Pausanias
Could not find Pausaniamque in Logeion dictionaries.
Pausaniamque Proper-name noun: masculine accusative singular of Pausanias
- Son of Cleombrotus, the leader of the Spartans in the battle of Plataea, Cic. Off. 1, 22, 76; Nep. Vit. Paus. 1 sqq.—
- II A prince of Pherae, Liv. 36, 9.—
- III A praetor of the Epirotes, Liv. 32, 10.—
- IV A Macedonian, the murderer of Philip, Just. 9, 6, 4; 7, 1 al.
- 1. Spartaanse legeraanvoerder, overwinnaar in de slag bij Plataeae in 479 v. Chr.;
- 2. moordenaar v. Philippus II v. Macedonië (336 v. Chr.).
historical.
1. A Spartan of the Agid branch of the royal family, the son of Cleombrotus and nephew of Leonidas (Thuc. 1.94 ; Hdt. 9.10). His mother's name was Alcathea or Alcithea (Schol. ad Thuc. 1.134; Schol. ad Aristoph. Equit. 1. 84; Suidas calls her Ἀγχιθέα ; Polyaen. 8.51, Theano). Several writers (Arist. Polit. 5.1.5, 7.13.13; Plut. Consol. ad Apollon. p. 182; Dem. in Neaer. § 97, p. 1378, ed. Reiske; Suidas, s. v. Παυσανίας, &c.) incorrectly call him king (Paus. 3.4.9); he only succeeded his father Cleombrotus in the guardianship of his cousin Pleistarchus, the son of Leonidas, for whom he exercised the functions of royalty from B. C. 479 to the period of his death (Thuc. 1.94, 132; Hdt. 9.10). In B. C. 479, when the Athenians called upon the Lacedaemonians for aid against the Persians, the Spartans, after some delay (on the motives for which Bishop Thirlwall, Hist. of Greece, vol. ii. p. 327, &c., has thrown considerable light), sent a body of five thousand Spartans, each attended by seven Helots, under the command of Pausanias. From Herodotus (9.53) it appears that Euryanax, the son of Dorieus, was associated with him as commander. At the Isth mus Pausanias was joined by the other Peloponnesian allies, and at Eieusis by the Athenians, and forthwith took the command of the combined forces (Thuc. 1.130; Hdt. 8.3; Paus. 3.14.1; the words ἡγεμονία and ἡγεῖσθαι imply this), the other Greek generals forming a sort of council of war (Hdt. 9.50). The allied forces then crossed Cithaeron, and at Erythrae Pausanias halted and formed his line on the skirts of the Mountain, his forces amounting to nearly 110,000 men. Here they were assailed by the Persian cavalry under Masistius, who were repulsed after the Atheians had reinforced the Megareans, who were being hard pressed [Olympiodorus], and Masistius had fallen. For the purpose of being better supplied with water, Pausanias now descended into the territory of Plataeae, and posted his army on the banks of a small stream, which Herodotus calls the Asopus, and which was probably one of its tributaries. Mardonius drew up his forces on the opposite bank of the stream. After a delay of ten days, during which the armies were kept inactive by the unfavourable reports of the soothsayers, Mardonius resolved to attack the Greeks. Information of his intention was conveyed by night to the Greeks by Alexander of Macedon. Accordingly, the next day the Persian cavalry made a vigorous attack upon the Greeks, and gained possession of the Gargaphian spring, on which the Greeks depended for their supply of water; and as there seemed no likelihood of a general engagement that day, Pausanias, with the concurrence of the allied generals, resolved to remove move nearer to Plataeae. This was done in the course of the ensuing night. On the following day the great battle of Plataeae took place. The Persian forces were speedily routed and their camp stormed, where a terrible carnage ensued. The Spartans were judged to have fought most bravely in the battle, and among them, according to Diodorus (11.33), Pausanias was selected as having acquitted himself most valiantly. But Herodotus makes no mention of his name in this connection. An Aeginetan urged Pausanias to revenge the mutilation of Leonidas, by impaling the corpse of Mardonius; an advice which Pausanias rejected with abhorrence. Pausanias gave directions that all the spoil should be left to be collected by the Helots. Ten samples of all that was most valuable in this booty were presented to Pausanias. Herodotus has preserved a story, that, to exhibit the contrast between their modes of living, Pausanias ordered the Persian slaves to prepare a banquet similar to what they commonly prepared for Mardonius, and then directed his Helots to place by the side of it a Laconian dinner; and, laughing, bade the Greek generals observe the folly of the leader of the Medes, who, while able to live in such style, had come to rob the Greeks of their scanty stores. (Hdt. 9.10-85; Diod. 11.29-33.)
As to the generalship of Pausanias in this action, Bishop Thirlwall remarks (Hist. of Greece, vol. ii. p. 352) : "Whether Pausanias committed any considerable faults as a general, is a question still more open to controversy than similar cases in modern warfare. But at least it seems clear that he followed, and did not direct or control events, and that he was for a time on the brink of rain, from which he was delivered more by the rashness of the enemy than by his own prudence. In the critical moment, however, he displayed the firmness, and if, as appears manifest, the soothsayer was his instrument, the ability of a commander equal to the juncture."
