XVI.] QUESTION OF HIS VERACITY. 361
most part ruined or deserted, as if they were still flourishing. As
he informs us that his place of residence was somewhere in
Lydia1, he is supposed hardly to have left that country; or, if he
travelled in Greece at all, it was only over a small portion of it
and in a superficial manner, so that he was able by that means
to insert in his book recollections of his tours, with the object
of giving it a modern colouring.
A little concession has turned the edge of some of the most
formidable of these objections. The suspicious _ ,
J r Explanations
character of the ambiguous terms which Pausamas of his
uses in quoting from other treatises is admitted, but tatements-
they are shown to have been commonly employed by other
ancient writers whose veracity is unquestioned; and he is proved
to have introduced them bona fide and not with the view of dis-
guising the origin of the statements, by the examination of a
number of passages, where these expressions are used undis-
guisedly with reference to earlier compilations. It is also allowed
that the name which he sometimes applies to ticerones (l^fffral)
is on other occasions, and perhaps more frequently, intended to
signify local handbooks, or, as we say, 'guides.' NLor is it doubted
that he studied both these and all the other available books which
related to the places which he visited, nor that he made extracts
from these when it suited his purposes—an admission which ex-
plains the existence of numerous coincidences between his state-
ments and those of other writers, but in no way justifies -the
charge of wholesale plagiarism. The question whether his de-
scriptions of cities are anachronistic, and therefore could not have
been derived from personal observation, in many cases cannot be
determined from want of data, but in some instances these places
are proved by the testimony of coins to have been still in existence
in his age. With regard to the whole question it is well to hear
in mind the improbabilities that are involved in this attempt to
discredit Pausamas. In the first place it is no easy Difficultics
task for a writer to assume the mask so completely, involved in the
as to leave the impression (which he does) that ^PP08^011-
there is nothing counterfeit either in his enquiries or his religion.
And, secondly, it is not likely that Pausanias would have exposed
Pausan, 5.13, 7*