PERIEGETAE

Form: lit. "those who guide strangers about," and show them what is worth notice.

A term applied by the Greeks to the authors of travellers' guide-books enumerating and describing what was worthy of note, especially buildings or monuments, in the several cities or countries. This kind of literature was especially in vogue from the 3rd century B.C. onwards. Its chief representatives are Polemon of Troas (about 200), whose numerous works are now unfortunately preserved in fragments only; and after him the Athenian Heliodorus, author of a great work on the Acropolis, likewise lost. Larger fragments survive of a handbook to Greece by a certain Heraclides, and of the interesting work on Alexandria by Callixenus of Rhodes. The only complete work of this kind remaining is the valuable description of Greece by Pausanias (2nd century A.D.).