A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Παυσανίας), the author of the Ἑλλάδος Περιήγησις. has been supposed to be a native of Lydia. The passage in which this opinion is founded is in his own work (5.13.7). The time when he travelled and lived is fixed approximately by various passages. The latest Roman emperors whom he mentions are Antoninus Pius, whom he calls the former Antoninus (8.43.1), and his successor Marcus Antoninus, whom he calls the second Antoninus (8.43.6). He alludes to Antoninus leaving Marcus for his successor, and to the defeat of the Germans and Sarmatians by Marcus. The great battle with the Quadi took place A. D. 174. (D. C. 71.8.) Aurelius was again engaged in hostilities with the Sarmatians, Quadi, and other barbarians, in A. D. 179, but as he died in A.D. 180, and Pausanias does not mention his death, probably he refers to his earlier campaigns. He was therefore writing his eighth book after A. D. 174. In a passage in the seventh book (20.6) he says that he had not described the Odeion of Herodes in his account of Attica (lib. i.), because it was not then built. Herodes was a contemporary of Pius and Marcus, and died in the latter part of the reign of Marcus.

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