Book Description
Plutarch's Lives, written at the beginning of the second century A.D., is a brilliant social history of the ancient world by one of the greatest biographers and moralists of all time. In what is by far his most famous and influential work, Plutarch reveals the character and personality of his subjects and how they led ultimately to tragedy or victory. Richly anecdotal and full of detail, Volume I contains profiles and comparisons of Romulus and Theseus, Numa and Lycurgus, Fabius and Pericles, and many more powerful figures of ancient Greece and Rome.

The present translation, originally published in 1683 in conjunction with a life of Plutarch by John Dryden, was revised in 1864 by the poet and scholar Arthur Hugh Clough, whose notes and preface are also included in this edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A Timeless Classic By One Of The Best Biographers In History
Plutarch in his "Lives Of The Noble Grecians And Romans" written around 100 C.E., sheds new light on Greek and Roman history from their Bronze Age beginnings, shrouded in myth, down through Alexander and late Republican Rome.Plutarch is the lens that we use today to view the Greco-Roman past; his work has shaped our perceptions of that world for 2,000 years.Plutarch writes of the rise of Roman Empire while Gibbon uses his scholarship to advance the story to write about its decline.He was a proud Greek that was equally effected by Roman culture, a Delphic priest, a leading Platonist, a moralist, educator and philosopher with a deep commitment as a first rate writer.Being a Roman citizen, Plutarch was afforded the opportunity to become an intimate friend to prominent Roman citizens and a member of the literary elite in the court of Emperor Trajan.

Plutarch's influence and enormous popularity during and after the Renaissance is legendary among classicist. Plutarch's "Lives", served as the sourcebook for Shakespeare's Roman Plays "Julius Caesar", "Antony and Cleopatra" and "Coriolanus".By the way Plutarch is even the only contemporary source of all the biographical information on Cleopatra, whom he writes about in his biographies of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Octavian. Thomas Jefferson wrote to his nephew that there were three books every gentleman had to have familiarity with; Plutarch's "Lives", Livy's "History of Rome" and Virgil's Aeneid.In fact all the founding fathers of note had read Plutarch and learned much from his fifty biographies of noble men of Greece and Rome.When Hamilton, Jay and Madison write "The Federalist Papers" they use many examples of good and bad leadership traits that they read in Plutarch's work.His biographies are a great study in human character and what motivates leaders to decide and act the way they do, this masterpiece has proven to be still prescient today.

If you are truly interested in a classical education, put this book on the top of your list! I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in political philosophy, and history.

An Overlooked Classic
This is one of the most incredible pieces of literature in human history, yet is one of the most often overlooked.
Plutarch is not as much a historian as he is a moralist, and it is his examination of the lives of some of the most important historical figures of the ancient world for their moral roots that is so incredibly engaging.
Oddly enough, I was first introduced to the works of Plutarch through the fictional novels of Louis L'Amour, who often has one charcter encouraging another to read various classical authors.
For a interesting peek at the lives and morals of some of history's most intriguing figures, Plutarch is a great place to begin.

A book every man should read
Plutarchs historic portrayals of the lives of the gretest men in BCE western history, is truly inspiring.From the passionate warrior kings Alexander the Great and Julius Ceasar to the Athenean states men Dion and Draco, the list goes on, each text providing an insight to lives that were lived to the fullest potential.

Invaluable source and historical document.
After having read McCullogh's splendid series on Rome, I turned to this fat, dense book with great expectations. I was not disappointed: the stories are endlessly fascinating, from their basic details on ancient history to the bizarre asides that reveal the pre-Christianised mind-set of the author.

Like all great books, this one can be read on innumerable levels. First, there is the moralising philosophy that is perhaps the principal purpose of the author to advance - each life holds lessons on proper conduct of great and notorious leaders alike. You get Caesar, Perikles, and Alcibiades, and scores of others who are compared and contrasted. Second, there is the content. Plutarch is an invaluable source of data for historians and the curious. Third, there is the reflection of religious and other beliefs of the 1C AD: oracles and omens are respected as are the classical gods. For example, while in Greece, Sulla is reported as having found a satyr, which he attempted unsuccesfully to question for its auguring abilities during his miltary campaign in Greece! It is a wonderful window into the mystery of life and human belief systems. That being said, Plutarch is skeptical of these occurances and both questions their relevance and shows how some shrewd leaders, like Sertorious with his white fawn in Spain, used them to great advantage.

Finally, this is a document that was used for nearly 2000 years in schools as a vital part of classical education - the well-bred person knew all these personalities and stories, which intimately informed their vocabulary and literary references until the beginning of the 20C. That in itself is a wonderful view into what was on people's minds and how they conceived things over the ages. As is well known, Plutarch is the principal source of many of Shakespeare's plays, such as Coriolanus and Julius Caesar. But it was also the source of the now obscure fascination with the rivalry of Marius and Sulla, as depicted in paintings and poetry that we still easily encounter if we are at all interested in art. Thus, this is essential reading for aspiring pedants (like me).

Of course, there are plenty of flaws in the work. It assumes an understanding of much historical detail, and the cases in which I lacked it hugely lessened my enjoyment. At over 320 years old, the translation is also dated and the prose somewhat stilted, and so it took me 300 pages to get used to it. Moreover, strictly speaking, there are many inaccuracies, of which the reader must beware.

Warmly recommended as a great and frequently entertaining historical document.

Get this edition.
Plutarch's history isn't always the most accurate -- he clashes with Arrian and Quintus Curtius on Alexander, for example -- but it sure is a lot of fun...Plutarch weaves in lots of interesting little anecdotes and his narrative arcs are always complete without being too long.It's also great for leisurely reading; there are so many Lives, you can pick one up on any rainy afternoon, long car drive, or what have you, and don't even need to know a whole lot of context to get the gist of what's going on.For fans of history and biography, or just stories in general, this is as good as it gets.

I recommend the Modern Library edition because it's complete (with the two volumes, that is) and because the Dryden translation is very colorful even though it's old-school -- you're bound to pick up a lot of cool vocabulary.Also, don't quite know how to put it, but his translation just seems more...classic.It fits, get it. ... Read more

Book Description
Plutarch's Lives, written at the beginning of the second century A.D., is a brilliant social history of the ancient world by one of the greatest biographers and moralists of all time. In what is by far his most famous and influential work, Plutarch reveals the character and personality of his subjects and how they led ultimately to tragedy or victory. Richly anecdotal and full of detail, Volume I contains profiles and comparisons of Romulus and Theseus, Numa and Lycurgus, Fabius and Pericles, and many more powerful figures of ancient Greece and Rome.

The present translation, originally published in 1683 in conjunction with a life of Plutarch by John Dryden, was revised in 1864 by the poet and scholar Arthur Hugh Clough, whose notes and preface are also included in this edition.Download Description
Plutarch's ""Parallel Lives"," written at the beginning of the second century A.D., form a brilliant social history of the ancient world. They were originally presented in a series of books that gave an account of one Greek and one Roman life, followed by a comparison of the two: Theseus and Romulus, Alicbiades and Coriolanus, Demosthenes and Cicero, Demetrius and Antony. Plutarch was interested in the personalities of his subjects and on the way their characters molded their actions, leading them to tragedy or victory. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

For the ages' tooth
Twain's pejorative definition of `classic' need not apply.I define classic as that (text) which speaks to the heart over an extended duration - perhaps for several generations, as in `classic rock', or several millennia, as in Plutarch's "Lives".I probably never would have read Plutarch, were it not for a glorious discovery of Montaigne in mid-life. Having acquired enough distaste for the copious demands required to master classical languages after five years of Latin in secondary school, I made an arbitrary and direly misguided vow to eschew all Classics courses at the university level.And thus again is revealed the fateful difference between post-modern (post-1945), and the modern (c. 1500 - August 5, 1945) pedagogy, of which I unwittingly, if serendipitously, caught the tail end.The modern cannon required thorough immersion in the classics, and, for many years, Plutarch was required reading in the best schools, and should be even now.The author of the Shakespearian plays came to Plutarch by way of Montaigne (and likely read the Amyot translation, and only later the North, if at all), and the English schools came to Plutarch by way of Shakespeare.We might say that the revival of Plutarch was one of the most far reaching achievements of the Northern Renaissance.
At one point in his celebrated chronicle of the self, Montaigne (as a shaper and bona fide member of that cannon, guardian of some of what is best in our cultural inheritance) amusedly reveals that, when his critics believe they are attacking his work, they are actually attacking Plutarch and/or Seneca, so profound is their presence in his writing, and, in his "Defense of Plutarch and Seneca", he declares that . . . "my book [is] built up purely from their spoils".

And what a book it is! But Plutarch's magnum (see the 14 volumes of the Loeb Classical Library for his other works), is the greater.Montaigne is one of the great students of the self.Plutarch is the first (and may yet still be the definitive) historian of virtue.Montaigne, in scrutiny of his own nature, seeks to recognize the limitations and potentials of the self, and thereby sketch our general spiritual contours.Plutarch, in an unparalleled series of real life, historically and culturally pivotal, examples, shows us what they are.

The book records in the most remarkably intimate style (Plutarch has few peers as a master of narrative and an uncanny ability to ferret out of detail the significance of individual actions as a unified whole), the major events in the lives of the most impacting figures of the ancient world.Therefore, like the best novels, the book forms a world in itself, a lost world, the world of our ancestors, through a landscape drawn of actions and consequences.The structure of the book is such that an account of the seminal moments in the life of a noble Greek and then of a noble Roman are brought forth in pairs, followed by a comparison.In some sections of the work these comparisons are absent.They appear at some point in antiquity to have either been lost to or removed from the text, which would seem to explain why, for instance, there is no comparison of Alexander and Caesar. But the comparisons are brilliant, and eminently instructive.

Of course, from the details alone, we may draw our own inferences.Alexander, as a mere teen, leading his troops in hand-to-hand combat, won his first battle fighting uphill at night.Caesar, a heavy drinker, was wont to ride horseback at full tilt with his hands clenched behind his back.He had a life-long passion for Cato's sister and it is said that from their relationship, which continued through their respective marriages, Brutus was born.Et tu?Of course, one cannot fail to mention, even in this briefest review of the abundantly rich description in the nearly 1,300 pages which comprise the book, the death of Cato the Younger - one of the most exquisitely drawn figures in the book.Hunted down with the remnants of his troops into the wastelands of Carthage by the army of Octavius Ceasar in an effort to snuff out the last vestiges of republican resistance andopposition to Empire, realizing that the last realistic hope for freedom is lost, Cato attempts ritual suicide (a Stoic custom common to Roman nobility) by disembowelment.As Plutarch describes the scene, ". . . he did not immediately die of the wound; but struggling, fell off the bed, and throwing down a little mathematical table that stood by, made such a noise that the servants, hearingit, cried out. And immediately his son and all his friends came into the chamber, where, seeing him lie weltering in his own blood, great part of his bowels out of his body, but himself still alive and able to look at them, they all stood in horror.The physician went to him, and would have put in his bowels, which were not pierced, and sewed up the wound; but Cato, recovering himself, and understanding the intention, thrust away the physician, plucked out his own bowels, and tearing open the wound, immediately expired."In Seneca's words: "For Cato could not outlive freedom, nor would freedom outlive Cato."

