Pausanias (;
Pausanías; c. AD 110 – c. 180) was a
Greek traveler and
geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of
Hadrian,
Antoninus Pius and
Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his
Description of Greece (
Hellados Periegesis) a lengthy work that describes
ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical literature and modern
archaeology. This is how Andrew Stewart assesses him:
A careful, pedestrian writer, he is interested not only in the grandiose or the exquisite but in unusual sights and obscure ritual. He is occasionally careless, or makes unwarranted inferences, and his guides or even his own notes sometimes mislead him; yet his honesty is unquestionable, and his value without par.