Lives, Volume II: Themistocles and Camillus. Aristides and Cato Major. Cimon and Lucullus

Lives

by Plutarch, Bernadotte Perrin (Translator), Aristides

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.

Genres: History, Biography, Classics, Nonfiction, Roman

630 pages, Hardcover

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

[Alexander Rolfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book! I would have fun teaching a college course on Plutarch's Lives. It would make a great course. And if colleges weren't so bent on their own destruction-- if there were any sanity left in the academy-- they would all be offering such a course. Instead classics departments are disappearing right and left, because it's just one more field that doesn't lead to a job, after stewing in a toxic brew of contemporary political hatreds for four years. Who needs it.

A lot of popular fields of study are anathema to the academy, like military history-- there's a huge market there that universities disdain, so people learn it on their own (and young men enjoy college less than they otherwise would). Greece and Rome is becoming another such field; it took a laymen to produce the Landmark Histories, while higher ed classics departments work on decentering whiteness or whatever. It's too bad, because Plutarch's lives are intimidating. Students would benefit from a teacher to guide them. Only a very few books have enriched my life more than the Lives, but like the cowboys in Louis L'Amour's novels, who sometimes muddled through Plutarch on their own, we'll have to tackle it without help from the educational establishment. (A Landmark edition of Plutarch would be wonderful, but it would take so much expertise and work to produce that I don't expect to ever see one.)

[Chet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed Themisotcles, Cimon, and Lucullus. Like the ending of Herodotus but more abbreviated and straightforward

[Elise · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Plutarch so much. This is a neat edition because I know a little Greek and it's fun to have the Greek text right there. I have to confess, though, I cheat on Perrin with the more readable Dryden translation sometimes.