Immediately after the battle a formal confederacy was entered into, on the proposition of Aristeides (Plut. Arist. 21). The contingents which the allies were to maintain for carrying on the war against the barbarians, were fixed; deputies were to be sent from all the states of Greece every year to Plataeae, to deliberate on their common interests, and celebrate the anniversary of the battle; and every fifth year a festival, to be called the Feast of Liberty, was to be celebrated at Plataeae, the inhabitants of which place were declared inviolable and independent. It is this treaty which Thueydides calls τὰς παλαιὰς Παυσανίου μετὰ τὸν Μῆδον σπονδάς (Thuc. 3.68, camp. 2.71). Before the Greek forces withdrew, Pausanias led them to attack Thebes, and demanded the surrender of those who had been traitors to the cause of Greece. After a siege of twenty days, Timagenidas and Attaginus, who had been the leaders of the Median party, consented to be delivered up. The latter, however, made his escape. Pausanias dismissed his family unharmed; but the rest who were delivered up he had conveyed to Corinth and put to death there without any form of trial--"the first indication that appears of his imperious character" (Hdt. 9.88; Diod. 11.33). It was speedily followed by another. On the tripod dedicated by the Greeks at Delphi from the spoil taken from the Medes he had the following inscription engraved :
Ἑλλήνων ἀρχηγός ἐπεὶ στρατὸν ὤλεσε Μήδων, Παυσανίας Φοίβῳ μνῆμʼ ἀνέθηκε τόδε.
The inscription was afterwards obliterated by the Lacedaemonians, and the names of the states which joined in effecting the overthrow of the barbarian substituted (Thuc. 1.132; Dem. in Neaeram, p. 1378, ed. Reiske; Corn. Nepos, Paus. 1 ; Hdt. 8.82). Simonides, with whom Pausanias seems to have been on terms of intimacy (Aelian, Ael. VH 9.41), was the composer of the elegy. (Paus. 3.8.2.)
In B. C. 477 (see the discussion by Clinton On the Athenian Empire, Fasti Hellen. vol. ii. p. 248, &c.) the confederate Greeks sent out a fleet under the command of Pausanias, to follow up their success by driving the Persians completely out of Europe and the islands. Cyprus was first attacked, and the greater part of it subdued. From Cyprus Pausanias sailed to Byzantium, and captured the city (Thuc. 1.94). It was probably as a memorial of this conquest that he dedicated to Poseidon in a temple on the Thracian Bosporus, at a place called Exampaeus, the bowl mentioned by Herodotus (4.81), the inscription on which is preserved by Athenaeus (12.9, p. 536a. b.). It does not distinctly appear what could have induced Justin (9.1) to call Pausanias the founder of Byzantium (a statement which is repeated by Isidorus, Origines, 15.1.42); though if, as Justin says, Pausanias held possession of the city for seven years, he may have had opportunities for effecting such alterations in the city and the government as nearly to have remodelled both, and the honours usually accorded to founders may have been conferred on him by the Byzantines.
The capture of Byzantium afforded Pausamas an opportunity for commencing the execution of the design which he had apparently formed even before leaving Greece. Dazzled by his success and reputation, his station as a Spartan citizen had become too restricted for his ambition. His position as regent was one which must terminate when the king became of age. As a tyrant over, not Sparta merely, but the whole of Greece (ἐφιέμενος Ἑλληνικῆς ἀρχῆς, Thuc. 1.128), supported by the power of the Persian king, he hoped that the reward of his treachery to Greece would be ample enough to satisfy his overweening pride and arrogance.
Among the prisoners taken at Byzantium were some Persians connected with the royal family. These Pausanias, by the aid of Gongylus, whom he had made governor of Byzantium, sent to the king without the knowledge of the other allies, giving out that they had made their escape. Gongylus escorted them, and was the bearer of a letter from Pausanias to the king, in which the former offered to bring Sparta and the rest of Greece under his power, and proposed to marry his daughter (Herodotus, 5.32. mentions that he had proposed to marry the daughter of Megabates). He at the same time requested Xerxes to send some trusty person to the coast to treat with him. Xerxes sent Artabazus with a letter thanking Pausanias for the release of the prisoners, and offering him whatever amount of troops and money he required for accomplishing his designs. (According to Plutarch, Parall. 10, he actually received 500 talents of gold from the king.) Pausanias now set no bounds to his arrogant and domineering temper. He treated the allies with harshness and injustice, made himself difficult of access, and conducted himself so angrily and violently towards all alike, that no one could come near him; and with a rashness that even exceeded his arrogance assumed the dress and state of a Persian satrap, and even journeyed through Thrace with a guard of Persians and Egyptians. The allies were so disgusted by this conduct, especially as contrasted with that of Cimon and Aristeides, that they all, except the Peloponnesians and Aeginetans, voluntarily offered to transfer to the Athenians that preeminence of rank which Sparta had hitherto enjoyed. In this way the Athenian confederacy first took its rise. Reports of the conduct and designs of Pausanias reached Sparta, and he was recalled; and as the allies refused to obey Dorcis, who was sent in his place, the Spartans declined to take any farther share in the operations against the Persians. Pausanias, on reaching Sparta, was put upon his trial, and convicted of various offences against individuals; but the evidence respecting his meditated treachery and Medism was not yet thought sufficiently strong. He however, without the orders of the ephors, sailed in a vessel of Hermione, as though with the intention of taking part in the war, and, returning to Byzantium, which was still in the hands of Gongylus, renewed his treasonable intrigues. According to Plutarch (Plut. Cim. 100.6; comp. Moral. p. 555b.), the immediate occasion of his expulsion from the city was an atrocious injury offered to a family of distinction in Byzantium, which ended in the tragical death of the victim of his lust and cruelty, at which the allies were so incensed, that they called upon the Athenians to expel him. He did not return to Sparta, but went to Colonae in the Troas, where he again entered into communication with the Persians. Having received an imperative recal to Sparta, and not thinking his plans sufficiently matured to enable him to bid defiance to the ephors, he returned at their command, and on his arrival was thrown into prison. He was, however, soon set at liberty; and, trusting to the influence of money, offered himself for trial. Still all the suspicious circumstances which were collected and compared with respect to his present and previous breaches of established customs did not seem sufficient to warrant the ephors in proceeding to extremities with a man of his rank. But even after this second escape Pausanias could not rest. He opened an intrigue with the Helots (comp. Arist. Polit. 