Of particular importance here are the consequences resulting from setbacks at the River Ganges, where Alexander’s forces face the daunting task of fording the wide river while a huge army awaits them on the opposite banks. [citation needed], Plutarch has been criticized[by whom?] Although the Life depicts Caesar as having a well-formulated plan, the narrative slows down to convey his in-decision as he ponders the enormity of his actions. It is probably during this period that he wrote his two main bodies of works: the Parallel Lives and the Moralia, a catch-all title designating 60 or so writings on subjects ranging from religion to philosophy, ethics, politics, psychology, and education. There is no comparison for this pair. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. Plutarch died about 120 ce, leaving behind a collection of paired biographies that seems to have met with immediate success and that became his enduring monument. 334 bce. Parallel Lives depicts his life journey and inspiring experiences; his meeting with Tomislav Tesla in 2014 provided him with a new insight for the future. World Literature and Its Times: Profiles of Notable Literary Works and the Historic Events That Influenced Them. These translations are linked with L in the table below. There is no comparison for this pair. Principal among these are overweening pride and intractable stubbornness. Using 'old scene[s]' to make new comments: the adaptogenic power of Julius Caesar, View Wikipedia Entries for Parallel Lives…. The Lives available on the Perseus website are in Greek and in the English translation by Bernadotte Perrin (see under L above), and/or in an abbreviated version of Thomas North's translations. Solon and Publicola, Lives II: Themistocles and Camillus. Although Plutarch pairs the two together, no comparison of them by him survives. Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, commonly called Parallel Lives or Plutarch's Lives, is a series of 48 biographies of famous men, arranged in tandem to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings, probably written at the beginning of the second century AD. Later Caesar and his lieutenant Antony pursue Pompey and defeat him at the battle of Pharsalus in Thessaly (central Greece). Loebulus. Solon, Publicola, Themistocles, Camillus, Pericles, Fabius, Alcibiades, Coriolaunus American baseball player The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, English text, translated by John Dryden, 1683. Volume 1. Philip arranges for Alexander to take tutorials with the philosopher Aristotle. Time and again, he led his troops to victory, extending Roman rule over all of Gaul (including modern-day France) and over the low countries (Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg). Once securely in power, he worked to restore stability. In less subtle hands, it would have been easy to structure the portraits to paint the Romans in a consistently bad light by juxtaposing them against always noble Greeks. Galba. Making an outward show of his status, Alexander donned the trappings of Persian as well as Macedonian royal attire. A Literary History of Greece. Furthermore, Suetonius focuses to a greater extent on character defect (including sexual “excesses”); for Plutarch, how-ever, even where his great men give cause for regret, greatness is the constant theme. The Macedonian Antigonus I (382-301 B.C. In a wonderful, witty documentary, Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives, Mark goes in search of his father and his research into parallel worlds by visiting old friends, talking to modern quantum physicists, and looking through his father’s old documents and audio tapes. Solon and Publicola. Although Agesilaus’ leadership saved the city itself from capture, Sparta’s power was squashed forever. Chaeronea, Plutarch’s hometown, while unimportant politically, was close to Delphi, site of the famous shrine or oracle of the god Apollo. There followed a period of Theban hegemony that came to an end with the rise of another power, Macedon, led by Alexander’s father, Philip II (whose kingdom comprised a substantial portion of the Balkan Peninsula to the north of the great cities of Greece). A Greek text of the Lives was published in Italy in 1517 and a French version by Jacques Amyot in 1559. Not affiliated with Harvard College. Shakespeare, William. Jacob Tonson printed several editions of the Lives in English in the late 17th century, beginning with a five-volume set printed in 1688, with subsequent editions printed in 1693, 1702, 1716, and 1727. A superb example of this interest in the hero’s self-questioning can be seen in Plutarch’s account of Caesar at the Rubicon. Douglas Garman. Plutarch’s “Lives”: Exploring Virtue and Vice. However, Roman writers had stereotyped later Greeks of their own empire as deceitful, unmanly, overindulgent, untrustworthy, and dishonorable. Plutarch viewed people as neither wholly good, nor wholly evil. Usually the Greek sketch precedes the Roman one, and the two are followed by a brief comparison. In order to further examine and chart the effect of moral character in famous people's lives, Plutarch writes this collection as a biography study. https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/culture-magazines/parallel-lives, "Parallel Lives PDF of public domain Loeb edition in Greek and English.Loebulus. Trans. Scholars face the perplexing problem of incomplete works in those that have survived from antiquity, Parallel Lives included. These are harsh punishments, says Plutarch, which Alexander will regret (indeed, he later attempts to make amends with the conquered Thebans). GradeSaver, 3 September 2019 Web. Encyclopedia.com. The showdown gives rise to another revealing anecdote. Each had a noble but ill-governed nature; both took reprisal against domestic adversaries to the point of waging war on their own cities. Contrary to all expectation, the Thebans, under the generalships