Rome in Crisis

by Plutarch, Christopher Pelling (Translator)

Bringing together nine biographies from Plutarch's Parallel Lives series, this edition examines the lives of major figures in Roman history, from Lucullus (118-57 BC), an aristocratic politician and conqueror of Eastern kingdoms, to Otho (32-69 AD), a reckless young noble who consorted with the tyrannical, debauched emperor Nero before briefly becoming a dignified and gracious emperor himself.

Ian Scott-Kilvert's and Christopher Pelling's translations are accompanied by a new introduction, and also includes a separate introduction for each biography, comparative essays of the major figures, suggested further reading, notes and maps.

Genres: History, Classics, Biography, Nonfiction, Ancient History, Roman History, Historical

879 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 100

About the author

Plutarch (later named, upon becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus; AD 46–AD 120) was a Greek historian, biographer, and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He is classified as a Middle Platonist. Plutarch's surviving works were written in Greek, but intended for both Greek and Roman readers.

Reviews

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sertorious: possibly my FAVORITE (!?!) of the 53 extant Lives. He's paired with Eumenes, the clever Greek secretary, another favorite. He was one-eyed, like Philip of Macedon, Antigonus, and Hannibal. And like them he was also very clever. "None of his rivals surpassed him in intelligence, but every one of them did so in good fortune." Of Sertorius and Eumenes: "both combined a warlike spirit with a genius for outwitting the enemy by deceit: both were banished from their own countries, commanded foreign troops, and suffered a similar violent and unjust stroke of fortune in their deaths, since both were the victims of conspiracy." He once spied in an enemy camp by disguising himself as a Celt. He was captured a Spanish city by dressing his troops as Spaniards. Sertorius was a partisan of Marius and Cinna - when they were defeated by Sulla, he fled to Spain. He was driven to Africa and then back to Spain. He managed to survive by allying himself with Cilician pirates. STORY 1: In Spain he met people from the "Isles of the Blest": "he was seized with an overwhelming desire to settle in the islands and live in peace there, safe from tyranny and endless wars. But his allies, the Cilician pirates, had no desire for peace or leisure" and forced him to stay and fight. STORY 2: THE WHITE FAWN. He caught a white fawn and tamed it. "He declared that she was a gift from Artemis and possessed the power of revealing secrets to him, for he knew that barbarians are naturally prone to superstition. He also resorted to such devices as the following. Whenever he received secret intelligence that the enemy had invaded his territory or were attempting to persuade some city to revolt, he would give it out that the fawn had spoken to him in his sleep and warned him to keep his troops ready." He soon led his army to stunning successes: "He defeated Cotta in a naval battle..., routed Fufidius the governor of Baetica..., and killed two thousand Roman soldiers with him, while Sertorius’s quaestor overcame Lucius Domitius, the proconsul of Nearer Spain. Sertorius also killed Thoranius, one of the commanders whom Metellus sent against him with an army, and on Metellus himself, the foremost Roman citizen and most distinguished general of his time, he inflicted a whole series of defeats, and reduced him to such straits that Lucius Manlius was obliged... to rescue him and Pompey the Great was hastily dispatched from Rome with reinforcements." STORY 3: To show his Spanish troops that patience was necessary in order to defeat the enemy, he had a strong horse and a weak horse brought forth. He had a strong man try to pull off the weak horse's tail with no success, while a weak man was able to pluck the strong horse's tail by pulling the hairs out one by one. "Then Sertorius rose to his feet and said, ‘Now you can see, my friends and allies, that perseverance is more effective than brute strength, and that there are many difficulties that cannot be overcome if you try to do everything at once, but which will yield if you master them little by little. The truth is that a steady continuous effort is irresistible, for this is the way in which Time captures and subdues the greatest powers on earth." STORY 4: There was a barbarian tribe ensconced in unassailable cliff-side dwellings. Sertorius made a huge pile of chalky dirt in front of their cliffs. A strong wind came up and he had his troops stir up the dirt and dust - so much dust was raised that it choked the barbarians and they had to surrender. STORY 5: Sertorius outmaneuvered Pompey the Great at the Battle of Sucro and almost got him killed. However, he lost a lot of troops and didn't fair well in the next battle either. He became more violent and debauched after this, and was eventually killed by his allies.