However, the life most appropriate for the contemporary reader, I feel (and wish that every member of the shadowy corporate/military junta that seems to be ruling us these days would read and take to heart) is the life of Crassus.Crassus was the most successful businessman in the history of the Roman Empire.Plutarch relates that at one time he owned virtually one-third of the real estate in Rome.However, such mind-boggling success was not enough for him.His yen, and later, obsession, was to be revered as a great military leader, a world conqueror, expand the domain of the already burgeoning Empire, and the object of his fantasies was the area of the world at that time known as Mesopotamia and Persia, today as Iraq and Iran.We follow as he makes extensive preparations, investing his own fortune and a great deal of the nation's wealth into outfitting an army for the venture.And at first, the invasion of Mesopotamia seems to go well.But the centers of population are spread out over great stretches of desert, and the occupation never really succeeds, because a central authority cannot be solidly established.Crassus, however, remains undaunted, even though the troops are becoming mutinous as supplies begin to run thin.Led on by treacherous advisors, he enters Parthia (somewhere in the vicinity of modern day Syria).Plutarch describes the grueling denouement with his usual detachment, aplomb, and gifted eye for pertinent detail.Having lost the greatest fortune in the world, he proceeds to lose his troops, then his sons, and finally his life.These lessons are never too late for the learning, and my apologies to Twain, but a classic is a text which retains its urgency to be read, and read now.

I read the Dryden/Clough translation.Dryden was never my favorite writer of his period, the late 17th century - hardly a match for Burton or Milton, in my opinion, but he was poet laureate, and this work I love - his English is fine, and resonates with classic dignity.Clough, the mid-nineteenth century British scholar who revised the translation, befriended Emerson when he traveled to England, and became a sort of mentor to the New England Transcendentalists in general. We can be grateful for such a wonderful rendering for one of the very greatest and edifying masterpieces.

A must read for lovers of ancient History
A most concise volume of all the most important people of the Roman Empire.

A classic of character contrast
Plutarch's parallel lives, parallels the life of a great Greek with a great Roman. Theseus and Romulus, Demosthenes and Cicero, Alexander and Ceasar. There are forty- six such pairs which tell not only the story of the individuals but of their society . Plutarch brings to bear his tremendous learning from a wide variety of sources . Plutarch's first interest is in the character of the people he writes about, and the moral lessons he can draw from comparison of the lives. His work has had great influence and provided inspiration and material to Shakespeare, Montaigne, Browning and others.The reading of the work is not always easy, and there are strange and questionably credible tales and details but the work is humanly alive. The reading and studying of it was once considered a basic part of true humanistic education, and not the confine of a few scholars in the classic departments of universities. It once had broad reader appeal and anyone with a keen interest in biography, and the subject of how lives have been lived in worlds far from our own, would do well if not to read this work cover- to- cover than at very least have a good read in it.

essential reference
I have now plowed through the second and final volume of this series, and though my energy began to flag, I still think this is one of the great classics of all time.Though not exactly chronological, the stories in this volume tend to occur later than in the first volume and are often longer, which is understandable given that Julius Caesar and Alex the Great are covered in this volume.THe stories are also more intricately interwoven - you get lives that overlap, such as those of Brutus and Caesar, with slightly different takes and details in each one.The upshot of all this is that the serious reader will need to keep this around as a reference, going over the text again when some question of detail comes up or to refresh one's point of view.Plutarch's take on things is very different from that of many authors:he is a pro-aristocrat conservative and admiring of martial prowess, yet pro-Republican.Once again, the reader really needs to know the historical context before undertaking this. It is not at all introductory.

Warmly recommended.Though it takes real effort at times to continue, it is well worth the slog.

very interesting book, but.....
Although it's a very good translation, I prefer to read the books of Plutarchos in the original Greek texts because the version of Dryden is now somewhat obsolete. And if you don't understand the ancient Greek language well, I recommend you to read several volumes of Plutarch in THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY. ... Read more

Book Description
Marcus Cato SullaAemilius PaullusPompeyThe Gracchi MariusJulius Caesar Anthony'I treat the narrative of the Lives as a kind of mirror...The experience is like nothing so much as spending time in their company and living with them: I receive and welcome each of them in turn as my guest.'In the eight lives of this collection Plutarch introduces the reader to the major figures and periods of classical Rome.He portrays virtues to be emulated and vices to be avoided, but his purpose is also implicitly to educate and warn those in his own day whowielded power.In prose that is rich, elegant and sprinkled with learned references, he explores with an extraordinary degree of insight the interplay of character and political action.While drawing chiefly on historical sources, he brings to biography a natural story-teller's ear for a good anecdote. Throughout the ages Plutarch's Lives have been valued for their historical value and their charm.This new translation will introduce new generations to his urbane erudition. The most comprehensive selection available, it is accompanied by a lucid introduction, explanatory notes, bibliographies, maps and indexes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A Timeless Classic By One Of The Best Biographers In History
Plutarch in his "Lives Of The Noble Grecians And Romans" written around 100 C.E., sheds new light on Greek and Roman history from their Bronze Age beginnings, shrouded in myth, down through Alexander and late Republican Rome.Plutarch is the lens that we use today to view the Greco-Roman past; his work has shaped our perceptions of that world for 2,000 years.Plutarch writes of the rise of Roman Empire while Gibbon uses his scholarship to advance the story to write about its decline.He was a proud Greek that was equally effected by Roman culture, a Delphic priest, a leading Platonist, a moralist, educator and philosopher with a deep commitment as a first rate writer.Being a Roman citizen, Plutarch was afforded the opportunity to become an intimate friend to prominent Roman citizens and a member of the literary elite in the court of Emperor Trajan.

Plutarch's influence and enormous popularity during and after the Renaissance is legendary among classicist. Plutarch's "Lives", served as the sourcebook for Shakespeare's Roman Plays "Julius Caesar", "Antony and Cleopatra" and "Coriolanus".By the way Plutarch is even the only contemporary source of all the biographical information on Cleopatra, whom he writes about in his biographies of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Octavian. Thomas Jefferson wrote to his nephew that there were three books every gentleman had to have familiarity with; Plutarch's "Lives", Livy's "History of Rome" and Virgil's Aeneid.In fact all the founding fathers of note had read Plutarch and learned much from his fifty biographies of noble men of Greece and Rome.When Hamilton, Jay and Madison write "The Federalist Papers" they use many examples of good and bad leadership traits that they read in Plutarch's work.His biographies are a great study in human character and what motivates leaders to decide and act the way they do, this masterpiece has proven to be still prescient today.

If you are truly interested in a classical education, put this book on the top of your list! I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in political philosophy, and history.

Good but not definitive anthology
This fine, well-edited translation would be THE translation to get for Plutarch's best Roman lives ... IF they had included the Life of Cicero.(Soldiers outweigh orators in the Oxford hierarchy.)As it is, the Penguin "Fall of the Roman Republic" anthology remains useful.

That said, Oxford has been kicking Penguin tail with its scholarly, up-to-date translations of classical texts.Penguin has been sprucing up its backlist some, but I always look for an Oxford first, if there is one.

please read this book
This is an excellent translation of a timeless classic.The notes are well done and thorough and the introduction is very helpful whether you are a scholarly type or an interested lay reader.The only qualm I have isthat it was often hard to know when the action of each life took place. This is a minor glich, however, and does not hinder from the overallenjoyment of the work.The lives are biography, history, psychology,comedy, tragedy and farce all in one.Plutarch's narrative is brisk andnever dull; he mixes anecdotes and interpretation deftly, but never forcesthe reader one way or the other.He is a masterful essayist and biographerand these works can be read repeatedly with enjoyment each time.Highlyrecommended. ... Read more

Book Description
Rome’s famed historian illuminates the twilight of the old Roman Republic from 157 to 43 BC in succinct accounts of the greatest politicians and statesmen of the classical period. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Ambition is the most destructive of all powers (Euripides)
Plutarch's 6 biographies of Roman politicians/generals give a fair picture of a decadent Rome in the 1st century B.C.: mighty unequal distribution of wealth and `legal safeguards inadequate to deter the forces of law and order from murder.' `Since the whole state was rotten within itself, it was in the power of any bold man to overthrow it.' Bold were men like the generals, `who had risen to the top by violence.'

Plutarch's portraits of `Gaius Marius' and `Crassus' are very superficial.
On the contrary, his picture of `Sulla', the first Roman dictator, is very clear-cut: `Sulla, a butcher. (He got) immunity for all his past acts, while for the future he was to have the power of life and death, the power to confiscate property, to found new cities or to demolish existing ones.'
A brave `Cicero' attacked Sulla's murky business transactions in court.
`Pompey' restored the powers of the tribunes, the representatives of the plebeians, and the rights of the classes outside the Senate to serve on juries in law courts. He worked together with `Caesar' to destroy the powers of the aristocracy. After they grabbed power, they fought one another: `armies of the same kin, ranks of brothers, here the whole manhood and might of a single state was involved in self-destruction.'
Why did they fight? Out of greed and personal rivalry.
Caesar won and asked to be given all powers. The Romans opted for the Hobbes/Machiavelli solution: `the rule of one man would give them respite from the miseries of the civil wars, and so they appointed Caesar dictator for life. This meant an undistinguished tyranny; his power was now not only absolute, but perpetual `... until the Ides of March.

Plutarch's dramatic talent produced a shocking tale, full of `putting to death', `cutting into pieces', burning to the ground, slaughtering, enslaving, looting and plundering.
A must read for all those interested in the history of mankind.

One extra, two missing
I must disagree with "Paper Man". Plutarch is sure to insert his opinion everywhere in this book. It is very obvious that he is one of Pompey's biggest fan's and althought he respects Caesar, he is no fan of him at all. He made sure to state that the fall of the republic and one of Pompey's biggest mistakes was to befriend Julius Caesar, and that their friendship, not their fighting, led to the fall of the republic.

We must take this book for what it is. This book contains the same information as in his "Lives". There are just a few essays in this book that are considered key players in the end of the republic era. If I were the authors (editors) of this book, I would have included Marc Antony and Augustus. They also play key roles in the formation of the empire from the republic. This book also lacks the comparisons of the Lives.

This book is a short collection for those whom may not have the patience to read all of the "Lives" and want to focus on a few main characters, Sulla, Marius, Crassus, Pompey, Caesar and Cicero. I have already stated that Antony and Augustus should have been in this book, and I can't figure out why Cicero was included, since he is a passionate republican and I cannot see how he had any motives to seek absolute power, as the other five did.

Take this for what it is worth.

A Timeless Classic By One Of The Best Biographers In History
Plutarch in his "Lives Of The Noble Grecians And Romans" written around 100 C.E., sheds new light on Greek and Roman history from their Bronze Age beginnings, shrouded in myth, down through Alexander and late Republican Rome.Plutarch is the lens that we use today to view the Greco-Roman past; his work has shaped our perceptions of that world for 2,000 years.Plutarch writes of the rise of Roman Empire while Gibbon uses his scholarship to advance the story to write about its decline.He was a proud Greek that was equally effected by Roman culture, a Delphic priest, a leading Platonist, a moralist, educator and philosopher with a deep commitment as a first rate writer.Being a Roman citizen, Plutarch was afforded the opportunity to become an intimate friend to prominent Roman citizens and a member of the literary elite in the court of Emperor Trajan.