5.1, 7), promising them freedom and the rights of citizenship, if they would rise and overthrow the government. But even when these designs were betrayed by some of the Helots, the ephors were still reluctant to act upon this information. Accident, however, soon furnished them with decisive evidence. Pausanias was still carrying on his intrigues with Persia. A man named Argilius, who was charged with a letter to Artabazus, having his suspicions awakened by noticing that none of those sent previously on similar errands had returned, counterfeited the seal of Pausanias and opened the letter, in which he found directions for his own death. He carried the letter to the ephors, and, in accordance with a plan suggested by himself, took refuge in the temple of Poseidon at Taenarus, in a hut which he divided by a partition, behind which he placed some of the ephors. Pausanias, as he expected, came to inquire the reason of his placing himself here as a suppliant. Argilius reproached him with his ungrateful disregard of his past services, and contrived that the ephors should hear from the lips of Pausanias himself the admission of his various intrigues with the barbarian. Upon this the ephors prepared to arrest him in the street as he returned to Sparta. But, warned by a friendly signal from one of the ephors, and guessing from the looks of another the purpose for which they were coming, he fled and took refuge in the temple of Athene Chalcioecus, establishing himself for shelter in a building attached to the temple. The ephors, having watched for a time when he was inside, intercepted him, stripped off the roof, and proceeded to build up the door; the aged mother of Pausanias being said to have been among the first who laid a stone for this purpose. When he was on the point of expiring, the ephors took him out lest his death should pollute the sanctuary. He died as soon as he got outside. It was at first proposed to cast his body into the Caeadas; but that proposal was overruled, and he was buried in the neighbourhood of the temple. Subsequently, by the direction of the Delphic oracle, his body was removed and buried at the spot where he died; and to atone to the goddess for the loss of her suppliant, two brazen statues were dedicated in her temple. (Thuc. 1.94, 95, 128_134; Diod. 11.44, 45; Nepos, Paus. 5; Suidas, s. v. Παυς.; Polyaen. 8.51.) According to Plutarch (de sera numinum Vindicta, p. 560), an oracle directed the Spartans to propitiate the soul of Pausanias, for which purpose they brought necromancers from Italy. As to the date of the death of Pausanias, we only know that it must have been later than B. C. 471, when Themistocles was banished, for Themistocles was living in Argos at the time when Pausanias communicated to him his plans (Plut. Themist. p. 123), and before B. C. 466, when Themistocles took refuge in Asia. The accounts of the death of Pausanias given by Nepos, Aelian, and others, differ, and are doubtless erroneous, in some particulars.
Pausanias left three sons behind him, Pleistoanax (afterwards king; Thuc. 1.107, 114), Cleomenes (Thuc. 3.26), and Aristocles (Thuc. 5.16). From a notice in Plutarch (Apophth. p. 230c.) it has been concluded that on one occasion Pausanias was a victor at the Olympic games. But the passage may refer merely to his success at Plataeae, having been publicly announced by way of honour at the games.
The character and history of Pausanias furnish a remarkable exemplification of some of the leading features and faults of the Spartan character and constitution. His pride and arrogance were not very different either in kind or in degree from that commonly exhibited by his countrymen. The selfish ambition which appears in him as an individual Spartan appears as characteristic of the national policy of Sparta throughout her whole history; nor did Sparta usually show herself more scrupulous in the choice of means for attaining her ends than Pausanias. Sparta never exhibited any remarkable fidelity to the cause of Greece, except when identical with her own immediate interests ; and at a subsequent period of her history appears with the aid of Persia in a position that bears considerable analogy to that which Pausanias designed to occupy. If these characteristics appear in Pausanias in greater degree, their exaggeration was but a natural result of the influence of that position in which he was placed, so calculated to foster and stimulate ambition, and so little likely ultimately to supply it with a fair field for legitimate exertion.
2. Son of Pleistoanax, and grandson of the preceding. He succeeded to the throne on the banishment of his father (B. C. 444), being placed under the guardianship of his uncle Cleomenes. He accompanied the latter, at the head of the Lacedaemonian army, in the invasion of Attica, B. C. 427. (Thuc. 3.26.) We next hear of him in B. C. 403, when Lysander, with a large body of troops, was blockading Thrasybulus and his partisans in Peiraeus. The king, the ephors, and many of the leading men in Sparta, being jealous of the increasing influence of Lysander, a plan was concerted for baffling his designs. Pausanias was sent at the head of an army into Attica, professedly to assist Lysander, but in reality to counteract his plans. He accordingly encamped near Peiraeeus. The besieged, not knowing his intentions, attacked him as he was ostensibly reconnoitring the ground to make preparations for a circumvallation. He defeated the assailants with some slaughter, but did not follow up his victory, and secretly sent a message to the besieged. At his suggestion a deputation was sent by them to himself and the ephors, an armistice was concluded with the exiles, and their deputies were sent to Sparta to plead their cause. The result was, that fifteen commissioners were appointed, in conjunction with Pausanias, to settle the differences of the two Athenian parties. An amnesty was published, including all but the thirty tyrants, the Eleven, and the Ten who had been governors of Peiraeeus. Pausanias then disbanded his forces (Xen. Hell. 2.4.28-39; Paus. 3.5.1; Plut. Lys. 100.21). On his return to Sparta, however, the opposite party brought him to trial before a court consisting of the gerontes, the ephors, and the other king Agis. Fourteen of the gerontes, with king Agis, voted for his condemnation; the rest acquitted him. (Paus. 3.5.2.)
