PLUTARCH

Editor: John S. White

Plutarchs Lives is a collection of biographies of famous Greeks and Romans, written by the ancient Greek philosopher Plutarch. The biographies were originally published in the late 1st century AD and early 2nd century AD and have been influential in shaping Western views of classical history and politics.The book is comprised of 46 biographies, each comparing the lives of two historical figures who lived at approximately the same time. Plutarchs intention was to provide readers with examples of virtue and vice in order to help them live better lives. The biographies cover a range of topics, including politics, war, philosophy, and ethics.Some of the most famous biographies in the collection include those of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Cicero. Plutarchs approach to biography was innovative for his time, as he sought to understand the psychology and motivations of the people he wrote about, rather than just recounting their actions.Plutarchs Lives has been widely read and studied over the centuries and has influenced many writers, including Shakespeare. It remains a valuable source of historical information and insights into the lives and values of ancient Greeks and Romans.Plutarch (c. 46 - c. 120 AD) was an ancient Greek historian, biographer, and essayist. He was born in the town of Chaeronea in Boeotia, Greece, and spent much of his life in Athens, where he became a priest and an important figure in the intellectual and cultural life of the city.

From an intimate and moving letter to his grieving wife on the death of their daughter, to elegant writings on morality, happiness and the avoidance of anger, Plutarchs powerful words of consolation and inspiration still offer timeless wisdom and guidance today.

Tr.: Aubrey Stewart and George Long

Plutarchs "Parallel Lives" (AKA Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans) is a collection of biographies about great men and leaders from Greece and Rome.The book is structured in pairs of biographies including Themistocles v. Camillus, Pyrrhus v. Marius, Alexander v. Caesar, and Phocion v. Cato the Younger. Plutarch compares the lives of leaders from both the Greeks and the Romans to show how similar they were. He hoped that the comparisons would lead to mutual respect between the two empires that were both influential at the time. As a result, most of the biographies are filled with moral teachings. "Parallel Lives" can still be used by anyone intending to run for public office today since the same ethical principles apply to modern leaders.

Trans.: Arthur Richard Shilleto

Tr.: Aubrey Stewart and George Long / Contents: / Life of Plutarch / Life of Theseus / Life of Romulus / Comparison of Theseus and Romulus / Life of Lykurgus / Life of Numa / Comparison of Numa with Lykurgus / Life of Solon / Life of Poplicola / Comparison of Solon and Poplicola / Life of Themistokles / Life of Camillus / Life of Perikles / Life of Fabius Maximus / Comparison of Perikles and Fabius Maximius / Life of Alkibiades / Life of Caius Marcius Coriolanus / Comparison between Alkibiades and Coriolanus / Life of Timoleon / Life of Aemilius / Comparison of Paulus Aemilius and Timoleon

All are agreed that Alexander was descended on his fathers side from Herakles through Karanus, and on his mothers from akus through Neoptolemus.We are told that Philip and Olympias first met during their initiation into the sacred mysteries at Samothrace, and that he, while yet a boy, fell in love with the orphan girl, and persuaded her brother Arymbas to consent to their marriage. The bride, before she consorted with her husband, dreamed that she had been struck by a thunderbolt, from which a sheet of flame sprang out in every direction, and then suddenly died away. Philip himself some time after his marriage dreamed that he set a seal upon his wifes body, on which was engraved the figure of a lion. When he consulted the soothsayers as to what this meant, most of them declared the meaning to be, that his wife required more careful watching; but Aristander of Telmessus declared that she must be pregnant, because men do not seal up what is empty, and that she would bear a son of a spirited and lion-like disposition.

Cato the elder, speaking to some persons who were praising a man of reckless daring and audacity in war, observed that there is a difference between a mans setting a high value on courage, and setting a low value on his own lifeand rightly. For a daring soldier in the army of Antigonus, but of broken and ill health, being asked by the king the reason of his paleness, confessed that he was suffering from some secret disorder. When then the king, anxious for him, charged his physicians to use the greatest care in their treatment, if a cure were possible, at length this brave fellow, being restored to health, was no longer fond of peril and furious in battle, so that Antigonus reproved him, and expressed surprise at the change. The man made no secret of his reason, but answered: "My, king, you have made me less warlike by freeing me from those miseries on account of which I used to hold my life cheap." And the Sybarite seems to have spoken to the same effect about the Spartans, when he said that "they do no great thing by dying in the wars in order to escape from such labours and such a mode of life as theirs."

Among the extant Lives of Plutarch there are thirteen Lives of Romans which belong to the most eventful period of Roman history. They are the lives of the brothers Tiberius and Caius Sempronius Gracchus, of Caius Marius, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Quintus Sertorius, Marcus Licinius Crassus, Cneius Pompeius Magnus, Marcus Porcius Cato the Younger, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Lucius Licinius Lucullus, Caius Julius Caesar, Marcus Junius Brutus, and Marcus Antonius. From the year of the death of Tiberius Gracchus, B.C. 133, to the death of Marcus Antonius, B.C. 30, a period of about one hundred years, the Roman State was convulsed by revolutions which grew out of the contest between the People and the Nobility, or rather, out of the contests between the leaders of these two bodies. This period is the subject of Appians History of the Civil Wars of the Romans, in Five Books. Appian begins with the Tribunate and legislation of Tiberius Gracchus, from which he proceeds to the Dictatorship of Sulla, and then to the quarrels between Pompeius and Caesar, and Caesars Dictatorship and assassination. He then proceeds to the history of the Triumvirate formed after Caesars death by his great nephew Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus, Marcus Antonius, and Lepidus, the quarrels of the Triumviri, the downfall of Lepidus, who was reduced to the condition of a private person, and the death of Sextus Pompeius, the last support of the party in whose cause his father, Cneius Pompeius, lost his life.

