Pausanias_Travel_Writing_in_Ancient Greece [Maria_Pretzler]

2. Pausanias: the Man and his Time
progress; in fact, he seems to have made enquiries in Rome about the
location of art works which were taken from Greece, which suggests a visit
there when the project was well under way. 48 Pausanias’ extensive travel
in the Roman empire and his long research in mainland Greece leave no
doubt that he was very wealthy. 49 Travel was expensive: Apuleius used up
most of his fortune of about one million sesterces on a stay in Athens and
a ‘grand tour’ through the east of the empire. 50 Pausanias himself takes
great wealth for granted:
As for those places that were exceedingly wealthy in ancient times, Egyptian
Thebes, Minyan Orchomenos and Delos, which was once the trading centre
of all of Greece, they are now less prosperous than a private man of moderate
means. 51 (Paus. 8.33.2)
At least Thebes and Orchomenos still existed as communities in
Pausanias’ time, and from this statement we have to assume that
Pausanias’ idea of merely ‘moderate means’ implies considerable wealth.
The contrast between ancient and contemporary circumstances is probably
exaggerated to give a dramatic description of the downfall of great
cities, but it takes the perspective of a very wealthy man to illustrate such
an argument with this particular comparison. It is likely that Pausanias
belonged to the provincial élite of Asia Minor, probably one of the leading
families of Magnesia. His comment on the poverty of smaller cities reminds
us that in all but the most prosperous places a few eminent citizens
were likely to have more disposable income than their whole community.
Greek cities in this period relied on their private benefactors, and it was
seen as the duty of a wealthy man to contribute generously. Plutarch,
probably the most eminent man in the small city of Chaironeia a few
decades before Pausanias’ visit, was very aware of his responsibilities, and
decided to resist the temptation of moving to one of the intellectual centres
which would have welcomed a man of his calibre with open arms and a
grant of citizenship. 52 Not all wealthy men, however, were equally conscientious.
Pausanias’ close contemporary Aristeides, for example, saw offers
of grand honours by Smyrna and his native city Hadrianoi as cumbersome
and expensive duties that he wanted to avoid. 53 Pausanias, in commenting
on the fourth-century orator Isokrates, states that it is best not to be
involved in public affairs. 54
This view may well have been shaped by
similar experiences, although he does not discuss the matter of public
service in his own time. He does, however, also show some appreciation for
the positive influence of contemporary private benefactors on some sites
in Greece. 55
Wealth meant access to a good education, and Pausanias was clearly a
well-educated man with many intellectual interests and an intimate
knowledge of a wide range of literary works, in short, a pepaideumenos. 56
His Greek contemporaries shared an ideal of paideia, a word which is
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