Plutarch's influence and enormous popularity during and after the Renaissance is legendary among classicist. Plutarch's "Lives", served as the sourcebook for Shakespeare's Roman Plays "Julius Caesar", "Antony and Cleopatra" and "Coriolanus".By the way Plutarch is even the only contemporary source of all the biographical information on Cleopatra, whom he writes about in his biographies of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Octavian. Thomas Jefferson wrote to his nephew that there were three books every gentleman had to have familiarity with; Plutarch's "Lives", Livy's "History of Rome" and Virgil's Aeneid.In fact all the founding fathers of note had read Plutarch and learned much from his fifty biographies of noble men of Greece and Rome.When Hamilton, Jay and Madison write "The Federalist Papers" they use many examples of good and bad leadership traits that they read in Plutarch's work.His biographies are a great study in human character and what motivates leaders to decide and act the way they do, this masterpiece has proven to be still prescient today.

If you are truly interested in a classical education, put this book on the top of your list! I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in political philosophy, and history.

Excellent for the closet Romaphile
Plutarch is not a historian often seen in the diluted cirriculum of the modern American High School, but I would argue that his love of the dramatic, moving battle scenes,and relatively easy-to-comprehend style would do much do endear the modern student to ancient Rome.

There are (justifiable) arguments, of course, that Plutarch too often put personal bias and a love of "storytelling" above historical fact.While this may be true, is what comes to us of Rome by way of the Pop Culture filter any better?The context in which most people think of Rome is either that of Biblical or Russell Crowe.Can Plutarch's approximations be any worse?

Though this edition appears to have been hastily compiled at some points (very little reference/glossary material to speak of), I still reccomend this book to:

1) Casual readers who wish to know more about an exciting period of history that has affected everything from our calendar to our way of government, and

2) History/Humanities teachers tired of purely analytical views of Rome.Let your students know that Rome had IT'S editorialists, too.

WHY THE REPUBLIC FELL?
I feel a bit strange writting a review about any classic. Its a bit like writing a review of the Koran or the Bible. There is a reason why all these books are classics, and the reason is that they give some glimpse at the immutable nature of mankind.

Plutarch describes a nation wracked by personal divisions during the Roman Civil War with chapters on some of the major participants in this conflict: a true fall from grace for both the people of Rome and the institution of republicanism. There is a lot here that is exciting, such as the war against the Parthians, Jugurthia and the personal rivalries between Ceasar and Pompey.

The writing moves from what I would classify as mildly interesting, usually at the beginning of each chapter as he relates the youth, familiar, and power influences on the personal development of each live, to ripping tales of combat, honour lost and found, and principled peoples meeting usually, bloody fates. Lives of particular note are Pompey and Cicero in this book, but my personal favourite was Crassus, his fight against the slave revolt of Spartacus and his eventual annihilation with his entire army against the Parthians. The other real character that keeps popping up in each chapter is Cato, a political idealist who commited suicide for his repulican ideals when there was every indication that Ceasar respected him and would have spared his life despite Cato's defection to Pompey.

There is lots here that is of course raw speculation: I think that it is unlikely that Ceasar really had dictatorship on his mind since his early youth, but Plutarch would have us believe that it was almost forordained that Ceasar wanted personal control of the State.

Plutarch is much more interesting to read than Ceasar or Livy. So if you are looking for a good place to enter the classics, this is one good read. ... Read more

Book Description
Plutarch's Lives, written at the beginning of the second century A.D., is a brilliant social history of the ancient world by one of the greatest biographers and moralists of all time. In what is by far his most famous and influential work, Plutarch reveals the character and personality of his subjects and how they led ultimately to tragedy or victory. Richly anecdotal and full of detail, Volume I contains profiles and comparisons of Romulus and Theseus, Numa and Lycurgus, Fabius and Pericles, and many more powerful figures of ancient Greece and Rome.

The present translation, originally published in 1683 in conjunction with a life of Plutarch by John Dryden, was revised in 1864 by the poet and scholar Arthur Hugh Clough, whose notes and preface are also included in this edition.


From the Trade Paperback edition.Download Description
Written at the beginning of the second century A.D., it forms a brilliant social history of the ancient world. Plutarch was a man of immense erudition who had traveled widely throughout the Roman Empire, and the Lives are richly anecdotal and full of detail. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

For the ages' tooth . . .
Twain's pejorative definition of `classic' need not apply.I define classic as that (text) which speaks to the heart over an extended duration - perhaps for several generations, as in `classic rock', or several millennia, as in Plutarch's "Lives".I probably never would have read Plutarch, were it not for a glorious discovery of Montaigne in mid-life. Having acquired enough distaste for the copious demands required to master classical languages after five years of Latin in secondary school, I made an arbitrary and direly misguided vow to eschew all Classics courses at the university level.And thus again is revealed the fateful difference between post-modern (post-1945), and the modern (c. 1500 - August 5, 1945) pedagogy, of which I unwittingly, if serendipitously, caught the tail end.The modern cannon required thorough immersion in the classics, and, for many years, Plutarch was required reading in the best schools, and should be even now.The author of the Shakespearian plays came to Plutarch by way of Montaigne (and likely read the Amyot translation, and only later the North, if at all), and the English schools came to Plutarch by way of Shakespeare.We might say that the revival of Plutarch was one of the most far reaching achievements of the Northern Renaissance.
At one point in his celebrated chronicle of the self, Montaigne (as a shaper and bona fide member of that cannon, guardian of some of what is best in our cultural inheritance) amusedly reveals that, when his critics believe they are attacking his work, they are actually attacking Plutarch and/or Seneca, so profound is their presence in his writing, and, in his "Defense of Plutarch and Seneca", he declares that . . . "my book [is] built up purely from their spoils".

And what a book it is! But Plutarch's magnum (see the 14 volumes of the Loeb Classical Library for his other works), is the greater.Montaigne is one of the great students of the self.Plutarch is the first (and may yet still be the definitive) historian of virtue.Montaigne, in scrutiny of his own nature, seeks to recognize the limitations and potentials of the self, and thereby sketch our general spiritual contours.Plutarch, in an unparalleled series of real life, historically and culturally pivotal, examples, shows us what they are.

The book records in the most remarkably intimate style (Plutarch has few peers as a master of narrative and an uncanny ability to ferret out of detail the significance of individual actions as a unified whole), the major events in the lives of the most impacting figures of the ancient world.Therefore, like the best novels, the book forms a world in itself, a lost world, the world of our ancestors, through a landscape drawn of actions and consequences.The structure of the book is such that an account of the seminal moments in the life of a noble Greek and then of a noble Roman are brought forth in pairs, followed by a comparison.In some sections of the work these comparisons are absent.They appear at some point in antiquity to have either been lost to or removed from the text, which would seem to explain why, for instance, there is no comparison of Alexander and Caesar. But the comparisons are brilliant, and eminently instructive.

Of course, from the details alone, we may draw our own inferences.Alexander, as a mere teen, leading his troops in hand-to-hand combat, won his first battle fighting uphill at night.Caesar, a heavy drinker, was wont to ride horseback at full tilt with his hands clenched behind his back.He had a life-long passion for Cato's sister and it is said that from their relationship, which continued through their respective marriages, Brutus was born.Et tu?Of course, one cannot fail to mention, even in this briefest review of the abundantly rich description in the nearly 1,300 pages which comprise the book, the death of Cato the Younger - one of the most exquisitely drawn figures in the book.Hunted down with the remnants of his troops into the wastelands of Carthage by the army of Octavius Ceasar in an effort to snuff out the last vestiges of republican resistance andopposition to Empire, realizing that the last realistic hope for freedom is lost, Cato attempts ritual suicide (a Stoic custom common to Roman nobility) by disembowelment.As Plutarch describes the scene, ". . . he did not immediately die of the wound; but struggling, fell off the bed, and throwing down a little mathematical table that stood by, made such a noise that the servants, hearingit, cried out. And immediately his son and all his friends came into the chamber, where, seeing him lie weltering in his own blood, great part of his bowels out of his body, but himself still alive and able to look at them, they all stood in horror.The physician went to him, and would have put in his bowels, which were not pierced, and sewed up the wound; but Cato, recovering himself, and understanding the intention, thrust away the physician, plucked out his own bowels, and tearing open the wound, immediately expired."In Seneca's words: "For Cato could not outlive freedom, nor would freedom outlive Cato."

However, the life most appropriate for the contemporary reader, I feel (and wish that every member of the shadowy corporate/military junta that seems to be ruling us these days would read and take to heart) is the life of Crassus.Crassus was the most successful businessman in the history of the Roman Empire.Plutarch relates that at one time he owned virtually one-third of the real estate in Rome.However, such mind-boggling success was not enough for him.His yen, and later, obsession, was to be revered as a great military leader, a world conqueror, expand the domain of the already burgeoning Empire, and the object of his fantasies was the area of the world at that time known as Mesopotamia and Persia, today as Iraq and Iran.We follow as he makes extensive preparations, investing his own fortune and a great deal of the nation's wealth into outfitting an army for the venture.And at first, the invasion of Mesopotamia seems to go well.But the centers of population are spread out over great stretches of desert, and the occupation never really succeeds, because a central authority cannot be solidly established.Crassus, however, remains undaunted, even though the troops are becoming mutinous as supplies begin to run thin.Led on by treacherous advisors, he enters Parthia (somewhere in the vicinity of modern day Syria).Plutarch describes the grueling denouement with his usual detachment, aplomb, and gifted eye for pertinent detail.Having lost the greatest fortune in the world, he proceeds to lose his troops, then his sons, and finally his life.These lessons are never too late for the learning, and my apologies to Twain, but a classic is a text which retains its urgency to be read, and read now.

I read the Dryden/Clough translation.Dryden was never my favorite writer of his period, the late 17th century - hardly a match for Burton or Milton, in my opinion, but he was poet laureate, and this work I love - his English is fine, and resonates with classic dignity.Clough, the mid-nineteenth century British scholar who revised the translation, befriended Emerson when he traveled to England, and became a sort of mentor to the New England Transcendentalists in general. We can be grateful for such a wonderful rendering for one of the very greatest and most edifying masterpieces.

Plutarch's "Lives" Lives!
This is an astonishing volume. Who would have expected a "page turner" out of a tome written in the 2nd century A.D.? So much for cultural and temporal hubris--this is magnificent reading.

Out of date translation of a timeless classic
It is a shame that such an interesting, and historicaly valuable work such as Plutarch's lives is so difficult for modern readers.Though many others have commented on how difficult this English is for the modern reader, consider the following quote taken at random, from the first two sentences of the life of the Roman Camillus:

Among the many remarkable things that are related of Furius Camillus, it seems singular and strange above all, that he, who continually was in the highest commands, and obtained the greatest successes, was five times chosen dictator, triumphed four times, and was styled a second founder of Rome, yet never was so much as once consul. The reason of which was the state and temper of the commonwealth at that time; for the people, being at dissension with the senate, refused to return consuls, but in their stead elected other magistrates, called military tribunes, who acted, indeed, with full consular power, but were thought to exercise a less obnoxious amount of authority, because it was divided among a larger number; for to have the management of affairs entrusted in the hands of six persons rather than two was some satisfaction to the opponents of oligarchy.

Ugh.And on it goes.The North translation is even worse, to my ear.The best translation that I've found is the Loeb Classical Library.However, they are spread across eleven volumes, making for a very expensive acquisition.

A rough read
Plutarch's Lives is one of my all time favorite books. I especially enjoy the "gay windows" in Alcibiades life and the description of Archimedes defense of Syracuse. My three star rating has nothing to do with Plutarch and everything to do with the terribly outdated translation "update" by Sir Clough. Sure, as another reviewer points out, it is vocabulary enhancing, but Plutarch was not a Victorian English gentleman. If you like Victorian prose, read a Victorian novel or something.I would actually prefer to read Dryden and company's undoctored original than wade through Clough's train wreck, as I find 18th century prose an easier read, and Dryden was a better writer.

