The Legacy of Pausanias: Preserving Ancient Greece

Pausanias, a Greek traveler and geographer, was born around 110 AD in Lydia, Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). His work, Description of Greece (Ἑλλάδος Περιήγησις), is a detailed account of his travels through Greece, documenting its geography, monuments, and cultural practices. Living in the Roman Empire, Pausanias was deeply influenced by his Greek heritage, which shaped the focus of his writings. Despite Roman dominance, he emphasized the preservation of Greek history and culture. His work stands as a testament to the importance of maintaining historical identity in the face of foreign rule.

Pausanias traveled extensively, exploring regions like Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Italy before concentrating his efforts on Greece. His journeys gave him a broad perspective on Mediterranean cultures, but his heart remained tied to the rich cultural legacy of Greece. This is reflected in his accounts of Greek temples, sanctuaries, and statues, where he often intertwined physical descriptions with historical narratives and myths. Pausanias’s descriptions frequently include references to lesser-known sites, offering insights into regional variations in Greek culture that were often overlooked by other historians of the time.

Description of Greece holds immense value for historians and archaeologists today. Many of the ancient sites Pausanias documented have since been destroyed or altered, either by natural disasters, human intervention, or the passage of time. For instance, his detailed descriptions of temples and sacred places provide key information about their original structure, layout, and significance. His work also preserves an understanding of Greek religious practices, beliefs, and the myths that were vital to the local communities. By linking architectural descriptions with the associated myths and legends, Pausanias not only documented Greece's physical landscape but also its spiritual and cultural life.

Pausanias’s clear, factual writing style has made Description of Greece a reliable resource for the study of classical antiquity. His dedication to recording even minor details has ensured that his legacy lives on, making him an invaluable figure for anyone seeking to understand the complexities of ancient Greek civilization.
The Legacy of Pausanias: Preserving Ancient Greece

The Early Life and Influences of Plato

Plato (429 BC – 348 BC), a renowned philosopher and biographer of Socrates, was born in Aegina in May 429 BC. He hailed from an illustrious Athenian family of the Deme Kollytus, known for its noble heritage. Plato received a well-rounded education, balancing physical training with intellectual pursuits. He engaged in rigorous gymnastic exercises to strengthen his body, while his mind was nurtured through the study of poetry and geometry, reflecting the holistic educational values of ancient Greece.

At the age of 20, Plato's life took a pivotal turn when he became acquainted with Socrates, a figure revered across Greece for his wisdom and virtue. Plato's association with Socrates profoundly influenced his philosophical outlook. For eight years, he was a dedicated pupil, absorbing Socratic teachings that would later shape his own philosophical contributions.

Following Socrates' execution in 399 BC, Plato distanced himself from the turbulent political environment of Athens. He embarked on extensive travels across Greece, seeking knowledge and engaging with other thinkers of his time. These travels enriched his philosophical perspectives and provided the foundation for his future works.

Plato's later writings, including "The Republic" and "The Dialogues," reflect the depth of his intellectual journey. His contributions have had a lasting impact on Western philosophy, cementing his legacy as one of history's greatest philosophers. His early life, shaped by noble lineage, rigorous education, and the profound influence of Socrates, laid the groundwork for his enduring contributions to philosophy.
The Early Life and Influences of Plato

Pausanias – Greek traveler and geographer (110 – 180 AD)

Pausanias was a Greek author, historian, and geographer of the 2nd century AD. He journeyed extensively throughout Greece, chronicling these travels in his Periegesis Hellados or Description of Greece.

Pausanias was born approximately 110 AD into a Greek family in Magnesia ad Sipylum, a city in the province of Lydia, which was an Iron Age kingdom in what is now the western Turkish provinces of Izmir, Manisa and Usak. His youth was spent during the reign of the Roman emperor Hadrian (117 AD – 138 AD).

Pausanias well-educated and able to travel widely in Greece and beyond, including time to pursue his cultural interests, which implies that he must have enjoyed at least one important privilege: wealth.

Before visiting Greece, Pausanias had traveled widely in Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Macedonia, Epirus (now in Greece and Albania), and parts of Italy. In Egypt, he had seen the pyramids. While at the temple of Ammon at Siwah, he had been shown the hymn once sent to that shrine by Pindar.

As a traveler, he used his firsthand observations to write a famous description of ancient Greece in a multi-book piece entitled Description of Greece which was written between the 150s and 170s AD. The Description is one of the most unusual works to survive from ancient literature, one of the most directly useful to Classical archaeologists active in mainland Greece - and one of the most fascinating for the discerning traveler.

In the ten volumes of the Description Pausanias refers frequently to the monuments and celebrations of Greek culture created by the Roman emperor Hadrian.

Pausanias' work has ended up influencing the development of classical archaeology to a larger degree than any other text. His many works are geared toward a Roman audience, since Romans wanted to know everything about the glories of Ancient Greece.
Pausanias – Greek traveler and geographer (110 – 180 AD)

Phylotimus of Cos

The Greek scholar Phylotimus (or Philotimos) was a pupil of Praxagoras of Cos. In Arabic he was called Fulutimus, Fulatis, or Falatis, and he is cited by several Arabic sources as an authority on foodstuffs.

Phylotimus of Cos. Physician and chief magistrate of Cos in the first half of the 3rd cent. BC; along with Herophilus.

As a pupil of Praxagoras and he became one of the classic authorities of Greek medicine, although only fragments of his writings now survive.

