Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans
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| Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans |
Plutarch’s Lives is one of the most influential works of classical biography, written in the first century CE by the Greek historian and moral philosopher Plutarch of Chaeronea. His purpose was not merely to record history but to explore character and virtue — how great men shaped their times and how their moral choices defined their legacies.
Structure and Method
Plutarch arranges his biographies in parallel pairs, each matching a Greek and a Roman figure whose lives share similar virtues, ambitions, or fates. After each pair, he adds a comparison essay, weighing their qualities and moral lessons. This structure makes the work both historical and philosophical — a study of human nature across cultures.
Key Greek Lives
- Theseus — Founder‑hero of Athens, symbol of civic unity.
- Lycurgus — Lawgiver of Sparta, model of discipline and austerity.
- Solon — Reformer of Athenian democracy and justice.
- Themistocles — Naval strategist who saved Greece at Salamis.
- Pericles — Architect of Athenian glory and patron of the arts.
- Alexander the Great — Conqueror and visionary, torn between ambition and philosophy.
From introduction :
Plutarch was born in the little Boeotian town of Chaeronea, around 50 A.D. The date of his birth marked no great epoch in history, and the place itself was remembered chiefly as the field of three bygone battles. To Romans who heard the name in conversation, it must have sounded oddly familiar—like Dreux or Tewkesbury to us today—yet few outside Greece would have known of its municipal existence. This contrast between the obscurity of Plutarch’s birthplace and the renown of his writings mirrors the condition of his country as a whole.
The Boeotian plain, once “the scaffold of Mars,” had become little more than a sheepwalk. Greece, once a Europe of many states, was now reduced to a single province of the Empire—perhaps the poorest of them all. Yet born in such a time and place, Plutarch remained a patriot, a student of politics, and a scholar, bound by sentiment and learning to the ancient memories of his native land.
He often reflected on Greece’s decline. Once her shores had echoed with the clash of arms and the cadence of oratory; now they were silent and desolate. “Hardly able,” he wrote, “to muster three thousand men for war, where once a single city—Megara—sent forth that number to the battle of Plataea.” Athens still had philosophers, though Sulla had long since cut down the woods of the Academy. Corinth had merchants again, rebuilt by Julius Caesar. Yet even Athens, a century before, could furnish only three ships to aid Pompey. Elsewhere, cities had dwindled to villages, and villages had vanished.
The stately buildings of Pericles still stood in Athens, untouched after four centuries, but they were the sole remaining evidence of dignity. Thus, when Plutarch set himself to write of Greek worthies, his material was already chosen for him. Greek rhetoricians, himself among them, might lecture in every city of the South, but of Greek soldiers and statesmen there were none. The cradle of war and statecraft had become only a memory—dear to him, and constantly evoked by his contact with Rome’s triumphs.
From this contrast flowed his inspiration for the Parallel Lives: his desire, as a man, to draw the noble Greeks of old nearer to the daylight of the living, and his delight, as an artist, in casting the noble Romans—whose names were on every tongue—into the twilight of a more ancient romance. By placing them side by side, he gave back to the Greeks a touch of vitality they had lost, and to the Romans a distinction from everyday life they were beginning to forget.
The five volumes was merged in one volume PDF size 144 MB to preserve it. And uploaded to archive for public and Google Drive for visitors here.