In B. C. 395, when hostilities broke out between Phocis and Thebes, and the former applied to Sparta, war was decreed against Thebes, and Lysander was sent into Phocis to raise all the forces he could in that quarter. Pausanias was to join him on an appointed day with the Peloponnesian troops. These collected so slowly, that when Lysander with the troops which he had raised reached Haliartus, Pausanias had not arrived. A battle ensued under the walls of Haliartus, in which Lysander was slain. Next day Pausanias reached the spot, but the arrival of an Athenian army rendered him unwilling to engage. A council of war was held, in which it was decided that application should be made for permission to carry away the dead bodies of those who had been slain in the late engagement. This was only granted on condition that Pausanias should withdraw his forces from Boeotia; and these terms were accepted. On his return to Sparta, Pausanias was impeached, and, besides his conduct on this last occasion, his leniency to Thrasybulus and his party at Peiraeeus was again brought up against him; and Pausanias, seeing that a fair trial was not to be hoped for, went into voluntary exile, and was condemned to death. He sought shelter in the sanctuary of Athene Alea at Tegea, and was still living here in B. C. 385, when Mantinea was besieged by his son Agesipolis, who succeeded him on the throne. Pausanias, who had friendly relations with the leading men of Mantinea, interceded with his son on behalf of the city. (Xen. Hell. 3.5.17_25, 5.2.3_6 ; Paus. 3.5.3_7; Plut. Lysand. 100.31.) Diodorus (14.17) erroneously substitutes Pausanias for Agis in connection with the quarrel between the Lacedaemonians and Eleans.
3. An Athenian of the Deme Cerameis, celebrated for his amorous propensities towards those of his own sex, and for his attachment to the poet Agathon. Both Plato (Convivium, p. 176a., 180, c.; comp. Protag. p. 315d.) and Xenophon (Convivium, 8.32) introduce him. It has been supposed that Pausanias was the author of a separate erotic treatise; but Athenaeus (v. p. 216) affirms that no treatise of the kind existed.
4. A son or brother of Derdas. (Schol. ad Thuc. 1.61.) He appears among the antagonists of king Perdiccas.
5. King of Macedonia, the son and successor of Aeropus. He was assassinated in the year of his accession by Amyntas II., B. C. 394. (Diod. 14.82, 84.)
6. A pretender to the throne of Macedonia. According to the scholiast on Aeschines (p. 754, ed. Reiske), he belonged to the royal family. He made his appearance in B. C. 368, after Alexander II., the son of Amyntas II., had been assassinated by Ptolemaeus; and, being supported by numerous adherents, gained possession of several towns. Eurydice, the widow of Amyntas, sent to request the aid of the Athenian general, Iphicrates, who expelled Pausanias from the kingdom. (Aeschines, de falsa Leg. 100.23, p. 31, ed. Steph.; Corn. Nepos, Iphicr. 100.3.)
7. A Macedonian youth of distinguished family, from the province of Orestis. He was one of the body-guard of king Philip, who, on account of his beauty, was much attached to him. Perceiving himself in danger of being supplanted in the affection of Philip by a rival also called Pausanias, he, in the most opprobrious manner, assailed the latter, who complained to his friend Attalus, and soon after perished in battle with the Illyrians. Attains contrived to take the most odious revenge on Pausanias, who complained of the outrage to Philip. But, apparently on account of his relationship to Attalus, and because he needed his services, Philip declined to inflict any punishment on Attalis. Pausanias accordingly directed his vengeance against Philip himself. An opportunity presented itself at the festival held by Philip at Aegae, as, in a magnificent procession, Philip approached, having directed his guards to keep at a distance, as though on such an occasion he had no need of them. Pausanias rushed forwards from the crowd, and, drawing a large Celtic sword from beneath his dress, plunged it into the king's side. The murderer forthwith rushed towards the gates of the town, where horses were ready for him. He was, however, closely pursued by some officers of the king's guard, and, having stumbled and fallen, was despatched by them on the spot. Suspicion rested on Olympias and Alexander of having been privy to the deed. According to Justin, it was Olympias who provided the horses for the flight of Pausanias ; and when his corpse was crucified she placed a crown of gold upon the head, caused the body to be burnt over the remains of her husband, and erected a monument to him in the same place, and even instituted yearly rites in memory of him. The sword with which he had assassinated the king she dedicated to Apollo. The suspicion with regard to Alexander is probably totally unfounded. There was likewise a story that Pausanias, while meditating revenge, having asked the sophist Hermocrates which was the shortest way to fame, the latter replied, that it was by killing the man who had performed the greatest achievements. These occurrences took place in B. C. 336. (Diod. 16.93, 94; Just. 9.6, 7; Plut. Alex. 100.9, 10.)
8. An officer in the service of Alexander. On the capture of Sardes he was appointed to the command of the citadel. (Arrian, 1.17.8.)