of Epaminondas* and Pelopidas*, crushed Sparta in battle. Four of the pairs, however, include just the biographies without Plutarch’s comparison, perhaps because, though it once existed, it has been lost. In corresponding pairs, these are the less familiar men described: Lycurgus and Numa Pompilius, Themistocles and Camillus, Solon and Poplicola, Pericles and Fabius Maximus, Alcibiades and Coriolanus, Epaminondas and Scipio Africanus, Phocion and Cato the Younger, Agis and Tiberius Gracchus, Cleomenes and Gaius Gracchus, Timoleon and Aeilius Paullus, Eumenes and Sertorius, Aristides and Cato the Elder, Pelopidas and Marcellus, Lysander and Sulla, Pyrrhus and Marius, Philopoemen and Titus Flamininus, Nicias and Crassus, Cimon and Lucullus, Dion and Brutus, Agesilaus and Pompey, Demosthenes and Cicero, Demetrius and Mark Antony. D: Dryden is famous for having lent his name as editor-in-chief to the first complete English translation of Plutarch's Lives. “might outdo his past actions by his future” (Lives, p. 887). This moment is open to several readings, which Plutarch, in typical fashion, leaves unsettled. With respect to Julius Caesar, Plutarch’s Roman contemporary Suetonius (c. 70-130 ce) included a profile in his Lives of the Twelve Caesars (also in Classical Literature and Its Times). Posted in Biography, Bloom's Western Canon, Books, Classical Literature, Greek History, Greek Literature, History, Platonism, Plutarch, Roman History | Permalink Much in Plutarch is unverifiable and some is fanciful. Phocion and Cato the Younger, Lives IX: Demetrius and Antony. Of famous historical figures, Plutarch nabs some of the most famous: Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar. Be the first to contribute! Artaxerxes. The son “would tell his companions that his father would … leave him and them no opportunities Among his approximately 227 works, the most important are the Bioi parallēloi (Parallel Lives), in which he recounts the noble deeds and characters of Greek and Roman soldiers, legislators, orators, and statesmen, and the Moralia, or Ethica, a series of more than 60 essays on ethical, religious, physical, political, and literary topics. Hardly noticed back in his time, the theory is now embraced by science fiction and scientists. The debate on the use of renewable energy against fossil fuels is never ending. The surrender of Athens in 404 BCE to the Spartan general Lysander* spelled the end of its empire. Does the philosopher need anything? The wife, reports Plutarch, is accounted the most beautiful princess alive, yet Alexander refrains from intimate relations with her or her daughters. Twayne’s World Authors Series. Athens, a center of Greek values, had reached the height of power in the age of Pericles* (461-429 bce), more than a century before Alexander’s rise. But if he was possessed so far as to think this day unfortunate, yet it were more decent to go himself … to adjourn [the Senate] in his own person” (Lives, p. 891). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.). Plutarch’s Moralia —his treatises on superstition, the control of anger, and friends and flatterers, among other subjects—had a lasting impact on the French essayist Michel de Montaigne, as did the Lives. Each saved his country from invasion yet was forced to endure exile. When Darius offers to avoid war by dividing the kingdom, one of Alexander’s generals, Parmenio, says if it were up to him, he would take the deal. [6] The table also features links to several English translations of Plutarch's Lives available online. The Lives (as published in 1683-86, with a life of Plutarch by John Dryden) had a decisive impact on the development of British biography by James Boswell, Samuel Johnson, Lytton Strachey, and others (see Duff, pp. The biographies illustrate the personal qualities of great figures of Greece and Rome, focusing on their actions. Though Plutarch is specifically writing about famous men, he includes the above characters who are less familiar to contemporary audiences. Lycurgus and Numa. Theseus and Romulus;  Lycurgus and Numa Pompilius; Solon and Poplicola; Themistocles and and Camillus; Pericles and Fabius; Alcibiades and Coriolanus; Timoleon and Aemilius Paulus; Pelopidas and Marcellus; Aristides and Cato the Elder; Philopoemen and Flamininus; Pyrrhus and Gaius Marius; Lysander and Sulla;  Cimon and Lucullus; Nicias and Crassus; Eumenes and Sertorius; Agesilaus and Pompey; Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar; Phocion and Cato the Younger; Agis / Cleomenes and Tiberius Gracchus / Gaius Gracchus; Demosthenes and Cicero; Demetrius and Antony; Dion and Brutus. (October 16, 2020). Anonymous "Parallel Lives Summary". Likewise, his portrait of Numa Pompilius, an early Roman king, contains unique information about the early Roman calendar. Julius Caesar. “If he were not Alexander,” quips the mighty general, “he would choose to be Diogenes” (Lives, p. 810). Two generals who defeated hitherto invincible foes: for Epaminondas, the foe was Sparta; for Scipio, Hannibal. In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. You can help us out by revising, improving and updating Plutarch documents the feats and failings of these real-life figures to tell the story of Greco-Roman civilization and to enlighten the reader morally. Parallel Lives is a collection of biographies about great men and leaders from Greece and Rome. So intense is his “love of glory” that he resents his father’s military achievements. In addition to these 48 Parallel Lives, Plutarch wrote an additional four unpaired biographies that although not considered part of Parallel Lives, can be included in the term Plutarch's Lives. Marius transformed the Roman army into a professional, all-volunteer force, creating a new breed of soldier who had no farm or work to which he needed to return and so could fight year round and for longer terms of service.

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