Cato the Younger: I used to conflate Cato the Elder and Younger, and since the Elder was such an annoying hypocrite I had a similarly bad view of the Younger. But the younger Cato was actually truly inspiring (at least according to Plutarch). He was incorruptible and unconcerned with looks or money. He dressed so shabbily that people accused him of disgracing his offices: "He would often go into public after breakfast without shoes or tunic: it was not that he was seeking celebrity by being so unconventional, but rather that he was training himself to feel shame only at what was truly shameful and to treat with indifference any other sort of disrepute." He was unshakably devoted to his country and to the laws. Some people are obsessed with sports, or politics, or entertainment. Cato was obsessed with virtue. As quaestor, he imposed unprecedented rigor and lawfulness on the office. "It had also become the practice for people to file spurious records and for the previous quaestors to register false decisions in favour of their friends’ requests. Nothing of this sort got past Cato." "He was the first to arrive at the senate, too, and the last to depart. It would often happen that he would sit there reading, hiding his book in his toga, while the others gradually gathered." He "thought that one should be more devoted to public affairs than the bee is to the honey." There is the hilarious anecdote of when Cato was accusing Caesar of being involved in the Catilinarian conspiracy and Caesar had a tablet handed to him. Cato said that was proof of his involvement and ordered him to hand over the tablet. The tablet was a love letter from Cato's own half-sister to Caesar! "Cato hurled it back at Caesar, crying, ‘Take it, you drunken oaf!’ and resumed his speech. It does indeed seem that Cato was very unfortunate in his womenfolk." Cato was often one of the only sources of opposition in the face of organized and violent crowds (organized by Pompey, Crassus, Caesar, and others). "When he reached the top he sat straight down, planting himself between Metellus and Caesar in such a way as to stop their conniving." "the clerk brought out the bill. Cato stopped him from reading it, so Metellus grabbed it and began to read; Cato snatched the document from him..." " lamp-bearer who was leading the procession tried to protect Domitius, and was the first to be hit and to fall down dead; then those who were following him were also wounded, and all fled except for Cato and Domitius. Cato held him back, even though he had himself been wounded on the arm, and urged Domitius to stay and not abandon the cause as long as there was breath left in their body. It was the struggle for liberty against the tyrants, he said." "Once he had spent that time in arguments and explanations and prophecies, they tried to stop him, and when he stood his ground an attendant went to him and dragged him down. But even from where he stood below the tribunal he kept shouting, and he had a sympathetic audience who shared his indignation. So the attendant grabbed him again and expelled him from the forum. No sooner had he been released than he returned and rushed towards the tribunal, crying at the top of his voice to the citizens to come to his assistance. This happened again and again, until Trebonius, furious, ordered him to be taken to prison. He was followed by a crowd listening to him speaking as he went, and Trebonius was alarmed enough to release him. That day, then, Cato prevented a conclusion to the debate." When Caesar crossed the Rubicon, Cato fled Rome with Pompey. He went to Sicily but when Caesar sent troops there, he decided it wasn't worth bloodshed to defend Sicily, so he joined Pompey. He was later sent to Asia to do stuff, and after Pompey was defeated he went to Africa where he ended up in charge of Utica. He went to great pains to keep the people of Utica safe and to manage the divisions between Uticans and between Uticans and Romans. When Caesar defeated the Pompeians in Africa, Cato decided to commit suicide. "Going into his room and lying down, he took into his hands the Platonic dialogue On the Soul." He apparently read it twice. He then stabbed himself, but his death was very messy. Anyway, there were flaws in his life, but overall I was really inspired and impressed by Cato.