9. A native of Thessaly, with whom the celebrated Lais fell in love. [Lais.]
10. According to some accounts (Paus. 2.33.4), the assassinator of Harpalus [Harpalus], was a man named Pausamas. [C.P.M]
(Παυσανίας), the author of the Ἑλλάδος Περιήγησις. has been supposed to be a native of Lydia. The passage in which this opinion is founded is in his own work (5.13.7). The time when he travelled and lived is fixed approximately by various passages. The latest Roman emperors whom he mentions are Antoninus Pius, whom he calls the former Antoninus (8.43.1), and his successor Marcus Antoninus, whom he calls the second Antoninus (8.43.6). He alludes to Antoninus leaving Marcus for his successor, and to the defeat of the Germans and Sarmatians by Marcus. The great battle with the Quadi took place A. D. 174. (D. C. 71.8.) Aurelius was again engaged in hostilities with the Sarmatians, Quadi, and other barbarians, in A. D. 179, but as he died in A.D. 180, and Pausanias does not mention his death, probably he refers to his earlier campaigns. He was therefore writing his eighth book after A. D. 174. In a passage in the seventh book (20.6) he says that he had not described the Odeion of Herodes in his account of Attica (lib. i.), because it was not then built. Herodes was a contemporary of Pius and Marcus, and died in the latter part of the reign of Marcus. Works
The Itinerary of Pausanias, which is in ten books, contains a description of Attica and Megaris (i.), Corinthia, Sicyonia, Phliasia, and Argolis (ii.), Laconica (iii.), Messenia (iv.), Elis (v. vi.), Achaea (vii.), Arcadia (viii.), Boeotia (ix), Phocis (x.). His work shows that he visited most of the places in these divisions of Greece, a fact which is clearly demonstrated by the minuteness and particularity of his description. But he also travelled much in other countries. A passage in the eighth book (46.4, 5) appears to prove that he had been at Rome, and another passage (10.21.1) is still more to the purpose. He speaks of seeing a hymn of Pindarus on a triangular stele in the temple of the Libyan Ammon, near the altar which Ptolemaens, the son of Lagus, dedicated to Ammon (9.16.1). He also visited Delos (9.40.5), as we infer from his mode of description, which is exactly like that of Herodotus in similar cases: "the Delians have a wooden statue (ξόανον) of Aphrodite, of no great size. which has lost the left hand by reason of age, and it terminates in a quadrangular form instead of feet." It is probable that he also visited Syria and Palestine, for he contrasts the byssus that grew in Eleia with the byssus of the Hebrews (v. .5.2). He must of course have visited a great number of places which lay between the extreme points which have been mentioned. Nothing is known of Pausanias except what we learn from his own book.
The Periegesis is merely an Itinerary. Pausanias gives no general description of a country or even of a place, but he describes the things as he comes to them. His account is minute; but it mainly refers to objects of antiquity, and works of art, such as buildings, temples, statues, and pictures. He also mentions mountains, rivers, and fountains, and the mythological stories connected with then, which indeed are his chief inducements to speak of them. His religious feeling was strong, and his belief sure, for he tells many old legends in true good faith and seriousness. His style has been much condemned by modern critics, some of whom consider it a sample of what has been called the Asiatic style. Some even go so far as to say that his words are wrongly placed, and that it seems as if he tried to make his meaning difficult to discover. But if we except some corrupt passages, and if we allow that his order of words is not that of the best Greek writers, there is hardly much obscurity to a person who is competently acquainted with Greek, except that obscurity which sometimes is owing to the matter. He makes no attempt at ornament; when he speaks of the noble works of art that he saw, the very brevity and simplicity with which he describes many beautiful things, present them to us in a more lively manner than the description of a connoisseur, who often thinks more about rounding a phrase than about the thing which he affects to describe. With the exception of Herodotus, there is no writer of antiquity, and perhaps none of modern times, who has comprehended so many valuable acts in a small volume. The work of Pausanias is full of matter mythological, historical, and artistic; nor does he neglect matters physical and economical. His remarks on earthquakes (7.24), on the soft stone full of sea shells (λίθος κογχίτης) used in the buildings of Megara, on the byssus above referred to, and on a kind of silk worm (6.26), show the minuteness of his observation. At Patrae he was struck with the fact (7.24.14) that the females were double the number of the males; which is explained by the circumstance that the greater part of them got their living by making head-gear, and weaving cloth from the byssus of Elis. He has thus preserved a valuable record of the growth and establishment of manufacturing industry in a small Greek town in the second century of our aera.
When Pausanias visited Greece. it was not yet despoiled of all the great works of art. The country was still rich in the memorials of the unrivalled genius of the Greeks. Pausanias is not a critic or connoisseur in art, and what is better, he does not pretend to be one; he speaks of a thing just as he saw it, and in detail. His description of the works of Polygnotus at Delphi (10.25-31), the paintings in the Poecile at Athens (1.15), the treasures of art collected in Elis (v. vi.), among which was the Jupiter of Pheidias (5.10), are valuable records, simply because they are plain facts. Greece was still richer in sculpture at the time of his visit than in painting, and he describes works of all the great Greek sculptors, both in marble and in bronze ; nor does he omit to mention the memorials of the archaic style which were still religiously preserved in the temples of Greece. Editions
The first edition of Pausanias was printed at Venice, 1516, fol., by Aldus, but it is very incorrect. Xylander (Holzmann) commenced an edition, which was finished by Sylburg, and appeared with the Latin version of Romolo Amaseo, at Frankfort on the Main, 1583, fol., and at Hanau, 1613. The edition of Kühn, Leipzig, 1696. fol., also contains the Latin version of Romolo Amaseo. which was first published at Rome in 1547, 4to. The edition of C. G. Siebelis, Leipzig, 1822-1828, 5 vols. 8vo, has an improved text, and the corrected version of Amaseo, with a copious commentary and index. The edition of Imm. Bekker, Berlin, 1826-7, 2 vols. 8vo, is founded solely on the Paris MS. 1410, and the few deviations from the text are noted by the editor; there is a very good index to this edition. The latest edition is by J. H. C. Schubart and C. Walz, Leipzig, 1838-40, 3 vols. 8vo. Translations
There is a French translation by Clavier, with the Greek text collated after the Paris MSS. Paris, 1814, &c, 6 vols. 8vo. The latest German translation is by E. Wiedasch, Munich, 1826-29, 4 vols. 8vo. There is an English translation by Thomas Taylor, the translator of Plato and Aristotle, which in some passages is very incorrect. [G.L]
(Παυσανίας).
1. A commentator on Heracleitus, hence surnamed Ἡρακλειτιστής. (D. L. 9.15.)
2. A Lacedaemonian historian, who, according to Suidas (s. u.), wrote, Περὶ Ἑλλησπόντου, Λακωνικά, χρονικά, περὶ Ἀμφικτυόνων, περὶ τῶν ἐν Λάκωσιν ἑορτῶν. He is probably the author referred to by Aelian and Arrian (Tactic. 100.1) as having written on the subject of Tactics. [W.M.G]
(Παυσανίας), the name of two Greek physicians.