If someone were to do a modern translation of the Lives, more people would be able to enjoy it. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that you can probably count the number of good classical translators on one hand, and how many of them have the time to translate Plutarch?

educator of the western world
After the Turks had conquered Constantinople, refuges brought manuscripts of Plutarch to Italy. It was the right time. Secular scholars and enlightened clerics took a new interest in the learning of Antiquity and the Greek language. For the first time since the fall of Rome, Homer was not just a name, but actually read in the original. And PlutarchÕs ÒLivesÓ became the handbook for the European gentlemanÕs higher education. In fact through many channels, Plutarch reintroduced the ancient concepts of republican freedom and democracy to a world that seemed to have completely forgotten that they had ever had existed.

Plutarch became the United StatesÕ secret founding father; Thomas Jefferson and the signatories to the constitution, they all had grown up with Plutarch on their curriculum. He infused them with the spirit of democracy: ÒFor all we know, opposite parties or factions in a commonwealth, like passengers in a boat, serve to trim and balance the unsteady motions of power; whereas if they combine and come all over to one side, they cause to overset the vessel and carry down everything.Ó And he conveyed a grasp of the larger picture: ÒEconomy, which is but money-making, when exercised over men, becomes policy.Ó

With Plutarch, liberalism raises its voice and in Tiberius GracchusÕ (163-133 B.C.) speech, he recorded for us this timeless indictment of Òconservative valuesÓ and Òpatriotism:Ó Ò... The beasts find refuge in their dens, but men who for the safety of their country expose their lives in service, breathe on borrowed air under the open sky. Having no roof of their own, with wive and children, they wander from place to place. Is it not ridiculous to hear generals exhort their soldiers to fight for the hearth of their ancestors, when not any of so many Romans own altar or monument, neither have even a house to defend? They fight and they are slain, but it is for the wealth of other men. Being called masters of the world, they have not one square-inch of land to call their own.Ó

But, always the realist, and himself living under despotic rule Plutarch adds: Òin a time when right is weak, we may be thankful if might assumes a form of gentleness,Ó because, (and he quotes Cato): Òby nature a king is a man-eating animal.Ó PlutarchÕs grasp on human nature was already very advanced, before the barbaric notion of original sin threw society back to the ethical stone age: ÒMen by nature is not a wild animal or unsocial creature, neither was he born so, but makes himself what he naturally is not by vicious habit. He is civilized and grows gentle by a change of place, occupation, and manner of life, as wild beasts become tame and domesticated. With good reason, those who train horses and dogs, endeavour by gentle means to cure their angry and intractable tempers, rather than by cruelty and beating.Ó

Without being an atheist, PlutarchÕs comment on a situation equivalent to Gen. 22:2, reveals a discerning grasp on the motives and sentiments which underpin faith into the irrational and he urges: Òthat such a barbarous and impious obligation could not be pleasing to any Superior Being or to the father of gods and men; that it is absurd to imagine any divinities or powers taking delight in slaughter and sacrifices of men; or, if there were such, they are to be neglected as weak and unable to assist! Because such unreasonable and cruel desires can only proceed from weak and depraved minds.Ó And: Òthe worship most acceptable to the gods is that which comes from a cheerful heart.Ó

To fully appreciate his greatness, one has to remember, that Plutarch was neither a thinker, nor one of the great intellectual luminaries of his period - just a very bright popular writer and educator, but also a human being of integrity, culture, and a rare capacity for compassion. He influenced Western art as much as Western politics. For his dramas, Shakespeare lifted entire passages from NorthÕs translation. And no other writer in all Antiquity would have cared to take notice of the dog who jumped into the sea and swam side to side with the galley which carried his family, when during the Persian war the entire population of Athens was to be evacuated to Troezen. For lack of shipping space domestic animals and pets had to be left behind. The dog didnÕt quite make it and drowned short of the shores of Salamis.

Often Plutarch conveys a sense of wellbeing, of a Golden Age, and he still holds court over our imagination. The most interesting chapter for anthropologists, is the portrayal of Lycurgus and his laws. Himself a product of a patriarchal society, Plutarch had not a clue, that his accurate description of Spartan customs, would depict one of the last matriarchal societies that had survived the coup de tat of the patriarchs. Utopian fantasies often become the excuse for totalitarian atrocities on dissenting minds - Plutarch was never part of the posse. But I remember him best for the little story about a man of trade sailing in a moonlit night leeward of the Aegean coast, when the sailors suddenly heard a voice carrying over from the near by shore: ÒTravellers, tell the CorinthianÕs, the Great Pan is dead.Ó

Plutarch was a loving husband and father, an incorruptible administrator and conscientious ambassador for his people, a humanist and a model for liberalism ever since. There are books you want to have in your briefcase if that is all you are allowed to carry away from disaster and war; books that keep you company in your most difficult hour. PlutarchÕs ÒLivesÓ is definitely one of them. It had been of tremendous influence on our civilization, but unlike the Bible, of a wholesome and humanizing influence. Mommsen called Plutarch Òmellow and sweet as the honey from Mount Hymettos.Ó Who is to say, that ancient paganism had nothing to contribute to the modern world? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The Consummate and Timeless Observer
(born AD 46, Chaeronea, Boeotia-died after 119)

His works profoundly influenced the evolution of the essay,biography,and historical writing in 16th-19th century Europe.I found this collection of 10 essays very 'readable' and Plutarch offers you a wide berth of topics to choose from. It covers many facets and variables in his observations of human behavior. The writing is stimulating and inspiring.It instructs,educates,and entertains you as well.Enjoy this greco-roman master of the essay from many moons ago. An excerptfrom PLUTARCH's essay 'How to distinquish a flatterer from a friend'(penguine classics.copyright-1992-translation-Robert Waterfield)

"...The ultimate dishonesty is the false appearance of honesty,it it not overt light-hearted flattery that must be regarded as problematic,but the covert straight-faced version ,which can even corrupt true friendship if we do not watch out,because it's coincides to a large extent with friendship..."

"The Greatest Moralist of the Greco-Roman World"
Plutarch (50-120 BC?) has been called the greatest essayist of the Greco-Roman world.Perhaps this is true; but more truth may lie in the statement that he is the greatest moralizer of the Greco-Roman world.Nevertheless, his voluminous collection of essays, dealing with moral philosophy, are deeply rooted in the Platonic tradition, with occasional seasonings of the school of Aristotle.Plutarch draws from his encyclopedic knowledge of the mythological and philosophical lore of his time, along with his own personal experiences, in order to present and convey a moral through his straightforward prose and use of both Aristotelian and Platonic dialogue form.These essays, much like Cicero's dialogues, are an attempt to layout a practical code of ethics for the aspiring student or sage. Although, Plutarch differs from Cicero in the fact that nothing suggests that these essays were directed for popular use by the masses.Already, only after a hundred years or so following the Republic's collapse, learning was being pulled away from public use and was being dragged into the schoolroom to be savored only by the well to do of the Empire.Anyway, these essays make for an entertaining and edifying read.Also the editor, Ian Kidd, furnishes comprehensive introductions, which throw significant light on the text.The only drawback to this work is the absence of the greater part of Plutarch's essays; barely a third are given here.These works should not be ignored; they are constantly overshadowed by his "Parallel Lives" but renewed interest in his moral writings are bringing these essays back to the fore of classical education.They are a definite read for anyone interested in philosophy or classical literature.

Applied Morals and Eclecticism
This is a fabulous collection of essays and a good introduction into Plutarch's writing and method of reasoning.While Plutarch was a member of the academy in Athens which had been founded by Plato several centuries had passed since Plato had left the scene.Plutarch takes knowledge from wherever he can find it -- whether it be from Homer or Pindar, Plato or Democritus, the Stoics, or from his varied experiences in his family, town, or cosmopolitan relationships with Greeks or Romans.Many of the essays, especially the ones on contentment, on moral progress, and on anger have things to tell anybody that can help them in their daily life.Francis Bacon wrote a good essay on Anger as well.Compare the two if you are interested.Anyways, these essays speak to the same concerns as do his famous Lives -- how can we lead better lives and what principles and practices can help us on the way to this goal.

Kidd on insight...Plutarch on details...
The best parts of this book, surprisingly, are Ian
Kidd'sintroductions -- the "Introduction" to the
work itself, and the introductions which he does before
each of the essays. There is no doubt that Plutarch is
intelligent, literate, insightful, perhaps even wise.
As a supposed adherent of Plato, however, he sometimes
seems to forget his wellspring.
The astonishing feature of reading Plutarch both in
these essays sometimes called "Moralia" (a term which
Kidd takes issue with and explains why) and
his "Parallel Lives" (of Noble Greeks and Romans) is
his use of psychology in furthering the insights about
ethical and moral behavior.In his "Lives" he often
talks of the personalities and attitudes and emotions
of the figures he is discussing (as well as the events
of their lives -- such as Coriolanus' lack of a
father and the temper he seemed to develop because of
it) to show how those things impact upon the decisions
and actions which they wind up taking.In doing so,
Plutarch makes the lives (and these essays, which
contain similar psychological examples and insights)
extremely interesting.
There is much that is sound and "right" in Plutarch's
views -- but he seems to be leading a course away from
Plato.For Plutarch seems to be intent on the idea of
reforming people IN the world, so that they might be
better IN the world -- and treat others better IN the
world.Whether that is desirable -- or possible --
is something best left to the individual reader to
decide.In the history of civilization, prophets,
reformers, and "messiahs" have come and gone -- some
have had humanizing effects on their listeners, some
have had de-humanizing effects on their listeners,
and some have had their words and ideas twisted to
suit some new self-justification of the moment.The
world and nature go on -- men come and go -- are born
and die -- "buy into" the world, its programs, its
"values," its delusions -- or do not.
Kidd's own insights about Plutarch, the history
of his influence down through the ages, and about the
nature of these essays is what I find valuable in this
work.Plutarch gives richness in his use of examples
of incidents which happened between people (provocative
people) to show the validity of what he is trying to
say.In one essay he talks of not reproving someone
in front of others -- and he tells of an instance in
which Plato spoke in reproof to Socrates about Socrates'
berating of someone else in public -- here is Plutarch's
account (from: "How to Distinguish a Flatterer From a
Friend"): "The next point to note is that care must be
taken about using candour towards a friend when there
are a lot of people around -- one should bear in mind
what happened to Plato. Once Socrates laid into one of
his associates rather forcefully while talking near the
banking stalls. Plato said, 'Wouldn't it have been
better to have said that in private?'Socrates replied,
'Wouldn't it have been better for YOU to have spoken to
me like that in private?'"
Plutarch is also surpising and richly rewarding from
the examples he gives in citing the more ancient
philosopher Pythagoras and incidents from his life and
teaching to illustrate his admonitions.
Whether the reader "profits" from Plutarch's examples
and admonitions, or not, depends upon the reader.But
there is much of interest and value here.