Mark Antony - another of the more compelling 'characters'. He was a great general but an even greater libertine. "His course of life earned him the contempt of all men of principle; indeed, as Cicero explains, they positively detested him. They were disgusted at his ill-timed drunkenness, his extravagant spending, his cavortings with women, his days spent in sleeping off his debauches or wandering about with an aching head and befuddled wits, and his nights spent in revels or watching lavish spectacles or attending the wedding feast of some actor or comedian." When the conspirators assassinated Caesar, Antony gave his famous funeral oration: "When he saw that his oratory had cast a spell over the people and that they were deeply stirred by his words, he began to introduce into his praises a note of pity and of indignation at Caesar’s fate. Finally, at the close of his speech, he snatched up the dead man’s robes and brandished them aloft, all bloodstained as they were and stabbed through in many places, and denounced the men who had done this as polluted murderers." He teamed up with Octavian, but their rivalry started almost immediately. He was eventually driven from Italy or something: "it was characteristic of Antony to show his finest qualities in the hour of trial, and indeed it was always when his fortunes were at their lowest that he came nearest to being a good man." He won over Lepidus's men and formed the triumvirate. He was given the East, and it was in Tarsus on the River Cydnus that he first met CLEOPATRA.
"Cleopatra herself reclined beneath a canopy of cloth of gold, dressed in the character of Aphrodite, as we see her in paintings, while on either side to complete the picture stood boys costumed as Cupids, who cooled her with their fans. ... all the while an indescribably rich perfume, exhaled from innumerable censers, was wafted from the vessel to the river-banks." "Her own beauty, so we are told, was not of that incomparable kind which instantly captivates the beholder. But the charm of her presence was irresistible and there was an attraction in her person and her talk, together with a peculiar force of character which pervaded her every word and action, and laid all who associated with her under its spell. It was a delight merely to hear the sound of her voice, with which, like an instrument of many strings, she could pass from one language to another." "Antony and Cleopatra gathered around them a company of friends whom they called the Inimitable Livers, and each day they gave banquets for one another of an almost incredible extravagance." "Plato speaks of four kinds of flattery, but Cleopatra knew many more. Whether Antony’s mood was serious or gay, she could always invent some fresh device to delight or charm him." "She played dice with him, drank with him and hunted with him, and when he exercised with his weapons she watched him. At night, when he liked to wander about the city, stand by the doors or windows of ordinary citizens’ houses and make fun of the people inside, she would dress up as a maidservant and play her part in any mad prank that came into Antony’s head, for it was his custom to go out disguised as a slave."
Antony needed to settle many affairs in the East - especially to attack the Parthians - but Cleopatra (at least according to Plutarch) completely sabotaged his efforts due to their unhealthy co-dependence on either other. Eventually things between Octavian and Antony came to a head and they fought in Greece. "By this time Antony had become so much of an appendage to Cleopatra that, although he was far stronger than Octavian on land, he was determined that his victory should be gained by his fleet." During the sea battle, "At this moment, while neither side had gained a decisive advantage, Cleopatra’s squadron of sixty ships was suddenly seen to hoist sail and make off through the very midst of the battle. They had been stationed astern of the heavy ships, and so threw their whole formation into disorder as they plunged through. The enemy watched them with amazement, as they spread their sails before the following wind and shaped their course for the Peloponnese. And it was now that Antony revealed to all the world that he was no longer guided by the motives of a commander nor of a brave man nor indeed by his own judgement at all: instead, he proved the truth of the saying which was once uttered as a jest, namely that a lover’s soul dwells in the body of another, and he allowed himself to be dragged along after the woman, as if he had become a part of her flesh and must go wherever she led him. No sooner did he see her ships sailing away than every other consideration was blotted out of his mind, and he abandoned and betrayed the men who were fighting and dying for his cause. He got into a five-banked galley, and taking with him only Alexas the Syrian and Scellius, he hurried after the woman who had already ruined herself and would soon destroy Antony as well." In Alexandria most of Antony's forces ended up abandoning him, setting into motion the famous suicide scenes. Cleopatra, fearing Antony's rage, had a messenger tell Antony that she had committed suicide. Antony them stabbed himself, but as he was dying another messenger told him that she was still alive. He had himself carried over to her - she had barricaded herself in her tomb. He had to be lifted into the tomb via a window. "Those who were present say that there was never a more pitiable sight than the spectacle of Antony, covered with blood, struggling in his death agonies and stretching out his hands towards Cleopatra as he swung helplessly in the air." Cleopatra eventually also decides to commit suicide: "I know now that the thousand griefs I have suffered are as nothing beside the few days that I have lived without you." According to Plutarch, nobody knows how she really died. The most famous is the story of the asp carried to her in a basket of figs.

Tiberius Gracchus - the older of the brothers, tried to introduce reforms and was killed.

Gaius Gracchus - made more headway than his old brother but was also killed.

Lucullus - a great commander who earned tons of victories in the east against Mithridates of Pontus and Tigranes of Armenia. But his troops hated him and he had to give up his command to Pompey. Then he became self-indulgent and lazy apparently.

Brutus - honorable man who made three big mistakes: 1) not killing Antony. 2) letting Antony make a speech at Caesar's funeral. 3) killing himself too hastily after the Battle of Philippi.

