Pausanias_Travel_Writing_in_Ancient Greece [Maria_Pretzler]

Pausanias: Travel Writing in Ancient Greece
from taking part in the struggle against the threat of the Gauls at Thermopylai,
because they feared that the Spartans might devastate their land while
their adult men would be absent. The Arkadians were more enthusiastic
members of the Achaian League than any other Greeks. 22 (Paus. 8.6.1-3)
Pausanias never discusses his selection of historical highlights, but it
seems that while he was working on the Periegesis his sense of what
defined a city’s identity underwent a significant change. As the work
progresses he increasingly emphasises those events where Greeks stood
together to defend their freedom against threats either from the outside
(Persians, Macedonians, Gauls, Romans) or from large Greek powers with
imperialist intentions, particularly Sparta. 23 These struggles for a free and
united Greece are added to the mythical stories that usually served to
describe a community’s place in the world. The freedom of the Greeks and
their individual cities becomes a defining characteristic of the periods that
made Greece great and turned it into a centre of cultural achievements
that were relevant to all educated Greeks even centuries after its heyday.
The key events that dominate Pausanias’ historical introductions do not
represent a simple set of criteria to define Greekness: the Greek identity
of the cities described in the Periegesis is never in question, although most
of the places that are introduced in this way did not succeed in backing the
Greek cause at every turn. What all these events have in common,
however, is that they were crucial in defining and maintaining a strong
Greek identity far beyond mainland Greece, which made them relevant to
anyone who claimed a part in Greek culture. To a visitor with a sense of
this great heritage, the contrast between the momentousness of events
such as the Persian Wars or the Gallic invasion and the small size and
poverty of many of the communities that were known to have played a
significant part in them must have been striking. All over the ancient
world, cities which claimed some Greek ancestry could point to foundation
myths and stories of migrations or wandering Greek heroes, but the cities
in mainland Greece had played a much more significant role in shaping a
history that was relevant to Greeks everywhere. Any role in these pivotal
events in Greek history, even as a neutral bystander or as an ally of the
enemy, adds more depth to the history and identity of a particular polis or
region. Pausanias’ selection of historical events highlights the importance
and almost heroic quality of those moments when Greek states fought
together, and emphasises the importance of mainland Greece for all
Greeks.
The historical introductions provided space for (more or less) systematic
overviews, but Pausanias continued to attach information about the past
to his descriptions of monuments and sites. The summaries of pivotal
moments in a city’s history made it easier to place objects into the local
historical framework with just a short reference, but there was still ample
room to introduce more narrative detail while guiding the reader around
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