Plutarch, who was born at Chronea in Botia, probably about A.D. 50, and was a contemporary of Tacitus and Pliny, has written two works still extant, the well-known Lives, and the less-known Moralia. The Lives have often been translated, and have always been a popular work. Great indeed was their power at the period of the French Revolution. The Moralia, on the other hand, consisting of various Essays on various subjects (only twenty-six of which are directly ethical, though they have given their name to the Moralia), are declared by Mr. Paley "to be practically almost unknown to most persons in Britain, even to those who call themselves scholars."1 Habent etiam sua fata libelli.In older days the Moralia were more valued. Montaigne, who was a great lover of Plutarch, and who observes in one passage of his Essays that "Plutarch and Seneca were the only two books of solid learning he seriously settled himself to read," quotes as much from the Moralia as from the Lives. And in the seventeenth century I cannot but think the Moralia were largely read at our Universities, at least at the University of Cambridge. For, not to mention the wonderful way in which the famous Jeremy Taylor has taken the cream of "Conjugal Precepts" in his Sermon called "The Marriage Ring," or the large and copious use viiihe has made in his "Holy Living" of three other Essays in this volume, namely, those "On Curiosity,""On Restraining Anger," and "On Contentedness of Mind," proving conclusively what a storehouse he found the Moralia, we have evidence that that most delightful poet, Robert Herrick, read the Moralia, too, when at Cambridge, so that one cannot but think it was a work read in the University course generally in those days. For in a letter to his uncle written from Cambridge, asking for books or money for books, he makes the following remark: "How kind Arcisilaus the philosopher was unto Apelles the painter, Plutark in his Morals will tell you."...

Plutarch, Beradotte PerrinPlutarch (Plutarchus), ca. 45120 CE, was born at Chaeronea in Boeotia in central Greece, studied philosophy at Athens, and, after coming to Rome as a teacher in philosophy, was given consular rank by the emperor Trajan and a procuratorship in Greece by Hadrian. He was married and the father of one daughter and four sons. He appears as a man of kindly character and independent thought, studious and learned. Plutarch wrote on many subjects. Most popular have always been the 46 Parallel Lives, biographies planned to be ethical examples in pairs (in each pair, one Greek figure and one similar Roman), though the last four lives are single. All are invaluable sources of our knowledge of the lives and characters of Greek and Roman statesmen, soldiers and orators. Plutarch's many other varied extant works, about 60 in number, are known as Moralia or Moral Essays. They are of high literary value, besides being of great use to people interested in philosophy, ethics and religion. The Loeb Classical Library edition of the Lives is in eleven volumes.

The definitive biography of Alexander the Great, pieced together afresh from original sources, and with an introduction to the man, his achievements and his enduring reputation by Michael Wood. Comprises a chronological selection of extracts taken from Arrians The Campaigns of Alexander, Plutarchs The Age of Alexander and Quintus Curtius Rufuss History of Alexander. Published to coincide with the forthcoming films of Alexander.Introduccion al Michael Wood

Contents:1. Lives, by PlutarchAlso available:The Complete Harvard Classics Collection (51 Volumes + The Harvard Classic Shelf Of Fiction)50 Masterpieces You Have To Read Before You Die (Golden Deer C

Some of the things that grow on the earth are in their nature wild and barren and injurious to the growth of seeds and plants, yet those who till the ground consider them indications not of a bad soil but of a rich and fat one;637 so also there are passions of the soul that are not good, yet are as it were offshoots of a good disposition, and one likely to improve with good advice. Among these I class shyness, no bad sign in itself, though it affords occasion to vice. For the modest oftentimes plunge into the same excesses as the shameless, but then they are pained and grieved at them, and not pleased like the others. For the shameless person is quite apathetic at what is disgraceful, while the modest person is easily affected even at the very appearance of it. Shyness is in fact an excess of modesty. And thus it is called shamefacedness, because the face exhibits the changes of the mind. For as dejection is defined to be the grief that makes people look on the ground, so shamefacedness is that shyness that cannot look people in the face.

Plutarch (46-119) was a Greek philosopher, historian, and biographer. He studied mathematics and philosophy at the Academy of Athens, the same institution studied by Plato, and dedicated himself to politics, achieving high public offices. Plutarch wrote hundreds of texts, among them Parallel Lives, which consists of a collection of 64 biographies of prominent Greek and Roman figures.His work, "How to Profit from Your Enemies," teaches us that although they may harm us, our enemies can also aid in our personal and moral development. Plutarch, drawing from other thinkers such as Xenophon and Diogenes, demonstrates that the emotions stirred by them can be excellent motivators for decision-making when used correctly. Written in the first century of the Christian Era, "How to Profit from Your Enemies" remains entirely relevant, as in an increasingly competitive world, knowing how to benefit from adverse situations can be the difference between success and failure.

Plutarch (46-119) was a Greek philosopher, historian, and biographer. He studied mathematics and philosophy at the Academy of Athens, the same institution studied by Plato, and dedicated himself to politics, achieving high public offices. Plutarch wrote hundreds of texts, among them Parallel Lives, which consists of a collection of 64 biographies of prominent Greek and Roman figures.His work, "Moralia" (in Classical Greek: Ethika; loosely translated as "Morals" or "Matters relating to customs and morals") by the 1st-century Greek scholar Plutarch is an eclectic collection of 78 essays and transcribed speeches. They provide accounts of both Roman and Greek life but are often also timeless observations in their own right. Many generations of Europeans have read or imitated them, including Michel de Montaigne and the humanists of the Renaissance, as well as Enlightenment philosophers.