Luisa Moscati Castelnuovo

Pausanias made use of contemporary literary sources, but not a single author of his time is ever mentioned by name throughout his work. Despite his silence, the Hellenikai kai Italikai Historiai by Claudius Charax of Pergamon, who was active in the age of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, might be identified as an important source for Pausanias’ Periegesis. The comparison between some of the extant fragments of Charax’s work and the corresponding passages of the Periegesis shows how extensively Pausanias based his treatment of specific antiquarian traditions or matter of facts on his predecessor’s account. Yet Pausanias’ and Charax’s approaches to mythical material look different as well as their appreciation of the place and role of the Hellenic tradition within the culture of the Roman empire.