1. A native of Sicily in the fifth century B. C., who belonged to the family of the Asclepiadae, and whose father's name was Anchitus. He was an intimate friend of Empedocles, who dedicated to him his poem on Nature. (D. L. 8.2.60; Suidas, s.v. Ἄπνους; Galen, De Meth. Med. 1.1. vol. x. p. 6.) There is extant a Greek epigram on this Pausanias, which is attributed in the Greek Anthologv to Simonides (7.508), but by Diogenes Laertius (l.c.) to Empedocles. The latter opinion appears to be more probable, as he could hardly be known to Simonides, who died B. C. 467. It is also doubtful whether he was born, or buried, at Gela in Sicily, as in this same epigram Diogenes Laertius reads ἔθρεψε Γέλα, and the Greek Anthology ἔθαψε Γέλα Perhaps the former reading is the more correct, as it seems to be implied by Diogenes Laertius that Pausanias was younger than Empedocles, and we have no notice of his dying young, or being outlived by him.
2. A physician who attended Craterus, one of the generals of Alexander the Great, and to whom the king addressed a letter when he heard he was going to give his patient hellebore, enjoining him to be cautious in the use of so powerful a medicine, probably about B. C. 324. (Plut. Alex. 100.41.) [W.A.G]
(Παυσανίας), artists.
1. A statuary, of Apollonia, made the statues of Apollo and Callisto, which formed a part of the great votive offering of the Tegeans at Olympia. He flourished, therefore, about B. C. 400. (Paus. 10.9.3; Daedalus II.)
2. A painter, mentioned by Athenaeus as a πορνόγραφος, but otherwise unknown. (Ath. xiii. p. 567,b.) [P.S]
(Παυσανίας). (1) A Spartan of the Agid branch of the royal family, the son of Cleombrotus and nephew of Leonidas. Several writers incorrectly call him king; but he only succeeded his father Cleombrotus in the guardianship of his cousin Plistarchus, the son of Leonidas, for whom he exercised the functions of royalty from B.C. 479 to the period of his death. In 479, when the Athenians called upon the Lacedaemonians for aid against the Persians, the Spartans sent a body of 5000 Spartans, each attended by seven Helots, under the command of Pausanias. At the Isthmus, Pausanias was joined by the other Peloponnesian allies, and at Eleusis by the Athenians when he took command of the united armies, the other Greek generals forming his council. The allied forces numbered 110,000 men. Near Plataeae in Boeotia Pausanias defeated the Persians under Mardonius and thus assured the independence of Greece. For his own reward, Pausanias received one tenth of the spoils (Herod.ix. 10-85; Diod.xi. 29-33).
In the year 477 the Greeks sent out a fleet under Pausanias to drive the Persians from the islands. He attacked Cyprus and subdued the greater part, and then sailed to Byzantium, which he succeeded in taking. After this victory Pausanias began to aim at personal dominion for himself rather than success for his country, being evidently dazzled by his unbroken and brilliant successes. His ambition seems to have looked for a tyranny over the whole of Greece, and to have conceived the plan of securing the aid of the Persian king in the accomplishment of this design. Among the prisoners taken at Byzantium were some Persians connected with the royal family. These he sent to the king, with a letter, in which he offered to bring Sparta and the rest of Greece under his power, and proposed to marry his daughter. His offers were gladly accepted, and whatever amount of troops and money he required for accomplishing his designs. Pausanias now set no bounds to his arrogant and domineering temper. The allies were so disgusted by his conduct that they all, except the Peloponnesians and Aeginetans, voluntarily offered to transfer to the Athenians that pre-eminence of rank which Sparta had hitherto enjoyed. In this way the Athenian confederacy first took its rise. Reports of the conduct and designs of Pausanias reached Sparta, and he was recalled and put upon his trial; but the evidence respecting his meditated treachery was not yet thought sufficiently strong. Shortly afterwards he returned to Byzantium, without the orders of the ephors, and renewed his treasonable intrigues. He was again recalled to Sparta, was again put on his trial, and again acquitted. But even after this second escape he still continued to carry on his intrigues with Persia. At length a man, who was charged with a letter to Persia, having his suspicions awakened by noticing that none of those sent previously on similar errands had returned, counterfeited the seal of Pausanias and opened the letter, in which he found directions for his own death. He carried the letter to the ephors, who prepared to arrest Pausanias; but he took refuge in the temple of Athené Chalcioecus. The ephors stripped off the roof of the temple and built up the door; the aged mother of Pausanias is said to have been among the first who laid a stone for this purpose. When he was on the point of expiring, the ephors took him out lest his death should pollute the sanctuary. He died as soon as he got outside, B.C. 470. He left three sons behind him, Plistoanax, afterwards king, Cleomenes, and Aristocles. See Bulwer's unfinished novel, Pausanias the Spartan.
(2) Son of Plistoanax, and grandson of the preceding, was king of Sparta from B.C. 408 to 394. In 403 he was sent with an army into Attica, and secretly favoured the cause of Thrasybulus and the Athenian exiles, in order to counteract the plans of Lysander. In 395 Pausanias was sent with an army against the Thebans; but in consequence of the death of Lysander, who was slain under the walls of Haliartus, on the day before Pausanias reached the spot, the king agreed to withdraw his forces from Boeotia. On his return to Sparta he was impeached, and seeing that a fair trial was not to be hoped for, went into voluntary exile, and was condemned to death. He was living at Tegea in 385, when Mantinea was besieged by his son Agesipolis, who succeeded him on the throne.