Galba - old wealthy man who was proclaimed emperor after Nero. Then killed.

Otho - friend of Nero who killed Galba and became emperor, then killed.

[Colby · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Have you two also decided to use force to stop a man of my age, and to sit there in silence as my warders? Or have you come to argue that there is nothing dreadful or shameful if Cato, when there is no other hope of safety, should wait to have it granted by the enemy? Why not go further, and persuade me and teach me a new lesson, so that we can abandon those earlier doctrines and arguments by which we have lived our life, and become wiser thanks to Caesar, and be all the more grateful to him? Yet I have still not taken any decision about myself - but, once I have decided, I must insist on the power to follow the course of action I choose. I shall reach this decision in company with you yourselves, in a way, for I will be reaching it with the arguments that you too are accustomed to use. So go away in good heart, and tell my son not to impose on his father by force what he is unable to persuade him to do?

[max · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plutarch is the "go to" writer for all of the major figures of Greek and Roman antiquity. Next to Livy, I enjoy him most of ancient historians. He leads you back in time as if the events he describes occurred only very recently, instead of 2,000 or more years ago. He is a writer of many gifts, and his portrait gallery of great men is unrivalled in all of literature.

Okay, he is not strictly a historian, but a biographer. His Parallel Lives has traditionally been counted as among the finest products of the classical literary tradition. Shakespeare's reliance on North's translation of Plutarch is well known; beyond the Renaissance into the age of our own Framers he has found many a devoted reader. You simply cannot have a handle on the greatest men of antiquity without consulting this famous writer.

Plutarch was an astute observer of men, morals, society, and politics. He understood with unusual insight the civilizations about which he wrote, the animating forces and values that lay at the heart of Greek and Roman cultures. For each figure that he writes about, Plutarch paints a character portrait: the arc of his life from childhood to death, his triumphs and his failings, how he treated family and friends and was in turn treated by them, what he believed in and what value, in short, his life held for posterity.

It is this approach that makes reading Plutarch so deeply pleasurable. On every page he reveals his intimate familiarity with his subject and the larger stage on which that person's life was played out.

Oh, and one last point: before reading some modern journalist's treatment of Caesar, Pompey, Cato, Alexander, or any number of other famous figures from classical antiquity, read Plutarch first. He is always better, and latter day retellings for mass consumption of famous Greeks and Romans often rip him off shamelessly.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another quick read because unfortunately most of the biographies in this volume are duplicated from previous volumes. But the biographies of Lucullus and the younger Cato were pretty good. On to the final Penguin volume, The Fall of the Roman Republic.

[Kenneth Lund · Rating 5 out of 5]

The more Greco-Roman history I read, the more I appreciate how readable and enjoyable Plutarch's biographies are.

[James Carrigy]

See my review of The Rise And Fall Of Athens (2023)

[Smiley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think reading this book by Plutarch should be inspiring to those interested in some Lives of great Roman dignitaries and, while reading, I think I understand more while his prose's long been praised to the skies (the phrase as translated from Polybius or Livy I read) from what I read on his formidable works as one of the great Greek historians in the ancient world. I wish I knew and could read Greek but in the meantime I've to be content with its fine English translation by Ian Scott-Kilvert.

I think I'd think out what I should include here some few topics worth elaborating or quoting for my Goodreads friends to read and, hopefully, to encourage some to follow suit. I mean we'd be keeping reading any work written by any ancient historian on and on for the sake of enjoying our modest literary-cum-history pursuit in which, I think, some friends and unknown readers out there are reading and also interested.

For these nine Lives, I'd write more on two or three leaders whom I admire and why. As for Antony, I've known more in detail about him and, interestingly, his Life is more lengthy than the others'. Why? From his virtues?

[Richard Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Certainly the best edition for the layman. Wish Penguin would complete it.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't have enough knowledge

[Jenn Phizacklea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recommend this book over the ‘Makers of Rome’, another selection of Plutarch’s lives, where the same lives are included. The translation is much better, easier to read, and has comprehensive notes. I read most of these lives in the Makers version - a much easier, more engaging read here.

I particularly enjoyed the Galba and Otho - 69CE is one of the fascinating turning points in Roman History for me. Having read Tacitus’ ‘Histories’, this covers the same material with a different emphasis (as the notes helpfully make clear), and with Plutarch’s usual lucidity.