Pausanias Analysis

Passage 8.33.1

← 8.32.5 8.33.2 →

Passage 8.33.1: The Arcadian Great City fallen into ruins

Historical Skeptical

Greek Text

εἰ δὲ ἡ Μεγάλη πόλις προθυμίᾳ τε τῇ πάσῃ συνοικισθεῖσα ὑπὸ Ἀρκάδων καὶ ἐπὶ μεγίσταις τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἐλπίσιν ἐς αὐτὴν κόσμον τὸν ἅπαντα καὶ εὐδαιμονίαν τὴν ἀρχαίαν ἀφῄρηται καὶ τὰ πολλά ἐστιν αὐτῆς ἐρείπια ἐφʼ ἡμῶν, θαῦμα οὐδὲν ἐποιησάμην, εἰδὼς τὸ δαιμόνιον νεώτερα ἀεί τινα ἐθέλον ἐργάζεσθαι, καὶ ὁμοίως τὰ πάντα τά τε ἐχυρὰ καὶ τὰ ἀσθενῆ καὶ τὰ γινόμενά τε καὶ ὁπόσα ἀπόλλυνται μεταβάλλουσαν τὴν τύχην, καὶ ὅπως ἂν αὐτῇ παριστῆται μετὰ ἰσχυρᾶς ἀνάγκης ἄγουσαν.

English Translation

But if the Great City, though established by the Arcadians with the utmost enthusiasm and with the greatest hopes among the Greeks for its absolute splendor and ancient prosperity, has been stripped of all its glory and stands mostly in ruins in our time, I am not at all surprised; for I know that the divine power is always inclined to produce new events, and that fortune continually shifts everything alike—both strong and weak, things coming into existence as well as those perishing—and leads them wherever she wills by an irresistible necessity.

Proper Nouns

Arcadians (Ἀρκάδες) people
Hellenes (Ἕλληνες) people
Megalopolis (Μεγάλη πόλις) place Q36024972
← 8.32.5 8.33.2 →