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Pausanias’ Description of Greece, Volume I, is a first‑hand travelogue from the Roman‑era scholar who roamed the ancient landscape during the Antonine dynasty (mid‑2nd century CE). The opening passage explains that Pausanias recorded the sights, statues and local legends he encountered, preserving a “county‑history” of temples, tombs and artworks that later wars destroyed. The author of this edition, writing in Cambridge in 1886, draws on the Teubner text of Schubart and the illustrations of Siebelis, while occasionally smoothing over difficult passages with his own readings. The book begins with a detailed description of Attica, noting the harbor of Sunium, the temple of Athena, the evolution of the Piraeus under Themistocles, and the myriad shrines and monuments that dotted the Athenian shoreline, interweaving mythic anecdotes with observations of surviving art.

The work is written in a measured, scholarly voice that blends factual reportage with occasional humor and reverence for Homeric tradition. Its style reflects the classical travel literature of antiquity, filtered through a 19th‑century philological lens. Readers who relish meticulous antiquarian detail, enjoy the intersection of archaeology, mythology and ancient historiography, or seek a vivid picture of Greece as it appeared before the loss of its monuments will find this volume rewarding.

Characters in Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

  • Pa​usaniasMiddle‑aged Greek scholar, short beard, white hair, linen tunic, scroll in hand
  • ThemistoclesAthens‑born statesman, trimmed hair, trimmed beard, bronze cuirass, cloak over shoulder
  • AthenaMajestic goddess in bronze helmet, breastplate, flowing chiton, owl perched on shoulder

The opening · free to read

Pausanias’ Description of Greece is also full of various information on many topics. It is for example a mine of Mythology. For its various matter it has been happily compared to a “County History.” There is often a quiet vein of humour in Pausanias, who seems to have been almost equally a believer in Providence and in Homer.

I have translated from Schubart’s Text in the Teubner Series, (1875), but have taken the liberty always, where the text seemed hopeless, to adopt a reading that seemed preferable from any other source. I have constantly had before me the valuable edition of Siebelis, (Lipsiæ, 1827), to whom I am much indebted, especially for his Illustrations, still veracity obliges me to state that occasionally he too gives one reason to remember the famous lines of a well-known Rector of Welwyn in the Eighteenth Century.

“_The_ commentators each dark passage shun, And hold their farthing candle to the Sun.”

In the Index it is hardly necessary to state that I owe much to Schubart.

CAMBRIDGE, May, 1886.

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