Past Perfect: In the Footsteps of Pausanias

During the second-century A.D. reigns of the Roman emperors Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, Pausanias, a well-to-do Greek born in Asia Minor, wandered through Greece, the Aegean islands, Macedonia, Syria, Palestine and Egypt. He wrote down his impressions of cities and sites, producing the Guide to Greece—the sole surviving guidebook to come down to us from ancient times. Although few biographical details are known about his life, Pausanias’s writings indicate that he had a strong interest in the natural sciences (he was an avid bird-watcher), anatomy (his devotion to the healing god Asclepius suggests that he may have […]