Travels of Anacharsis the Younger in Greece

Frontiscipe of the 1788 edition of Voyage du jeune Anacharsis en Grèce

Travels of Anacharsis the Younger in Greece (French: Voyage du jeune Anacharsis en Grèce) was a fictional work about the travels of the Scythian sage Anacharsis in Greece in the middle of the 4th century BCE, written by Jean-Jacques Barthélemy and published in 1788.

Description[]

Jean-Jacques Barthélemy's book was a fanciful but learned imaginary travel journal, one of the first historical novels, which a modern scholar has called "the encyclopedia of the new cult of the antique" in the late 18th century.^[1] It had a high impact on the growth of philhellenism in France, Europe and the United States: the book went through many editions, was reprinted in the United States and was translated into German and other languages. It later inspired European sympathy for the Greek War of Independence and spawned sequels and imitations throughout the 19th century.^[2] According to a contemporary English literary review:

"The travels of Anacharsis are the produce of an intimate acquaintance with the original Greek writers, and comprize the most instructive details concerning the political, as well as the literary state of that people, during their most brilliant period"
— The Monthly review, 1799.^[3]

The work also contained numerous maps and engravings of high quality, made by geographer and cartographist Jean-Denis Barbié Du Bocage (1760–1825).^[4]

An important related edition is that of the Maps, plans, views, and coins, illustrative of the Travels of Anacharsis the younger in Greece by engraver Barbié du Bocage, published in English in 1832.^[5]