Phylotimus is the pupil most often mentioned with Praxagoras and he seems to have been the most famous of Praxagoras’ students besides Herophilus.

Galen reports that Praxagoras and his student Phylotimus believe that the brain is only an outgrowth of the spinal column, with no particular connection to the rational powers.
Phylotimus of Cos

Erasistratus: A pioneer of human physiology

Erasistratus (310-250 BC) was a disciple and collaborator of Herophilus. Erasistratus in addition to Herophilus of Chalcedon (335-280 BC) were pioneers of scientific anatomy, since deploying for the first time the method of human body dissection. Erasistratus the son of Kleombrotos was born in Island of Ceos, Greece approximately in 310 BC. His father and brother were physicians and his mother was the sister of a physician.

He studied medicine first in Athens, under Metrodorus and Theophrastus. Theophrastus was a preferred disciple of Aristotle so he had contact with this school and also knew about the philosophy of Democritus.

Erasistratus belonged in the scientific Alexandrian mileu and worked at the Herophilean Medical School in Egypt during the Hellenistic period.

Erasistratus was the first to describe the nerves as anatomical structures originating from the substance of the human brain. He and Herophilus suggested that there are two kind of nerves:
a) the sensory nerves and the
b) motor nerves and that the nerves “that make voluntary motion” originate from the cerebrum and the spinal marrow.

Erasistratus was credited with the first description of cardiac rhythm, after healing Nicator, son of King Seleucus I, by measuring his heart palpitations so he is deemed by some to be the father of physiology.

Erasistratus was the first physician who recognized the heart’s activity as a “pump” contracting perpetually, due to its “intrinsic force”. The heart’s construction and activity may be compared with the ingenious mechanism known as the Ctesibius pump. That pump was invented by Ctesibius of Alexandria in approximately 250 BC.

Herophilus with Erasistratus, helped introduce the discipline of anatomic dissection. It is quite reasonable that Erasistratus is considered as a great anatomist and a master of experimental physiology. Unfortunately, though, the studies of Erasistratus have been lost entirely and only a few details of his marvelous work may be recovered from the writings of Galen.
Erasistratus: A pioneer of human physiology

Philolaus of Croton (470-385 BC)

He was born in Croton around 470 BC, eventually moved to Tarentum.

Philolaus comes almost a century after Pythagoras; he was a contemporary of Socrates and Democritus, but carried on a tradition more at home in the mode of thought of earlier thinkers.

He seems to have written a book, On Nature, the first by a Pythagorean.  He has emerged from the shadow of Pythagoras and come to be recognized as an important Pre-Socratic thicker.

Philolaus is thought to be the first Pythagorean to have left a written work. It is for this reason that he has been included, achronistically, along with the Pythagorean School.

Philolaus taught philosophy and mathematics as well as engaging in political life. When the activity of the Pythagorean order became intolerable to the democracy, the order was ousted and Philolaus fled first to Lucania and then to Thebes for refuge.

He seems to have been deeply interested in number theory and mathematics, which he used to interpret man’s purpose and place in the state and the universe.

By applying mathematical concepts to cosmology, Philolaus seems to have brought Pythagorean traditions into the mainstream of Greek intellectual development.

He is also credited with the view that ‘soul’ is a mixture and harmony of the parts of the body.
Philolaus of Croton (470-385 BC)

Polybius (200 BC-118 BC)

He was Greek statesman and historian. Polybius was born at Megalopolis, Arcadia in southern Greece and one of the prominent states in the Achaean League. His father, a wealthy landowner, was an elected official of the Achaean League.

Polybius served the league as a diplomat and military officer. After Rome’s victory in the Macedonian War, Polybius was among one thousand prominent sentiments, who were taken to Rome as hostages. But soon he became a welcome guest and friend of grecophile leading citizen, especially of P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus.

When seventeenth years later the barely three hundred surviving Achaeans were finally allowed to return home, Polybius lingered with his Roman friends for five more years and Scipio took him with him on his military campaigns in Africa.

Polybius wrote a history of Rome from the First Punic War in 264 to the destruction of Carthage and Corinth in 146 in forty books. Originally, his aim was to explain for a Greek speaking audience Rome’s conquest of the Mediterranean during the half century from the Sound Punic War to the Third Macedonian War, but the later expanded the material to include the First Punic War.

In addition to his history, Polybius also wrote of life of Philopoemen ( a general of the Achaean League), a treatise on tactics and a history of the Numantine War. Polybius is not only the first Greek to tell about Rome but also predates all surviving historical texts written by Romans.
Polybius (200 BC-118 BC)

Hippias of Elis

Hippias of Elis was born about 460 BC in Elis, Peloponnese, Greece and to have died about 400 BC. He was a statesman and philosopher who travelled from place to place taking money for his services.

He was an ambassador of his native city Elis. Like other sophists, Hippias travelled extensively as a professional teacher.

Hippias of Elis was one of the more notable among the Sophists who visited Athens in the latter half of the fifth century BC.

Hippias of Elis is known from Plato’s dialogues, where he is represented as an intellectual jack-of-all trades who has a prodigious memory, performs numerical calculations at a speed which amazes his audience and teaches the ‘quadrivium’, calculation, astronomy, geometry and music.

As an ambassador, Hippias traveled more frequently to Sparta than to Athens. He claimed to have gone to Sicily when Protagoras was there. Hippias appeared in Athens during the years of the peace of Nicias and on special occasions.

Hippias was polymath and wrote extensively in almost every literary genre, but nothing more than a few references to his work exist.
Hippias of Elis