fiderable States, which, after having maintained themfelves for fome time independent, were at laft united to the former. Thefe ten States are described by Paufanias in as many Books, each Book containing the Description of one State,except the fifth and fixth Books, which treat both of Elis, as the fecond comprises Corinth and Argos. As to the other People of Greece, viz. the Etolians, Acarnanians, Theffalians, Macedonians, Locrians, and Epirotes, our Author only treats of them occafionally: whereas he defcribes the others with all poffible exactnefs and diftinction; traces out their first Origin, and brings them down from the most remote and dark times to his own Age; describes their Government; relates their Wars; mentions their Colonies; takes notice of their Cities and Towns, marking their fituations and distances from each other: in a word, he omits nothing relating to them, which he had obferved, or feemed worthy to be transmitted to pofterity. If in the difcuffion of any point in matter of History or Antiquity, he efpoufes one Opinion preferably to another; he always takes care to produce his Vouchers, who are generally the moft antient Hiftorians or Poets; but efpeci ally Homer, whofe Authority was of great weight with him. And this is what above any other thing recommends the Works of Paufanias to fuch of the Learned as afpire to a thorough and well-grounded Knowledge of the Monuments of Antiquity, and are defirous of making new difcoveries in matters of Hiftory, Geography, or Chronology.

A's to Paufanias himself, our Tranflator obferves, that he is one of those Writers, who are known only by their Works; fince we are quite

quite in the dark, as to his Perfon, and scaree better informed, as to his Country. Suidas mentions two Writers of this Name, the one a Lacedemonian, and the other a Cappadocian, born in Cæfarea, contemporary with Ariftides, and counted by Philoftrates among the Sophifts or Rhetoricians of that time. But neither of these two can be our Paufanias; not the Lacedes monian, because our Paufanias writes in the Ionic, and not in the Doric Dialect, and speaks like a Stranger, as well of Sparta, as of all the other places of Greece in Europe. Neither can the Cappadocian be our Paufanias; for our Hiftorian was a Lydian, as appears from a paffage of his Eliacs (Lib. 2. Cap. 13.) where in fpeaking of Tantalus and Pelops; there's no doubt, fays he, but they both lived in our Country; which words muft neceffarily be understood of Lydia, the native Country of thofe Princes. From hence our Tranflator concludes, that Paufanias, who was, without all doubt, a Native of Greece, was born in fome Greek City of Alia Minor, fituated near Mount Sipylus. And this is all we know touching his Country. The time he lived in, is more certain; for he himfelf acquaints us, that he lived at Rome in the Reign of the Emperor Adrian, and of the Antonines. He reckons 217 Years from the rebuilding of Corinth, to the time in which he wrote his account of Greece. Now it is plain from Dion Caffius, and fome Medals, that Corinth began to be peopled again, the Year of Rome 710; from whence it follows, that our Author wrote in the Year of Rome 927, which was the 16th of the Reign of Antoninus the Philofopher; and as that Prince is the laft Emperor our Hiftorian

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mentions, we may prefume he died in his Reign.) sta s begunda d £ PAUSANIAS in all likelihood, fays our Tranflator, wrote fome other Books, befides his Hiftory of Greece; for Philoftrates afcribes fome Orations to him, and Euftathius, Stephanus Byzantinus, and Suidas, quote him on occafion of mentioning the Names of fome Towns and People; infinuating, that he travelled into Syria, Palestine, and all over Afia, and even publifhed an Account of thefe his Travels. But, however that be, the Hiftorical Account of Greece is his only Work now extant; a Work which in all Ages has been admired by the Learned, and well deferves to be proposed asia Model to alle Travellers. The Style of this Work is, as Mr. Gedoyn justly obferves, fo concife, that it often becomes obfcure, and hard to be understood; which he àfcribes to two Caufes, the one, that as Paufanias wrote for his Contemporaries, who were, for the most part, well acquainted with the things he defcribes; he thought it needlefs to dilate on Subjects, which were already fo generally known. The other, and perhaps the chief caufe of this obfcurity is, that the Works of our Greek Hiftorian have been ftrangely corrupted, thro' the ignorance, or negligence, of Transcribers. And this is what has induced feverabable Critics to labour, as it were in emulation of each other, to rectify or illuftrate his Text: and indeed, without their Elucidations and Corrections, Paufanias in feveral Paffages had been quite unintelligible.

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As to Mr Gedogn's Tranflation, it is dones in such an easy, proper, and elegant Style, that one would take it rather for an Original, than

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a Tranflation. This Performance will, no doubt, be well received by the Public, and gain the Tranflator a great Reputation in the Republic of Letters: the more, because he is the first who has tranflated, Paufanias into French. 'Tis true, that Fabricius fpeaks of a French Tranflation of Paufanias done by Vigenere; but as no body knows any thing of fuch a Tranflation, we may juftly prefume, that Fabricius was mistaken in afcribing to Vigenere, a Tranf lation that never was extant, as he is guilty in the fame place of another fault, which is his omitting, in his account of the Tranflations of Paufanias, one done into Italian by Alfonfo ontant. printed at Mantua in 1593, and To the Tranflation Mr. Gedoyn has added fome very learned Notes relating to matters of Chronology, Geography, Mythology, Hiftory, &c. and has taken care (for which he can never be fufficiently commended) to make only fuch Remarks as are precifely neceffary for the right intelligence of the obfcure or dubious Paffages. He is not fond of making a fhew of his Erudition; and therefore has not imitated thofe འཕུ༠ (Dutch and German) Commentators, who, to difplay their Erudition, croud Notes upon Notes, ftop the Reader at every Word, multiply Beings, and, (what is worfe). Folio's, with out any neceffity; and when they have worn out the Reader's Patience with a thoufand idle and empty Speculations, drawn moftly from their Port-folio's, Repertories, and Commonplace-books, leave him more perplexed than ever. As Mr. Gedoyn is, to our knowledge, well verfed in the Hiftory, Chronology, and Mythology of the Greeks, he might eafily have drowned, after the modern Fashion, the Text

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in his Notes. But he remembred the famous faying of Horace, in his Art of Poetry, fed nunc non erat bis locus; a Law, which most of our modern Writers look upon as antiquated. Mr. Gedoyn ingenuoufly owns, that his Notes are for the most part borrowed from Cafaubon, Meurfius, Kubnius, Meziriac, and Paulmier de Grentemefnil; and acknowledges himself indebted for feveral Lights to the Gentlemen of the Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres. To the Notes our Tranflator has added several CopperPlates, which will all prove very useful; but the three firft Mr. Gedoyn thought abfolutely neceffary. Thefe are three Maps done from the Memoirs of the late Mr. Delifle by Mr. Buache, his Son-in-law; the firft a general Map of all Greece, and the Countries poffeffed by the Greeks in Afia Minor, the other two are particular Maps of South and North Greece. Befides thefe, the Reader will find the place where the Olympic Games were performed, and the Order of fome celebrated Battles engraved according to the Defigns of the Chevalier de Folárd whofe Abilities in matters of this nature, are already well known in the Republic of Letters, The whole Work is clofed with a very copious Index of all the Matters contained in the Text, as well as in the Notes.

As to the Editions of Paufanias; that of Aldus, containing only the Greek Text, was publifhed at Venice in 1516, Fol. Kubnius used a Copy of this Edition, illuftrated with a great many Manufcript Notes, by Ifaac Cafaubon, Domitius Chalderinus, a Native of Verona, tranflated the Attica and Corinthiaca, into Latin; which Tranflation was in feveral places corrected by Jobannes Oporinus, and printed at

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