Pausanias_Travel_Writing_in_Ancient Greece [Maria_Pretzler]

Pausanias: Travel Writing in Ancient Greece
an introduction to regional history, but these genealogies are much more
important because they provide a chronological framework for the whole
Periegesis. The Spartan genealogies run from Herakles to the late third
century BC, including all the periods which are particularly interesting to
Pausanias. Sparta’s prominent role in Greek history also meant that its
kings often became involved in events in most of the areas covered in the
Periegesis, particularly in the Peloponnese. The Spartan king lists therefore
connect events well beyond Lakonia, and they were also closely linked
to many classical texts. Pausanias uses this genealogy extensively, not just
for mythical times, but also when he deals with the classical and Hellenistic
periods. Where the main genealogies do not provide enough
information Pausanias constructs complex genealogical links to provide a
date, and pivotal events such as the Persian Wars or the battle of Leuktra
serve as basic reference points. The attempt to date a work of the sculptor
Onatas once set up in Phigalia is a particularly fine example of this
method. Pausanias cites a signature of the artist on a monument set up by
Deinomenes of Syracuse to commemorate an Olympic victory of his father
Hieron. He knows (presumably from Herodotos) that Hieron’s predecessor
Gelon was a contemporary of the Persian king Xerxes and concludes that
Onatas, the contemporary of Deinomenes, lived two generations (c. 60
years) after the Persian Wars, in our terms roughly around 420 BC.
Unfortunately, this is incorrect: Hieron succeeded Gelon just a year after
the end of the Persian Wars and died soon after his Olympic victory in 468
BC. Onatas probably made the monument, one of his latest works, just over
ten years after the end of the Persian Wars, in the early 460s, and
therefore about half a century earlier than Pausanias’ date. 57 One has to
appreciate Pausanias’ imaginative combination of genealogical data with
epigraphical and literary evidence, but his error illustrates that genealogy
is a very inexact science and therefore not best suited to periods where
precise dates were readily available.
There are very few absolute dates in the Periegesis. When Pausanias
gives the exact year for an event he usually provides an Olympiad date
combined with the name of the eponymous archon at Athens. There are
only twenty such dates in the whole work 58 and the events that are singled
out in this way are the beginnings or ends of wars, important battles, the
foundation or destruction of cities and the destruction of important temples.
The uniformity of these dates suggests that Pausanias took this
information from a chronographical source, although it is possible that he
adapted some to fit his own ideas. 59 Alternative dating systems, as used in
different cities, do not usually feature in the Periegesis, although
Pausanias must have found such dates mentioned in inscriptions: there is
one example where Pausanias adds the name of a Delphic magistrate, a
prytanis, to the usual formula. 60 Extensive chronological lists and histories
with a precise annalistic structure such as Diodoros’ Bibliotheke were
available in the second century AD, and it seems that Pausanias had access
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