Roughly 1800 years ago, a biographer and historian decided to compare the great men of Greece and Rome to one another to give his readers inspiration to follow their example or what to avoid. Parallel Lives by Plutarch chronicles the lives of the greatest men of the ancient world and the times they...
My Square Markers and "Virgin" Bingo Card: "Virgin" card posted for ease of tracking and comparison. Black Kitty:Read but not called Black Vignette:Called but not read Black Kitty in Black Vignette:Read and Called Black Kitty Center Square: Read = Called Current Status of Spr...
This is a selection from Plutarch's Parallel Lives focusing on notable Romans of the Republic. Interestingly, three of the lives covered here were the direct inspiration for Shakespeare - Coriolanus, Brutus and Marc Anthony. Plutarch knows how to spin a yarn and furthermore how to make a character c...
Plutarch isn’t the problem. It’s the format which makes what would otherwise be an interesting tract impossible to read.
This is often known as the "Parallel Lives" because these biographical sketches come in pairs, one Greek, one Roman, followed by a comparison. This is a thick tome. My edition of Plutarch's Lives as translated by Dryden is nearly 800 pages. And yes, I read the whole thing and was never bored. Maybe ...
"Lives" (a.k.a The Lives of the Great Greeks & Romans or Parallel Lives) is a series of biographies of famous Greeks and Romans, arranged in pairs to facilitate the comparison their common characteristics. The first century AD author, Plutarch, states that his goal in writing is primarily to compar...
The second volume is not much different than the first. It plods along with a mixture of anecdote and military campaigns through lands long since renamed and against generals most of whom are familiar to only those with a Masters or above in Classical Studies. Footnotes and endnotes are nonexisten...
Dense. And not a lot of fun.Plutarch, a Greek in the first century A.D. who later became a Roman citizen, drafted his Lives as a moral inquiry. He selected from history a well-known Greek and a well-known Roman and wrote briefly on each. He then concludes with a couple pages comparing their lives...
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