(3) King of Macedonia, the son and successor of Aeropus. He was assassinated in the year of his accession by Amyntas II., 394.
(4) A pretender to the throne of Macedonia, made his appearance in 367, after Alexander II. had been assassinated by Ptolemaeus. Eurydicé, the mother of Alexander, sent to request the aid of the Athenian general, Iphicrates, who expelled Pausanias from the kingdom.
(5) A Macedonian youth of distinguished family, from the province of Orestis. Having been shamefully treated by Attalus, he complained of the outrage to Philip; but as Philip took no notice of his complaints, he directed his vengeance against the king himself. He shortly afterwards murdered Philip at the festival held at Aegae, 336, but was slain on the spot by some officers of the king's guard. Suspicion rested on Olympias and Alexander of having been privy to the deed; but with regard to Alexander, at any rate, the suspicion is probably totally unfounded. There is a story that Pausanias, while meditating revenge, having asked the sophist Hermocrates which was the shortest way to fame, the latter replied, that it was by killing the man who had performed the greatest achievements.
(6) A celebrated Greek traveller and geographer, a native of Lydia. He explored Greece, Macedonia, Asia, and Africa; and then, in the second half of the second century A.D., settled in Rome, where he composed a Periegesis (Περιήγησις) or Itinerary of Greece in ten books. Book I. includes Attica and Megaris; II., Corinth with Sicyon, Phlius, Argolis, Aegina, and the other neighbouring islands; III., Laconia; IV., Messenia; V., VI., Elis and Olympia; VII., Achaea; VIII., Arcadia; IX., Boeotia; X. , Phocis and Locris. The work is founded on notes, taken on the spot, from his own observation and inquiry from the natives of the country, on the subject of the religious cults and the monuments of art and architecture. Together with these there are topographical and historical notices, in working up which Pausanias took into consideration the accounts of other authors, especially of Polemon (A.D. 150), poets as well as prose writers. Although his account is not without numerous inaccuracies, omissions, and mistakes, it is yet of inestimable value for our knowledge of ancient Greece, especially with regard to its mythology, folk-lore, and religious cults, but above all for the history of Greek art. The composition of his work, especially in the earlier books, shows little skill in plan, execution, or style, and, while accurate, shows that he did not grasp the distinction between legend and history.
The best editions of Pausanias are those of Siebelis, 5 vols. (Leipzig, 1822-28); and Schubart and Walz, 3 vols. (1838-40; reprint by Teubner, Leipzig, 1862 and 1881). English translations by Taylor (1793-94); Shilleto (2 vols. 1886). See Kalkmann, Pausanias der Perieget (Berlin, 1886); Gurlitt, Pausanias (Gratz, 1890); and Miss Verrall's Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens (1890).
Pausanias composed an extensive guide book of Greece, relating in great (though occasionally inconsistent) detail what he saw as he toured the mainland Greek homeland. As in any guide book, geographical and topographical order organizes his work, for he describes things as they appear to the traveller. The sites and monuments, however, are not merely archaeological or artistic curiosities but focal points which bind together the culture and history of Greece. A tour through Athens, for example, leads to extended discussions of Athenian history and customs. Pausanias’ Guide to Greecegives us an unparalleled overview of how Greece appeared to a sensitive, educated and indefatigable observer in the second century A.D. The work is divided into ten books, which cover the following regions:
Book 1 Athens, Attica, Megara and the Megarid
Book 2 Land of Corinth, the Argolid, and the island of Aigina
Book 3 Laconia
Book 4 Messenia
Book 5 Elis (1)
Book 6 Elis (2)
Book 7 Achaia
Book 8 Arcadia
Book 9 Boeotia
Book 10 Phocis (with Delphi) and sections of Locris
Pausanias does not describe the whole of the Greek world. He does not cover Asia Minor, South Italy or Sicily, much less the settlements in the Black Sea, Cyprus or the Western Mediterranean. He leaves out everything that is not on the Greek mainland, describing Aegina but none of the other numerous Greek islands. He does not even cover all of mainland Greece proper, leaving out sections of Lokris, the whole of Aitolia, Akarnania, Epeiros and Thessaly. As one authority puts it ([Habicht, 1985], 5): “To judge from Pausanias’ work, the northern boundary of Greece would run from Thermopylai to Naupaktos.”
Clearly, Pausanias planned, at least at the beginning, to cover more. He cuts off a digression in book 1 by noting “I must move on in my discussion, since I am going to describe all the circumstances of the Greeks” (Paus. 1.26.4: δεῖ δέ με ἀφικέσθαι τοῦ λόγου πρόσω, πάντα ὁμοίως ἐπεξιόντα τὰ Ἑλληνικά). He seems to have changed his mind during his lengthy work. Although the final book remains apparently unfinished (Pausanias does not seem to fulfill at Paus. 10.38.1the promise to describe Lokris which he makes at Paus. 9.23.7), more than 100 passages in Pausanias refer to other portions of the text and each of these links matches another passage. Two thirds of these links point forwards in the text, and there are no references to sections of Pausanias that lie outside the range of our ten books. Pausanias, as he wrote, came to envision his Guide to Greecepretty much as we have it.
LifeBirth of Pausanias in Magnesia near Mount Sipylos115A.D.
Death of Pausanias c. 180 A.D.
We have no firm external evidence of who Pausanias was or where he came from, but he mentions Mount Sipylos and its physical environs ten times and with such precision that he most probably grew up in that region (Paus. 1.21.3, Paus. 2.22.3, Paus. 3.22.4, Paus. 6.22.1, Paus. 7.24.13, Paus. 7.27.12, Paus. 8.2.7, Paus. 8.17.3, Paus. 8.38.10, Paus. 10.4.6). Pausanias clearly had considerable schooling and must, it is argued, have lived near a significant urban site. The most substantial city in that vicinity would be Magnesia, roughly half-way between Sardis and the sea ([Habicht, 1985] 13-15). Pausanias would thus have grown up as part of the Greek world but separated from the mainland Greek homeland which he describes.