Selection of philosophical writing from first century Greece
This book comprises a selection of essays from the body of Plutarch's work collectively referred to as Moralia.Within he expounds on various topics often relying on quotes from writings he was farmiliar with, and very oftenmisquoting because he relied on his memory too often.Contains essays 'OnListening', 'How to Distinguish a Flatterer from a Friend', 'On Being Awareof Moral Progress', 'Whether Military or Intellectual Exploits have broughtAthens more Fame', 'On the Avoidance of Anger', 'On Contentment', 'On God'sSlowness to Punish', 'On Socrates' Personal Deity', 'In Consolation to HisWife', and 'On the Use of Reason by Irrational Animals' (which relies on adialogue between Odysseus and a human-turned-pig).I found these wereprobably not up to Plato, but were also much more popular once than theyare today.Each essay has its own introduction and numerous footnotes. ... Read more

Book Description
Lycurgus, Pericles, Solon, Nicias, Themistocles, Alcibiades, Cimon, Agesilaus, Alexander`I treat the narrative of the Lives as a kind of mirror...The experience is like nothing so much as spending time in their company and living with them: I receive and welcome each of them in turn as my guest.' In the nine lives of this collection Plutarch introduces the reader to the major figures and periods of classical Greece. He portrays virtues to be emulated and vices to be avoided, but his purpose is also implicitly to educate and warn those in his own day whowielded power. In prose that is rich, elegant and sprinkled with learned references, he explores with an extraordinary degree of insight the interplay of character and political action. While drawing chiefly on historical sources, he brings to biography a natural story-teller's ear for a good anecdote. Throughout the ages Plutarch's Lives have been valued for their historical value and their charm. This new translation will introduce new generations to his urbane erudition. The most comprehensive selection available, it is accompanied by a lucid introduction, explanatory notes, bibliographies, maps and indexes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

The truth shines but the world doesn't listen.
Unfortunately, nowadays, we have many people and countries claiming that Alexander the Great and Macedonia weren't part of the Hellenic Period and that Alexander spoke a Slavic Language and not a Hellenic dialect.
Although there is a distortion and Falsifycation of the Hellenic history in regards to Ancient Macedonia by many authors, this book, by Plutarch, proves that both King Philip 'the Philhellen' and Alexander the Great of Makedonia were part of the Hellenic civilization and considered Hellenes and not barbarians as some authors claim.
In general, this book was enlightning with sources and is directed to the intellectual society. No where does it state that Macedonians were Slavic.

A Timeless Classic By One Of The Best Biographers In History
Plutarch in his "Lives Of The Noble Grecians And Romans" written around 100 C.E., sheds new light on Greek and Roman history from their Bronze Age beginnings, shrouded in myth, down through Alexander and late Republican Rome.Plutarch is the lens that we use today to view the Greco-Roman past; his work has shaped our perceptions of that world for 2,000 years.Plutarch writes of the rise of Roman Empire while Gibbon uses his scholarship to advance the story to write about its decline.He was a proud Greek that was equally effected by Roman culture, a Delphic priest, a leading Platonist, a moralist, educator and philosopher with a deep commitment as a first rate writer.Being a Roman citizen, Plutarch was afforded the opportunity to become an intimate friend to prominent Roman citizens and a member of the literary elite in the court of Emperor Trajan.

Plutarch's influence and enormous popularity during and after the Renaissance is legendary among classicist. Plutarch's "Lives", served as the sourcebook for Shakespeare's Roman Plays "Julius Caesar", "Antony and Cleopatra" and "Coriolanus".By the way Plutarch is even the only contemporary source of all the biographical information on Cleopatra, whom he writes about in his biographies of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Octavian. Thomas Jefferson wrote to his nephew that there were three books every gentleman had to have familiarity with; Plutarch's "Lives", Livy's "History of Rome" and Virgil's Aeneid.In fact all the founding fathers of note had read Plutarch and learned much from his fifty biographies of noble men of Greece and Rome.When Hamilton, Jay and Madison write "The Federalist Papers" they use many examples of good and bad leadership traits that they read in Plutarch's work.His biographies are a great study in human character and what motivates leaders to decide and act the way they do, this masterpiece has proven to be still prescient today.

If you are truly interested in a classical education, put this book on the top of your list! I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in political philosophy, and history.

Good reading
Some of these bios are simply fascinating, especially the ones of Lycurgus, Alexander the Great and Themistocles. Plutarch tends to do character sketches, as opposed to lenghty reports of battles. For example, most of the military campaigns of Alexander the Great are simply glossed over. However, he does show the moral actions and personalities of his characters. He is also a very good writer and fun to read; not too dry at all. I would suggest this book for several reasons:
1) To decide if you would like to read more Plutarch. 2) You have mastered ancient history and are looking for character portrayals of these people. 3) You are looking for in introduction for study of the ancients.

Easy and great fun to read!
This fresh translation of Plutarch makes these wonderful timeless stories easy to enter. In a world of insipid shallow middle managers, multinational corporate slaves, and boring billionaire silicon valley geeks these storiesare a wonderful relief!I was delighted to learn that Pericles was in lovewith a brilliant courtesan named Aspasia who influenced him as well asothers, including Socrates and Cicero. If you are as weary of dispicablecharacters like the selfish-seinfield types as I am, read this book andimagine a less limited world. The ancient world may have been more brutal,but it wasn't boring! Susan Ferguson ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Blood trafficking
Plutarch's biographies of 9 important political and military leaders give the reader an in depth insight into the workings of the Roman Empire. It is a gloomy picture of a world dominated by the wealthy patricians at home and by Roman generals and their foot folk at large.

Rome's democratic system consisted of two parties: the patricians (the wealthy aristocrats and landowners) represented by the consuls and the plebeians represented by the tribunes. However, the tribunes had to be unanimous. If one defected to the other party, the patricians controlled completely the political scene.

`Coriolanus' was a staunch defender of the ancient aristocratic laws.
`Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus' were tribunes of the plebs. The former proposed agrarian (land distribution) and the latter political (shunting the aristocratic Senate) reforms. The former was clubbed to death and the latter decapitated by the patricians.
A dictatorship, assuming all (life and death) powers, was heavily opposed by `Brutus'.
A very important and stabilizing factor in Roman life was religion (`Fabius Maximus': `fix people's thoughts upon religious matters to strengthen their confidence'). The augurs occupied a cardinal function, being sometimes pressed to pronounce inauspicious omens (`Marcellus'). One respected oracular instruction imposed the burying alive of a Greek and a Gaul man and woman. For the author this was absolutely not superstition. Plutarch was in no way a Lucretius.
Another important civil servant was the censor (`Cato the Elder"), who had the right to inquire into the lives and manners of all citizens.

At large, Rome was first on the defensive during the Punic wars (`Fabius Maximus' and `Marcellus'). But later, it went on an offensive spree, conquering the whole Mediterranean world. The vanquished cities and their inhabitants were partly offered as salary to their soldiers. The generals, like `Sertorius', pocketed enormous wealth in land, precious metals and slaves. With their big armies, they plotted and fought among themselves to grab as much power as possible within the empire.
A most appalling new low was reached with the agreement between the triumvirate `Mark Antony' - Lepidus - Octavius to put to death 300 senators and 2000 equites in order to seize their possessions and fill the war coffers of the triumvirs: `I can conceive of nothing more savage or vindictive than their trafficking in blood.'

Plutarch's dramatic presentation of the creation and barbarous functioning of the first world empire is an essential read for all those interested in the history of mankind.

The Best Roman Lives from Plutarch in One Volume
This collection from Plutarch's Lives covers the rise of the republic and the begining of its disintegration.Some of the best of his Roman biographies are included here including Fabius Maximus, Marcellus, and Mark Antony.The struggle with Hannibal created some of the most memorable moments in Roman history and the lives of Fabius and Marcellus are our only sources for some of the details of that period.These men were great human beings whose example has served Western Civilization for two thousand years thanks to Plutrach's memorialization.For those interested in ancient history this modern translation is indespensible, but I would recommend this volume in particular to high school students as a door to undertanding character in the development of Western civilization.Besides the military heroes, we have in this volume the lives of great statesmen who deeply inspired the founding fathers of the American colonies (the Grachi) and we also have an example in Mark Antony of how power mongers can erode the fabric of a republic.This is a great volume and a great translation.

A Timeless Classic By One Of The Best Biographers In History
Plutarch in his "Lives Of The Noble Grecians And Romans" written around 100 C.E., sheds new light on Greek and Roman history from their Bronze Age beginnings, shrouded in myth, down through Alexander and late Republican Rome.Plutarch is the lens that we use today to view the Greco-Roman past; his work has shaped our perceptions of that world for 2,000 years.Plutarch writes of the rise of Roman Empire while Gibbon uses his scholarship to advance the story to write about its decline.He was a proud Greek that was equally effected by Roman culture, a Delphic priest, a leading Platonist, a moralist, educator and philosopher with a deep commitment as a first rate writer.Being a Roman citizen, Plutarch was afforded the opportunity to become an intimate friend to prominent Roman citizens and a member of the literary elite in the court of Emperor Trajan.

Plutarch's influence and enormous popularity during and after the Renaissance is legendary among classicist. Plutarch's "Lives", served as the sourcebook for Shakespeare's Roman Plays "Julius Caesar", "Antony and Cleopatra" and "Coriolanus".By the way Plutarch is even the only contemporary source of all the biographical information on Cleopatra, whom he writes about in his biographies of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Octavian. Thomas Jefferson wrote to his nephew that there were three books every gentleman had to have familiarity with; Plutarch's "Lives", Livy's "History of Rome" and Virgil's Aeneid.In fact all the founding fathers of note had read Plutarch and learned much from his fifty biographies of noble men of Greece and Rome.When Hamilton, Jay and Madison write "The Federalist Papers" they use many examples of good and bad leadership traits that they read in Plutarch's work.His biographies are a great study in human character and what motivates leaders to decide and act the way they do, this masterpiece has proven to be still prescient today.

If you are truly interested in a classical education, put this book on the top of your list! I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in political philosophy, and history.

Required jr. high reading
As a mother of a "tween" and teacher of Western Civ to jr. high aged kids, I think this should be required reading for all public schools.It is the perfect material for asking normative questions.Who cares what we are today; ask them what we *ought* to be!!

It will leave you wanting more.
Plutarch remains one of the most popular Roman-era historians, and it is easy to see why.The leaders whose lives he details in this volume were men in whom circumstance and ambition combined to create larger-than-life heroes who continue to instruct and inspire curious students of the past even today.The epoch spanned by their lives (c. 500 BCE - 30 BCE) saw the transformation of Rome from beleaguered village republic to imperial mistress of the Mediterranean--a period filled with the clash of battle, political intrigue, and the full gamut of human nature, from hatred and betrayal to the noblest acts of bravery and sacrifice.Plutarch's flair for dramatic license doesn't so much undermine the factual underpinnings of his accounts so much as it breathes life into them.
Plutarch's Lives were originally published in pairs comparing and contrasting the parallels between a leading figure from Greek history and a Roman counterpart.These pairings are of little value to modern readers and the editor of this volume has chosen a selection of Roman lives that make more sense, thematically.My only complaint is that the selection is not a comprehensive one; Plutarch wrote several other lives that fit into both the time period and the historical theme of this volume but which are not included.They form a companion volume, "The Fall of the Roman Republic," which is also highly recommended.
For anyone interested in Roman history and ready to move beyond modern renditions, Plutarch is perhaps the single best introduction there is to the ancient historians.Even casual readers are sure to be surprised and delighted at Plutarch's readability and the vivid, dramatic events he describes. ... Read more

Book Description
Plutarch’s vivid and engaging portraits of the Spartans and their customs are a major source of our knowledge about the rise and fall of their remarkable Greek city-state between the sixth and third centuries BC. Through his Lives of Sparta’s leaders and his recording of memorable Spartan Sayings, he depicts a people who lived frugally and mastered their emotions in all aspects of life, who disposed of unhealthy babies in a deep chasm, introduced a gruelling regimen of military training for boys, and treated their serfs brutally. Rich in anecdote and detail, Plutarch’s writing brings to life the personalities and achievements of Sparta with unparalleled flair and humanity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A beehive of killing machines
Plutarch's book tells the immensely sad story of the relentless warring between the Greek City States: `Alas for Greece, how many men have you killed with your own hands.'
His masterly brushed picture of Sparta is not less than astonishing. Sparta has been one of the purest communist States on earth.
In order to stamp out arrogance, envy, crime, luxury, wealth and poverty among its citizens, the kings imposed redistribution of land, common messes for all Spartans, no free travel (foreign morals should be hidden) and no immigration (could be teachers of evil practices). Gold and silver coins were declared invalid and replaced by iron ones. Those who wanted to sin by amassing great wealth, needed vast granaries. Nepotism was impossible because children didn't privately belong to the fathers, but jointly by the city. Moreover, the city needed children from the best men (eugenics). Barbarous methods were used in the military education of the youth: thousands of human targets (helots) were killed in nightly survival exercises.
The ultimate goal of the State was to create an army of bees swarming around their leaders and capable of defending Sparta's 4 villages against any outside enemy.
For Plutarch, Sparta went under when it replaced its defence policies by offensive one: `empire and sovereignty war by force - unnecessary elements for maintaining the happy life of any State.' It was beaten by Epaminondas' Theban army.
Sparta was the ideal State for Plato, of whom Plutarch adopted his anti-democratic reflexes: `those politicians, whose sights are set on glory, are servants of the crowd, even though they are called rulers.'

