Plutarch's Lives

Plutarch

• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781504063234
• Topic: Philosophie
• Subtopic: Biographies de philosophes

These forty-eight biographies by the ancient Greek scholar demonstrate the parallel lives of famous rulers such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar.

A Greek priest of Delphi who acquired Roman citizenship later in life, Plutarch undertook his Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans to demonstrate the influence of character on the fates of famous men. He also wished to show that the legacy and achievements of his native Greece were no less impressive than those of Rome.

Today, the surviving text represents a treasure trove of information and insights into some of the ancient world's most significant personalities. A major source of material for William Shakespeare's history plays, Plutarch's Lives draws parallels between Pericles and Fabius Maximus, Alcibiades and Coriolanus, Lysander and Sulla, Demetrius and Mark Antony,; among many others.

POMPEY

The people of Rome seem to have entertained for Pompey from his

childhood, the same affection that Prometheus in the tragedy of

Aeschylus expresses for Hercules, speaking of him as the author

of his deliverance, in these words,

Ah cruel Sire! how dear thy son to me!

The generous offspring of my enemy!

For on the one hand, never did the Romans give such

demonstrations of a vehement and fierce hatred against any of

their generals, as they did against Strabo, the father of

Pompey; during whose lifetime, it is true, they stood in awe of

his military power, as indeed he was a formidable warrior, but

immediately upon his death, which happened by a stroke of

thunder, they treated him with the utmost contumely, dragging

his corpse from the bier, as it was carried to his funeral. On

the other side, never had any Roman the people’s good-will and

devotion more zealous throughout all the changes of fortune,

more early in its first springing up, or more steadily rising

with his prosperity, or more constant in his adversity, than

Pompey had. In Strabo, there was one great cause of their

hatred, his insatiable covetousness; in Pompey, there were many

that helped to make him the object of their love; his

temperance, his skill, and exercise in war, his eloquence of

speech, integrity of mind and affability in conversation and

address; insomuch that no man ever asked a favor with less

offense, or conferred one with a better grace. When he gave,

it was without assumption, when he received, it was with

dignity and honor.

In his youth, his countenance pleaded for him, seeming to

anticipate his eloquence, and win upon the affections of the

people before he spoke. His beauty even in his bloom of youth

had something in it at once of gentleness and dignity; and

when his prime of manhood came, the majesty kingliness of his

character at once became visible in it. His hair sat somewhat

hollow or rising a little; and this, with the languishing

motion of his eyes, seemed to form a resemblance in his face,

though perhaps more talked of than really apparent, to the

statues of king Alexander. And because many applied that name

to him in his youth, Pompey himself did not decline it,

insomuch that some called him so in derision. And Lucius

Philippus, a man of consular dignity, when he was pleading in

favor of him, thought it not unfit to say, that people could

not be surprised if Philip was a lover of Alexander.

It is related of Flora, the courtesan, that when she was now

pretty old; she took great delight in speaking of her early

familiarity with Pompey, and was wont to say, that she could

never part after being with him without a bite. She would

further tell, that...