At Paus. 8.9.7, Pausanias states that he never saw Antinous, the favorite of the Emperor Hadrian, but only paintings and statues. Pausanias thus seems to imply that he would have been old enough to have seen and remembered Antinous. Since Antinous drowned in Egypt on October 30, 130 A.D., scholars have generally dated Pausanias’ birth to c. 115 A.D.
At Paus. 5.1.2, Pausanias refers to an event which took place 217 years after Julius Caesar refounded Corinth. Since Corinth was refounded in 44 B.C., the date in Paus. 5.1.2must be 174 A.D. A Roman victory over Germans and Sarmatians cited at Paus. 8.43.6can be dated to late summer or fall 175. On the other hand, Pausanias mentions every reigning emperor from 98 A.D. onwards, and Marcus Aurelius is the last emperor whom he mentions. Since Aurelius died in 180 A.D., this suggests that Pausanias had stopped work on his history before that time.
If he was still writing after 175, he had been working for many years. At Paus. 7.20.6, he says that the music hall at Patras was the finest in Greece, except for the one in Athens, which Herodes Atticus built for his late wife. Pausanias had thus finished work on Book 1 when Herodes’ wife Regilla died in 160 or 161 A.D. We may guess that he had already begun work in 155 A.D., and this would present us with a picture of Pausanias at work over a greater than twenty-year period.
TravelsPausanias' Guide to Greecedraws upon his own extensive travels throughout Greece, but he visited many areas of the Greco-Roman world besides. Like Herodotus, Pausanias travelled extensively outside the traditional Greek world. He had been to Syria (Paus. 5.7.4, Paus. 4.35.9, 11, to Jerusalem (Paus. 8.16.5) and to Antioch (e.g., Paus. 8.33.3), to the Pyramids (Paus. 9.36.5) and to Thebes in Egypt (Paus. 1.42.3) and across the desert to Ammon (Paus. 9.16.1). He had been at least as far north as Byzantium (Paus. 4.31.5), and in the west had travelled both to the cities of Campania (Paus. 5.12.3, Paus. 4.35.12, Paus. 8.7.3) and to Rome itself (Paus. 5.12.6, Paus. 10.5.11, Paus. 5.12.6, Paus. 8.46.4, Paus. 8.46.5, Paus. 4.35.10).
For Pausanias’ life, see [Habicht 1985] 1-18, and [Frazer 1913] vol. 1, xiii-xxii.
Frazer, J. G. Pausanias' Description of Greece: Translated with a commentary by J. G. Frazer. 6 vols. New York: Biblio and Tannen, 1913. Habicht, Christian. Pausanias' Guide to Ancient Greece. Sather Classical Lectures. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1985. 50: xv+205. Pausanias. Guide to Greece, translated and with an introduction. Penguin Classics. 2 vols. New York: Penguin, 1979. Gregory Crane- (the author), his country: Paus. 5.13.7
- his date: Paus. 5.1.2
- intends to describe all Greece: Paus. 1.26.4
- plan of his work: Paus. 1.39.3, Paus. 3.11.1
- does not accept certain stories about the gods: Paus. 2.17.4
- his view of Greek myths: Paus. 8.8.3
- his scepticism as to Hades: Paus. 3.25.5
- deterred by dream from describing the Eleusinium at Athens: Paus. 1.14.3and sanctuary at Eleusis: Paus. 1.38.7
- in Campania: Paus. 5.12.3
- visits Rome: Paus. 9.21.1
- did not see Antinous in life: Paus. 8.9.7
- his description of Athens finished before Herodes built his Music Hall at Athens: Paus. 7.20.6
- Greece invaded by Costobocs in his time: Paus. 10.34.5
- a sculptor: Paus. 10.9.6
- said to have murdered Harpalus: Paus. 2.33.4
- Paus. 3.4.9, Paus. 8.52.2
- son of Cleombrotus and grandson of Anaxandrides king of Sparta: Hdt. 9.10
- guardian of Plistarchus: Paus. 3.4.9
- mentioned repeatedly as leader of the Greeks against Mardonius: Hdt. 9.10-82
- commands Greeks at battle of Plataea: Paus. 1.13.4, Paus. 3.4.9, Paus. 3.14.1, Paus. 3.17.7, Paus. 8.52.2
- (personal allusions) his proposal to the Athenians for a rearrangement of the battle line: Hdt. 9.46
- special appeal to Athenians: Hdt. 9.60
- refuses to mutilate corpse of Mardonius: Paus. 3.4.10
- slays a Byzantine maiden Cleonice: Paus. 3.17.7-9
- consults wizards at Phigalia: Paus. 3.17.9
- removes bones of Leonidas from Thermopylae: Paus. 3.14.1
- instance of his generosity and courtesy:
- his courteous treatment of a Coan lady: Hdt. 9.76, Hdt. 9.79, Paus. 3.4.9ff.
- bronze caldron dedicated by him on the Bosporus: Hdt. 4.81
- his pride and ambition after the Persian war: Hdt. 5.32, Hdt. 8.3
- father of Plistoanax: Paus. 1.13.4
- his tomb: Paus. 3.14.1
- games held at his tomb: Paus. 3.14.1
- two statues of him at Sparta: Paus. 3.17.7
- king of Sparta: Paus. 1.13.4
- tried for his conduct in Attica and acquitted: Paus. 3.5.1ff.
- concludes a truce with Thebans: Paus. 3.5.5
- takes sanctuary in temple of Athena Alea at Tegea: Paus. 3.5.6