A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

1. A native of Sicily in the fifth century B. C., who belonged to the family of the Asclepiadae, and whose father's name was Anchitus. He was an intimate friend of Empedocles, who dedicated to him his poem on Nature. (D. L. 8.2.60; Suidas, s.v. Ἄπνους; Galen, De Meth. Med. 1.1. vol. x. p. 6.) There is extant a Greek epigram on this Pausanias, which is attributed in the Greek Anthologv to Simonides (7.508), but by Diogenes Laertius (l.c.) to Empedocles. The latter opinion appears to be more probable, as he could hardly be known to Simonides, who died B. C. 467. It is also doubtful whether he was born, or buried, at Gela in Sicily, as in this same epigram Diogenes Laertius reads ἔθρεψε Γέλα, and the Greek Anthology ἔθαψε Γέλα Perhaps the former reading is the more correct, as it seems to be implied by Diogenes Laertius that Pausanias was younger than Empedocles, and we have no notice of his dying young, or being outlived by him.