This book is a must read for all those interested in the history of mankind.

A Timeless Classic By One Of The Best Biographers In History
Plutarch in his "Lives Of The Noble Grecians And Romans" written around 100 C.E., sheds new light on Greek and Roman history from their Bronze Age beginnings, shrouded in myth, down through Alexander and late Republican Rome.Plutarch is the lens that we use today to view the Greco-Roman past; his work has shaped our perceptions of that world for 2,000 years.Plutarch writes of the rise of Roman Empire while Gibbon uses his scholarship to advance the story to write about its decline.He was a proud Greek that was equally effected by Roman culture, a Delphic priest, a leading Platonist, a moralist, educator and philosopher with a deep commitment as a first rate writer.Being a Roman citizen, Plutarch was afforded the opportunity to become an intimate friend to prominent Roman citizens and a member of the literary elite in the court of Emperor Trajan.

Plutarch's influence and enormous popularity during and after the Renaissance is legendary among classicist. Plutarch's "Lives", served as the sourcebook for Shakespeare's Roman Plays "Julius Caesar", "Antony and Cleopatra" and "Coriolanus".By the way Plutarch is even the only contemporary source of all the biographical information on Cleopatra, whom he writes about in his biographies of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Octavian. Thomas Jefferson wrote to his nephew that there were three books every gentleman had to have familiarity with; Plutarch's "Lives", Livy's "History of Rome" and Virgil's Aeneid.In fact all the founding fathers of note had read Plutarch and learned much from his fifty biographies of noble men of Greece and Rome.When Hamilton, Jay and Madison write "The Federalist Papers" they use many examples of good and bad leadership traits that they read in Plutarch's work.His biographies are a great study in human character and what motivates leaders to decide and act the way they do, this masterpiece has proven to be still prescient today.

If you are truly interested in a classical education, put this book on the top of your list! I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in political philosophy, and history.

Easy to Use for People Just Wanting to Learn About Sparta
For people who do not have the time to read all of Plutarch just to find out about Holy Sparta. A great book for finding out about the Ideal State. Plutarch, like most Greek thinkers hated the mob rule of Demon-ocracy, had a love-hate relationship with the warrior caste system of Sparta. He admired the Greatness of Sparta, but disliked its so called "oppressive nature", albeit, this is what made Sparta great. Plutarch preferred Spartan "oppression" over the mob rule of that other Greek city-state.
This is a great book for anyone wishing to stop the decline of the West. Sparta is the answer to the night of the living dead government of the United States of Zombies. Wyatt Kaldenberg

Read the fine print
It is with a slight reservation that I recommend this book to classical history buffs & fans of the ancient Spartans. Those (like myself) who lick their chops @ the chance to read a book about the Spartans in their prime might be a bit disappointed.

The Lacedaemons were never the same after their defeat at the hands of the Thebans @ Leuctria in 371BC. A good chunk of this book (about 1/3, in fact) is spent on Agis & Cleomenes. These personages were post-Leuctria fellows who tried to resurrect the Lycurgan principles and traditions which the Spartans were so well known for. Both failed, but gave noble efforts to these ends. Basically, they represented the death-knell to the hardcore Laconian way of life.

Now, both figures are certainly important to classical history; that much is not in debate. However, confronting them in a book entitled "On Sparta" by a historian the calibre of Plutarch is a bit anti-climactic. Again, I was so looking forward to reading about this magnificent culture while it was in its prime - cover to cover.

On the upside, the best part of the book deals with Lycurgus. It was he who founded the famous "Spartan way of life" around the 8th century BC. It was he who contrived such innovations as the long hair on Spartan males, the Lacedamonian distaste for $$ and all things artistic (with the exception of music) as well as virtually all luxuries and comforts of life. It is because of Lycurgus that the Laconians who came after shunned all things effeminate and became such a brutal fighting force. It was also he who promoted egalitarian distribution of land - noted as his most significant reform. Here Plutarch furnishes one of the most detailed biographies of this great man that you will find. The chapter on Lycurgus alone is well worth the price of the book.

In the remainder of the treatise, Plutarch displays sundry quotations of Spartan kings, warriors and women [it is ironic that in such a militaristic state that Lacedaemon women had more rights and privileges than any other city state in Greece]. There are many salient quotes that exemplify Spartan ideals quite nicely.

If you're looking for a book on Sparta, you can do much worse than this one. I will continue my search for more books on Sparta during her heyday. In the meantime, I will have to settle for daydreams about Lycurgus.

I will leave you with one of my favorite Spartan sayings (this one by King Agesilaus):

"Courage has no value if justice is not in evidence too; but if everyone were to be just, then no one would need courage." (P. 119)

A Good introduction to Spartan History
This book contains Plutarch's biographies of Agis, Cleomenes, and Lycurgus.It is not exactly a linear book about Spartan history, like W.G. Forrests, but it contains a great deal of information about the society within the biographies. Like any of Penguin's translations this one is good and faithful to Plutarch's words.The book is great for the newcomer to the study of ancient Greek history, but even an experienced classics student would appreciate it, especially the section on famous Spartan quotes.The lives of the Spartan nobles are interesting and Plutarch's writing is very readable.There are some concerns about the accuracy of the information since Plutarch was writing about these people long after they died.Some scholars even doubt if Lycurgus really existed.Regardless, Plutarch is one of the only available sources of information about Sparta, a civilization that kept few records.I would recomment this book to someone desiring an introduction to Spartan history. A more advanced reader would probably want to buy a complete copy of Plutarch's lives and get the biographies in this volume with those of two other Spartans, Lysander and Agesilaus and many other classical figures.However, the chapter in "Plutarch on Sparta" containing famous quotations alone makes the book a necessity for the serious Laconiphile. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Greece fought all battles mainly to enslave herself
Through 9 Greek Lives (Theseus, the democracy builder; Aristides, the `Spartan' Athenian; Themistocles, the arrogant but victorious supreme commander; Solon, the legislator; Cimon, the alcoholic but conquering oligarch; Pericles, the noble and unselfish democrat; the richissime Niceas, exploiter of silver mines; Alcibiades, the debauched double-dealing chameleon; and Lysander, the killer of Athens and its democrats), Plutarch sketches eminently the main political and social issues of ancient Greece and of Athens in particular.
In Athens, the vicious battle between the few and the many, the haves and have-nots, equality and liberty was fought through two political parties: the aristocrats (oligarchs) supported by Sparta, Socrates, Plato and the priests (`the power of the ruler as the image of the god') on the one hand, and on the other hand, the democrats.
The Greek cities were evidently united against their common enemy, Persia, whose policies aimed at defeating the Greek outright or at inciting them to destroy one another. But the cities fought one another even in foreign countries (e.g. for the gold mines in Thrace). It all ended with Niceas's disastrous expedition in Sicily and Lysander's bloody victory over Athens.

Plutarch's book is still very actual indeed. He shows us Pericles as the first Keynesian, organizing huge public works and `transforming the whole people into wage-earners', or the anti-scientific stance of religion (`natural philosophers belittled the power of the gods by explaining it away as nothing more than the operation of irrational causes').
Plutarch is an excellent psychologist: `people as so often happens at moments of crisis, were ready to find salvation in the miraculous rather than in a rational course of action'.
Market manipulation with foreknowledge is of all times: `Solon confided to his most intimate friends that he did not intend to touch land, but had decided to abolish debts. They promptly took advantage by borrowing large sums ...'
But Plutarch times were still extremely barbarous: a decree ... that all prisoners of war should have their right thumb cut off to prevent holding a spear, although they could still handle an oar.'

This book is a must read for all those interested in the history of mankind.

GREEK PREJUDICE REIGNS
I like Plutarch because the guy really knows how to call a spade a spade. He had the guts to admit when the record was less than straight, provided alternative views, sources and dialogues, and let the reader decide when the facts and interpretations got fuzzy. He was no ideologue. In that sense a lot of writers in our present century could learn from him.

There are many versions of Plutarch's "Lives" and the traditional versions (maybe the original?) render one Roman life in comparison with one Greek life evincing similar traits or historical characteristics. In this Penguin Series the tendency has been to divide the Greek and Roman lives into seperate works.

I loved his Roman lives unequivocally and I love this one as well, but Plutarch makes a better writer the more he moves from myth to factual lives. In this sense his early lives like Thesseus and Solon are less interesting than those of Nicias, Alcabiades, Lysander and Themistocoles. Plutarch is best when he is working with solid sources, not mythology.

But, to his credit, his early mythical lives reflects a very sceptical note, one as befits the subject matter. Later when he is citing Xenophon, and Plato, his lives are exciting in the extreme (I shall always remember the utter destruction of Nicias and his expeditionary force to Syracuse, by Gyllipus and his Syracusian allies). The corruption of Lysander by money, and the general message perhaps in this tome -- the danger of overextended wars in far flung lands not supported or understood by the people.

All in all this book puts the "C" in Classic.

A Timeless Classic By One Of The Best Biographers In History
Plutarch in his "Lives Of The Noble Grecians And Romans" written around 100 C.E., sheds new light on Greek and Roman history from their Bronze Age beginnings, shrouded in myth, down through Alexander and late Republican Rome.Plutarch is the lens that we use today to view the Greco-Roman past; his work has shaped our perceptions of that world for 2,000 years.Plutarch writes of the rise of Roman Empire while Gibbon uses his scholarship to advance the story to write about its decline.He was a proud Greek that was equally effected by Roman culture, a Delphic priest, a leading Platonist, a moralist, educator and philosopher with a deep commitment as a first rate writer.Being a Roman citizen, Plutarch was afforded the opportunity to become an intimate friend to prominent Roman citizens and a member of the literary elite in the court of Emperor Trajan.

