ABSTRACT
Why does Pausanias end his work with a description of the Greek landscapes of Phocis and Western Locris, which, at first glance, seem less “Classical”? Why does he describe the small poleis there, which seem to lack everything that makes up the Greek city of the 2nd century CE? In this chapter, I argue that, for Pausanias, an important part of what constitutes Greece had survived the passage of time in this rather remote part of Achaea, and it was more undisturbed than in the “Classical” Greek world: the small polis that had produced mythological heroes and participated in Panhellenic wars, that guarded its borders, maintained its cults, longed for a temple of stone, and was the home of proud citizens. In this sense, Pausanias uses Book X to document the present of Greece’s past through this seemingly marginal example.
