speaking communities of Asia Minor, and scholars maintain that Pausanias’s birthplace is most likely the city of Magnesia on Sipylos (modern Manisa, Turkey) in Lydia (Anatolia), one of the most prosperous parts of the Roman Empire. Such an assumption is supported by the fact that Pausanias states in 5.13.7 that certain monuments on Mount Sipylos relating to the mythical figures of Tantalos and Pelops are located “among us” and that he has seen

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2287 words

Citation: Franchi, Elena. "Pausanias". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 September 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13942, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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