One of the world’s most profoundly influential literary works and the basis for Shakespeare’s Roman plays (Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, and Antony and Cleopatra), Plutarch’s Lives have been entertaining and arousing the spirit of emulation in countless readers since their creation at the beginning of the second century.
Originally named Parallel Lives, the work pairs eminent Romans with famous Greek counterparts—like the orators Cicero and Demosthenes—giving illuminating treatments of each separately and then comparing the two in a pithy essay.
This second and final volume includes Alexander and Caesar, Demetrius and Antony, Dion and Marcus Brutus, the aforementioned Demosthenes and Cicero, as well as biographies of Alexander, Caesar, Cato the Younger, and others.
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"Not bad, for a translation."
— Colin (4 out of 5 stars)
“Plutarch is my man.”
— Michel de Montaigne“Away with your prismatics. I want a spermatic book…Plato, Plotinus, and Plutarch are such.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson“Sometimes a matter of less moment, an expression or a jest, informs us better of…character and inclinations, than the most famous sieges, the greatest armaments, or the bloodiest battles.”
— Plutarch“A moralizing program: they set out to construct not full biographies but ethical discussions through the narrative of life.”
— Bryn Mawr Classical Review" Plutarch's Lives are an amazing accomplishment, but they do get tedious after a while, and I have to say that the Dryden/Clough translation is not as straightforward as Plutarch's Greek is. If you are reading a translation, I'd recommend Bernadotte Perrin's in the Loeb Classic Series. "
— Bernard, 7/11/2013" Cansativo e recompensador. "
— Eduardo, 2/18/2013" Ceasar and Cato "
— Mary, 12/26/2012" See review for Volume 1. "
— Kenneth, 4/17/2012Plutarch (c. AD 46–120) was a Greek historian, biographer, and essayist. For many years Plutarch served as one of the two priests at the temple of Apollo at Delphi. He actively participated in local affairs in the town of his birth, Chaeronea, in the Greek region known as Boeotia, and was also a magistrate, representing his home on various missions to foreign countries.
Bernard Mayes is a teacher, administrator, corporate executive, broadcaster, actor, dramatist, and former international commentator on US culture. He is best known for his readings of historical classics.