Plutarch's influence and enormous popularity during and after the Renaissance is legendary among classicist. Plutarch's "Lives", served as the sourcebook for Shakespeare's Roman Plays "Julius Caesar", "Antony and Cleopatra" and "Coriolanus".By the way Plutarch is even the only contemporary source of all the biographical information on Cleopatra, whom he writes about in his biographies of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Octavian. Thomas Jefferson wrote to his nephew that there were three books every gentleman had to have familiarity with; Plutarch's "Lives", Livy's "History of Rome" and Virgil's Aeneid.In fact all the founding fathers of note had read Plutarch and learned much from his fifty biographies of noble men of Greece and Rome.When Hamilton, Jay and Madison write "The Federalist Papers" they use many examples of good and bad leadership traits that they read in Plutarch's work.His biographies are a great study in human character and what motivates leaders to decide and act the way they do, this masterpiece has proven to be still prescient today.

If you are truly interested in a classical education, put this book on the top of your list! I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in political philosophy, and history.

Plutarch on Athens
While categorized as more of a biographer than a historian, Plutarch is nevertheless one of the most often-cited scholars of antiquity.In Plutarch we gaze at history through the lens of the great avatars of history.This is actually preferable in many ways to Plutarch's original organization.As Plutarch's method was to teach on ethics via the lives of great men, he would write parallel lives of famous Greeks & Romans.Many times the similarities would be stretched and occasionally merely artifical.

Penguin Classics has broken up Plutarch's LIVES into several different books, each focused on a particular historical genre.The current one places its emphasis on Athens.The book covers 7 Athenians (Solon, Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon, Pericles, Nicias, Alcibiades), 1 mythological figure (Theseus) and 1 Spartan (Lysander).

The inclusion of Lysander is due to the fact that Lysander was the primary instrument by which the Spartans conquered the Athenians in 404BCE. Athens would never again be a major player on the world stage, so the section on Lysander's life is one of transitions.

All of the essays in this book are the standard by which contemporary historians write on the world of ancient Greece.That makes this book a must for persons who are even remotely interested in classical history. Even if you were to only read one book on the Greeks, this one might be the one to grab. The book is THAT influential.

Good translation weak commentary
Penguin Classics have gone up in price I see with this new copy -- ah, well, such is publishing it seems.Plutarch was writing in the Roman world so his view of the lives of nine important Athenians is a bit different than their comtempories.The lives examined inclue Theseus (perhaps more legend than history), Solon (also a tad more legend than history), Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon, Pericles, Nicias, Alcibiades, and Lysander.There are two descent maps -- one of the Aegean and one of mainland Greece.The book could really use an index and better footnotes or commentary frankly to be of great use to anyone not just reading it for a introductory level course dealing with Athens or the Archaic and Classical Greek world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Tyranny and democracy
The biographies of nine Greek statesmen in this book are perfectly representative for the eternal battle between tyranny (oligarchy) and democracy, between oppression and freedom, between the few and the many, between the haves and the have-nots. The fighting took place within the Greek city States, but also among themselves and in foreign countries, because the oligarchs (tyrants) tried to export their political system. To make things worse, the tyrants fought among themselves, for `greed is the congenital disease of dynasties'.
This relentless fighting was a disaster for Greece and its population: `Alas, for Greece, how many brave men have you killed with your own hands.'
After all those suicidal wars, at the end of the book, Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, is confronted with a new and formidable imperial power, Rome.

This book contains some astonishing historical corrections. E.g., not all Spartans were killing machines: `those who had shown cowardice in the battle ... had become so numerous that it was feared they might stir up a revolution.' (!)
It shows us Plutarch as a severe critic of the few (`kings set an example of bad faith and treachery ... and believe that the man who shows the least regard for justice will always reap the greatest advantage'), on the side of the many (` (`it s wrong both in human and political terms to try to raise the standard in one section of society by demoralizing another') and as a `dove' (`expansion is superfluous to the well-being of a city').
All in all, it was a period of extreme barbarism. `Dynasties are full of men who murdered their sons, their mothers and their wives, while the murder of brothers had come to be regarded as a recognized precaution to be taken by all rulers to ensure their safety.'
The mother of Alexander the Great, Olympias, took revenge on another widow of his father by roasting her and her infant son.

This book is a must read for all those interested in the history of mankind.

Easy to Read Translation; Great Collection from the Great Roman Moral Philosopher and Historian
Although Plutarch saves his best energy for the Romans, as a Greek citizen of the empire he could not help but produce some very fine essays on the great men from his homeland's glory days. In this Penguin volume some of the best are collected together.These are all "lives" from the period of the "Diadochi," the military successors to Alexander's legacy. There is one special feature this volume has that others in this valuable series do not: a dramatis personae of the main players in the dynastic struggles surrounding the death of Alexander. While the life of Alexander is the centerpiece to the collection, the lives of his generals who carried on after him are just as compelling reading. Filled with obsevations on character and moral philosophy, as all Plutarch's biographical writings are, these are some of the most entertaining stories in classical Western literature.As an example, the "Life of Pyrrhus" is absolutely priceless as a portrait of the fierce but frustrated warmonger with his weird visage and his penchant for performing miracles by placing his foot on the spleen of sick people. Plutarch employs humor and a sense of irony as he describes this brilliant general's character and career, the meandering leader who took on the early Romans for control of Italy. He provided an enduring lesson in the rise of the great republic, a lesson we all can learn from, in his all-too-hollow victories. As a matter of cultural literacy, this volume is full of information that educated people should know, and so I strongly recommend it to history students and literature students as well as philosophy students.

A Timeless Classic By One Of The Best Biographers In History
Plutarch in his "Lives Of The Noble Grecians And Romans" written around 100 C.E., sheds new light on Greek and Roman history from their Bronze Age beginnings, shrouded in myth, down through Alexander and late Republican Rome.Plutarch is the lens that we use today to view the Greco-Roman past; his work has shaped our perceptions of that world for 2,000 years.Plutarch writes of the rise of Roman Empire while Gibbon uses his scholarship to advance the story to write about its decline.He was a proud Greek that was equally effected by Roman culture, a Delphic priest, a leading Platonist, a moralist, educator and philosopher with a deep commitment as a first rate writer.Being a Roman citizen, Plutarch was afforded the opportunity to become an intimate friend to prominent Roman citizens and a member of the literary elite in the court of Emperor Trajan.

Plutarch's influence and enormous popularity during and after the Renaissance is legendary among classicist. Plutarch's "Lives", served as the sourcebook for Shakespeare's Roman Plays "Julius Caesar", "Antony and Cleopatra" and "Coriolanus".By the way Plutarch is even the only contemporary source of all the biographical information on Cleopatra, whom he writes about in his biographies of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Octavian. Thomas Jefferson wrote to his nephew that there were three books every gentleman had to have familiarity with; Plutarch's "Lives", Livy's "History of Rome" and Virgil's Aeneid.In fact all the founding fathers of note had read Plutarch and learned much from his fifty biographies of noble men of Greece and Rome.When Hamilton, Jay and Madison write "The Federalist Papers" they use many examples of good and bad leadership traits that they read in Plutarch's work.His biographies are a great study in human character and what motivates leaders to decide and act the way they do, this masterpiece has proven to be still prescient today.

If you are truly interested in a classical education, put this book on the top of your list! I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in political philosophy, and history.

Some "Lively" Greek Biogs By Plutarch
Plutarch was a Greek scholar living in the Roman Empire. He was not a historian, per se, but rather a biographer who used the lives of famous Greeks and Romans to illustrate strengths and weaknesses of character, how they impacted events, and how events impacted them. He wrote his biographies in pairs, matching a Greek and Roman whose lives, in his view, exemplified common traits or themes. His pairings being generally rather superficial, Penguin has chosen to publish the individual "Lives" in chronological groupings. The nine presented in "The Age Of Alexander" include Plutarch's biography of Alexander the Great along with those of eight famous Greeks from the same period.

Writing during the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian, Plutarch was already dealing with people from hundreds of years in his past. Fortunately for us, as his writing shows, he still had a lot of evidence to draw on. Frequently mentioned are contemporary accounts and, in the case of Alexander, letters written by Alexander himself, which apparently still existed in Plututarch's time. Sometimes he cites more than one source in cases where accounts disagree. The richness of Plutarch's sources is valuable because so much of that ancient source material is now lost.

Plutarch is at his best in describing dramatic events and when commenting on the strengths and weaknesses of his subjects. As reading material, this book could hardly be called a "page-turner" in the contemporary sense of that term, but you don't have to be a student of history to appreciate the dramatic, and often violent, nature of the times and of the lives of the men covered in this collection. Only one of them died in bed. Life was often violent and short, and the violence was gratuitous. A man whose deeds were out of favor might well be treated to the sight of his family being executed before being dispatched himself.

Personally, I'm more a fan of Roman history than the Greeks (although Alexander is certainly a fascinating character), and the Greeks covered in this book are generally much less familiar to me than those of the Romans contained in other volumes. Nevertheless, this is classic literature of a high order. Plutarch is a great storyteller, and his insightful and anecdotal style is never dull. Further, his work is one of those rare examples of ancient writing and scholarship that have survived, and in that sense alone his "Lives" are a treasure. "The Age Of Alexander" isn't the easiest reading you'll find, but it is both interesting and rewarding. It's probably not everyone's cup of tea, but give it a try. You may just find it as enjoyable as I do.

Great Greeks in History
"The Age of Alexander" was not the original title of this book.Instead the editors have taken liberty with the title for marketing purposes."The Age of Alexander" is actually a biography of 9 famous kings and generals from Agesilaus to Pyrrhus with Alexander as one of the nine.This isn't an attack on the title or this or this work, but it is a more honest description.

In addition to the people I have already mentioned, this book also talks about the lives of Pelopidas, Dion, Demosthenes, Phocion, and Demetrius.I had heard many of these names for years, but I had no idea of what they had done.Others I never knew.It is interesting how history classes often have such narrow focuses.Why do we study the Peloponnesian War, but not its outcome?

Here, students of history will have the chance to examine parts and people of the past, rarely discussed in other places.The writing style is a little tough.Remember, this is an English translation of a Roman work examining Greek citizen who lived three hundred or more years before it was written.However, if you can get past the writing, you can learn alot.

The rough history of who killed who and which state thrived while others died were not very interesting to me.It is hard to get excited about a civilation that was wiped out 3000 years ago.What I enjoyed more were the personal stories and the glimpse into Greek life.I will give three examples.

Pelopidas had a mortal enemy, Alexander.He was considered a tyrant and a murderer.Alexander had his enemies stripped naked and forced them to rare animal skins.He then would release hunting dogs on them as a form of fun/execution.

In Persia, citizens would make a gesture of respect to their King.In Greece, they would only make this gesture to the Gods. Thus Alexander the Great, if he wanted to be considered the "legitimate" ruler of the Persian would have to have them do something, this gesture, which made him look like he believed he was a God, to the Greeks.

"On noble subjects all men speak well."A quote found in this book.It was ascribed to Euripides but was quoted by Alexander when talking to Callisthenes, an advisor who eventually was put to death.

If you like insights and stories like this, "The Age of Alexander" is a great source.The editors do a very good job of discribing the customs and morals of the time.For me, actually, part of this was not necessary.I enjoyed this book, in part, because I could see how humans, in many ways have not changed. Perhaps, in part, that is why a book popular 2000 thousand years ago, can still be enjoyed today.Not a page turner, it is interesting if you have to time to study it. ... Read more

Book Description

Plutarch (Plutarchus), ca. 45-120 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.

