Pausanias

Pausanias (fl. 2nd century ad), Greek historian, traveller, and geographer, probably a native of Lydia in Asia Minor. He travelled in Greece, Macedonia, Italy, and parts of Asia and Africa, and wrote a major work in ten volumes, Periegesis Hellados (Description of Greece), which gives a detailed account of the monuments of art and of the legends connected with them. Pausanias used earlier writings as historical and legendary source material. His work, however, represents observations made during personal travel and investigation, and its general accuracy has been confirmed by archaeological discoveries in modern times. Although his book has little literary merit, it is a valuable source for historical information on the topography, monuments, and local cults of ancient Greece. Written as a travellers' guidebook, it has become, for modern archaeologists, an important guide to ancient Greek sites.