Abstract EN:

Book vii of pausanias' description of greece deals with achaea but it is not just a simple description of achaea. Much of the book is given over to the history, the myth, and the religious practices of each city he visited in greece. Pausanias did not want to present an exhaustive history of the region with a great objectivity and, as a matter of fact we can point out quite serious gaps and faults in his book when we compare it with other texts dealing with literature, epigraphy, numismatics or archaeology. Nevertheless he has been original in his work when he has dug up the little known traditions, which he called the notable ones and which come across as being true. Moreover the fact that he was selective to illustrate old lost traditions shows that he was someone who had a dep interest in the ancient glories of greece and through his book we get a real taste of what the people of the 2nd century a. D. Read.