Customer Reviews (1)

A Timeless Classic By One Of The Best Biographers In History
Plutarch in his "Lives Of The Noble Grecians And Romans" written around 100 C.E., sheds new light on Greek and Roman history from their Bronze Age beginnings, shrouded in myth, down through Alexander and late Republican Rome.Plutarch is the lens that we use today to view the Greco-Roman past; his work has shaped our perceptions of that world for 2,000 years.Plutarch writes of the rise of Roman Empire while Gibbon uses his scholarship to advance the story to write about its decline.He was a proud Greek that was equally effected by Roman culture, a Delphic priest, a leading Platonist, a moralist, educator and philosopher with a deep commitment as a first rate writer.Being a Roman citizen, Plutarch was afforded the opportunity to become an intimate friend to prominent Roman citizens and a member of the literary elite in the court of Emperor Trajan.

Plutarch's influence and enormous popularity during and after the Renaissance is legendary among classicist. Plutarch's "Lives", served as the sourcebook for Shakespeare's Roman Plays "Julius Caesar", "Antony and Cleopatra" and "Coriolanus".By the way Plutarch is even the only contemporary source of all the biographical information on Cleopatra, whom he writes about in his biographies of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Octavian. Thomas Jefferson wrote to his nephew that there were three books every gentleman had to have familiarity with; Plutarch's "Lives", Livy's "History of Rome" and Virgil's Aeneid.In fact all the founding fathers of note had read Plutarch and learned much from his fifty biographies of noble men of Greece and Rome.When Hamilton, Jay and Madison write "The Federalist Papers" they use many examples of good and bad leadership traits that they read in Plutarch's work.His biographies are a great study in human character and what motivates leaders to decide and act the way they do, this masterpiece has proven to be still prescient today.

If you are truly interested in a classical education, put this book on the top of your list! I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in political philosophy, and history.
... Read more

Book Description

Plutarch (Plutarchus), ca. 45-120 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.

Customer Reviews (5)

What would Caesar do?Or rather, what should Caesar have done?
I am not a scholar of ancient history.I was led to this book after hearing a lecture by Bible scholar Luke Timothy Johnson.I was bowled over by the storylines and the clarity of writing.Although these are histories, they really are much more about what the title says, lives.Plutarch is writing about the moral decisions of well known figures and the very public decisions that they made in the face of historic events.Plutarch more than simply reporting the choices of these people comments and critics their actions.Demosthenes and Cicero's lives tended to drag a bit for me.However, they were necessary and interesting preludes to Alexander and Caesar, who's lives are better known to us but also physically changed the map of the world where Demosthenes and Cicero tried to change the compass of their nations.Great reading, even in summer.

A Timeless Classic By One Of The Best Biographers In History
Plutarch in his "Lives Of The Noble Grecians And Romans" written around 100 C.E., sheds new light on Greek and Roman history from their Bronze Age beginnings, shrouded in myth, down through Alexander and late Republican Rome.Plutarch is the lens that we use today to view the Greco-Roman past; his work has shaped our perceptions of that world for 2,000 years.Plutarch writes of the rise of Roman Empire while Gibbon uses his scholarship to advance the story to write about its decline.He was a proud Greek that was equally effected by Roman culture, a Delphic priest, a leading Platonist, a moralist, educator and philosopher with a deep commitment as a first rate writer.Being a Roman citizen, Plutarch was afforded the opportunity to become an intimate friend to prominent Roman citizens and a member of the literary elite in the court of Emperor Trajan.

Plutarch's influence and enormous popularity during and after the Renaissance is legendary among classicist. Plutarch's "Lives", served as the sourcebook for Shakespeare's Roman Plays "Julius Caesar", "Antony and Cleopatra" and "Coriolanus".By the way Plutarch is even the only contemporary source of all the biographical information on Cleopatra, whom he writes about in his biographies of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Octavian. Thomas Jefferson wrote to his nephew that there were three books every gentleman had to have familiarity with; Plutarch's "Lives", Livy's "History of Rome" and Virgil's Aeneid.In fact all the founding fathers of note had read Plutarch and learned much from his fifty biographies of noble men of Greece and Rome.When Hamilton, Jay and Madison write "The Federalist Papers" they use many examples of good and bad leadership traits that they read in Plutarch's work.His biographies are a great study in human character and what motivates leaders to decide and act the way they do, this masterpiece has proven to be still prescient today.

If you are truly interested in a classical education, put this book on the top of your list! I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in political philosophy, and history.

Intriguing Lives, Great Biographies
Plutarch (or Ploutarchos in Greek), shows in this book that he is one of the best biographers of all time.

He uses written and oral sources to construct the life stories of four important historical figures, Demosthenes, Cicero, Alexander, and Caesar. These are all great personalities, with virtues and vices, wtih strengths and weaknesses, and Plutarch shows both the negative and the postive sides of their character and actions.

Plutarch is both a historian and a storyteller. In this sense he is no different than the popular biographers and historians of today. In addition, he does not detach himself form the events and people he writes about; he frequently makes moral judgements. He praises them when they do something praiseworthy, and he criticizes them when they do something deplorable. That is also not different from the way the current popular historians and biographers approach their topics. Don't Stephen Ambrose or David McCullough also make moral judgements about the people they write about? Don't they also emotionally attach themselves to the people and events they examine? Isn't that what makes their books such a pleasure to read?

Plutarch's books are a pleasure to read, too. That's why they have been popular for more than eighteen hundred years.

A parallel recounting of the stories of persons whose lives had some striking similarities (thus leading to comparison and contrast) is a clever method, and it is difficult to understand why it is hardly ever used today.

The Greek used by Plutarch is relatively easy to understand; the translation is good and, albeit more than eighty years' old, is appealing to today's reader.

So, if you want to improve, or work on, your Ancient Greek, this book is for you.

If you are interested in the history of 4th-Century B.C. Ancient Greece, and the conflicts, intrigues, interpersonal clashes, political systems, and cultural values of that period, this book is for you.

And, finally, if you enjoy reading intriguing life stories, well told, this book is definitely for you.

Action and Words
Is the sword mightier than the pen? It certainly is in the short term going by the lives featured here. Alexander and Caesar were the greatestconquerors of the ancient world while Cicero and Demosthenes are consideredto have been its greatest wordsmiths.

This collection of four lives isfurther connected by the fact that the two orators opposed the twoconquerors, raising important moral questions about freedom and democracy.Demosthenes, a great speaker who was cowardly by nature, saw Alexander andhis father Philip as no better than barborous tyrants, while Cicero, whoalso lacked the military virtues, fought a verbal war to preserve the RomanRepublic. Although being spared by their opponents, both Demosthenes andCicero were finally hunted and killed by their successors.

By today'sstandards we would condemn Alexander and Caesar as ruthless, bloodthirstytyrants, however, judging these two great men outside their historicalcontext is grossly unfair. Without Alexander, the Greeks would havecontinued to fight their petty wars and Hellenic culture would haveremained confined to a small corner of the Mediterranean. As for Caesar'susurpation of power, it was vital for Rome's survival to separategovernment from politics as the constant electioneering, bribery, partisanstrife, riots, plots, and military coups were causing anarchy at the heartof the Republic.

Writing at a time when a strong Imperial system wassafeguarding Hellenic culture and prosperity throughout the Mediterranean,it is not surprising that Plutarch saw Alexander and Caesar in such apositive light.

Whatever message he may wish to convey, Plutarch'swriting is full of delights, focusing on character traits, interestingquotes, great events, and always going off on those wonderful tangentsabout natural history, superstitions, or the customs of far awaycountries.

These are four interesting biographies. But why buy 4 whenthere are volumes with 8 or 9, or even ALL the 'Lives' of Plutarch?

Plutarch:The historian that changes history
You have ancient historians like Polybius, Thucydides, and Seutonius who tell the facts and do not change them.But with Plutarch, it's a different ballgame.Plutarch wants to make the good people look bad and the badpeople look good. Try to avoid any book written by Plutarch for all thelives he has written about are sketchy.I was kind enough to give the booktwo stars so if you actually are resding this, here's my advise:if youhave money to blow, get it and try and read it, but don't go out of yourway. ... Read more

Book Description

Plutarch (Plutarchus), ca. 45-120 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 Moralia is in fifteen volumes, volume XIII having two parts.

Customer Reviews (1)

Good source of information on the cults of Isis and Osiris
This volume of Plutarch's Moralia describes the legend and cult of Isis and Osiris, as referred to by my book Vampires or Gods? It is a very interesting look at a major cult during the late imperial period of the Roman Empire. - William Meyers ... Read more

Book Description
Pelling presents the Greek text of Plutarch'sLife of Antony, a work remarkable for its colorful narrative and vivid characterization of Antony and Cleopatra. Although mostly concerned with the literary merit of theLife, the text is accompanied by an extensive introduction that sets the work in its historical perspective and by detailed commentary that explains points of linguistic difficulty. Especially interesting is Pelling's discussion of the influence of the Lifeon Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, whose conception of the character and destiny of its protagonist is almost wholly shaped by Plutarch's work. ... Read more

Book Description
Collection of stories of ancient Romans skillfully adapted from Plutarch's Lives, with emphasis placed on the characters of the individuals portrayed. Excellent as an introduction to the biographies of Plutarch. Includes three black and white illustrations by Walter Crane. Suitable for children ages 9 and up. ... Read more

Book Description
In 336 b.c. Philip of Macedonia was assassinated and his twenty-year-old son, Alexander, inherited his kingdom. Immediately quelling rebellion, Alexander extended his father’s empire through-out the Middle East and into parts of Asia, fulfilling the soothsayer Aristander’s prediction that the new king “should perform acts so important and glorious as would make the poets and musicians of future ages labour and sweat to describe and celebrate him.”

The Life of Alexander the Great is one of the first surviving attempts to memorialize the achievements of this legendary king, remembered today as the greatest military genius of all time. This exclusive Modern Library edition, excerpted from Plutarch’s Lives, is a riveting tale of honor, power, scandal, and bravery written by the most eminent biographer of the ancient world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Very Good Read
I was impressed with this translation of Plutarch's Life of Alexander the Great.The prose was very clear and readable, and I finished the book very quickly.You shouldn't expect a detailed treatment of military or historical topics; the book is less than 100 pages in length, and such was not Plutarch's object anyway.Plutarch's Lives are really discussions of morality and character as evidenced in the lives of great men, and the history surrounding these men is really only a backdrop against which these things are portrayed.Use this book to begin to get a picture of Alexander the man; use other books to flesh out your understanding of Alexander the soldier, the king, and the politician. ... Read more

Book Description
Twenty-one stories of the ancient Greeks adapted for the younger reader from the admirable biographies of Plutarch. Ideal introduction to the characters that figured prominently in the history of ancient Greece. Includes three black and white illustrations by Walter Crane. Suitable for ages 9 and up. ... Read more

Book Description

Plutarch (Plutarchus), ca. 45-120 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 Moralia is in fifteen volumes, volume XIII having two parts.

Book Description
Plutarch's "Lives" and "Morals" are among the formative books of western civilisation, Written around AD 100, in Greece under Roman rule, they reflect conditions of that time: not only the political limitations, but - more importantly - the rich inheritance of post-classical as well as classical Greek thinking. Russell sets out to explain what it is like to read Plutarch and what one needs to bear in mind in order to read him with understanding and appreciation. Plutarch is seen in his historical context, his language and style, as a scholar of the past, as philosopher and moralist. The "Lives" are then discussed with specific examples in more detail - Alcibiades and some of the main generals of the late Roman republic; in the final chapter Russell examines the reception of Plutarch down to the time of North's translation and Shakespeare's reliance on it. Each chapter is generously laced with quotation (in translation), so that the student and general reader get a feeling for Plutarch's work. ... Read more