Plutarch's Lives - Vol. II

Translated from the Greek, With Notes and a Life of Plutarch

Plutarch, Aubrey Stewart, George Long

• Publisher: White Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781528711968
• eBook ISBN: 9781528786898
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

Plutarch's "Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans", often simply referred to as "Plutarch's Lives", is a series of biographies of notable ancient Greek and Roman figures most likely written at the beginning of the second century AD. Instead of simply writing histories, Plutarch explores the effect that character, good or bad, had on the lives and careers of these famous men, to which end the people treated are ordered in pairs in an attempt to highlight their common moral virtues or shortcomings. This book contains volume II of the English translation by Aubrey Stewart and George Long, presented here for the enjoyment of modern readers with an interest in the ancient world. Contents include: "Life of Pelopidas", "Life of Marcellus", "The Comparison of Pelopidas with Marcellus", "Life of Aristeides", "Life of Marcus Cato", "Comparison of Aristeides and Cato", "Life of Pyrrhus", etc. Plutarch (c. AD 46 – AD 120) was a Greek biographer and essayist most famous for this series of biographies and his work "Moralia". Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.

PLUTARCH'S LIVES

TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK,
WITH NOTES AND A LIFE OF PLUTARCH

By

AUBREY STEWART, M.A
Late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge

AND
GEORGE LONG, M.A.
Formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge

VOL. II

First published in 1899

This edition published by Read Books Ltd.
Copyright © 2019 Read Books Ltd.
This book is copyright and may not be

reproduced or copied in any way without

the express permission of the publisher in writing

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library

Contents

Plutarch

LIFE OF PELOPIDAS.

LIFE OF MARCELLUS.

THE COMPARISON OF PELOPIDAS WITH MARCELLUS.

LIFE OF ARISTEIDES.

LIFE OF MARCUS CATO.

COMPARISON OF ARISTEIDES AND CATO.

LIFE OF PHILOPŒMEN.

LIFE OF TITUS FLAMININUS.

COMPARISON OF PHILOPŒMEN AND TITUS.

LIFE OF PYRRHUS.

LIFE OF CAIUS MARIUS.

LIFE OF LYSANDER

LIFE OF SULLA.

COMPARISON OF LYSANDER AND SULLA

LIFE OF KIMON.

LIFE OF LUCULLUS.

COMPARISON OF KIMON AND LUCULLUS.

Plutarch

Plutarch, named Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus after becoming a Roman citizen, was a Greek historian, biographer and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia.

Plutarch was born in AD 46 to a prominent and wealthy family in the small town of Chaeronea, about twenty miles east of Delphi in the Greek region known as 'Boeotia.' Biographical details regarding Plutarch's life are sparse, and the name of his father has not been preserved, but it was probably Nikarchus, from the common habit of Greek families to repeat a name in alternate generations. The name of Plutarch's grandfather was Lamprias, as he attested in Moralia and in his Life of Antony. Through intense scrutiny of Plutarch’s writings, scholars have further ascertained that he married a woman named Timoxena, with whom he had at least two sons and a daughter. The daughter, named after her mother, sadly died when she was two-years old.

Plutarch studied mathematics and philosophy at the Academy of Athens under Ammonius, a much respected teacher and philosopher—and made a number of influential friends during this time. Among these were Quintus Sosius Senecio and Fundanus, both important senators, to whom some of Plutarch’s later writings were dedicated. He also travelled widely in the Mediterranean world, including central Greece, Sparta, Corinth, Sardis, Alexandria and two trips to Rome. At some point, though we are unsure exactly when, Plutarch took up Roman citizenship. As evidenced by his new name, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus, his sponsor for citizenship was Lucius Mestrius Florus, a Roman of consular status whom Plutarch also used as a historical source for his Life of Otho.

He lived most of his life at Chaeronea, and was initiated into the mysteries of the Greek god Apollo. Plutarch's duties as the senior of the two priests of Apollo at the Oracle of Delphi (where he was responsible for interpreting the auguries of the Pythia) apparently occupied little of his time however. He led an active social and civic life while producing an extensive body of writing, much of which is still extant. By his writings and lectures Plutarch became a celebrity in the Roman empire, yet he continued to reside where he was born, at Chaeronea, and actively participated in local affairs, even serving as mayor. At his country estate, guests from all over the empire congregated for serious conversation, presided over by Plutarch in his marble chair. Many of these dialogues were recorded and published, and the seventy-eight essays and other works which have survived are now known collectively as the Moralia.

The first biographical works to be written by Plutarch were the Lives of the Roman Emperors from Augustus to Vitellius. Of these, only the Lives of Galba and Otho survive. Plutarch’s best known work is the Parallel Lives; a series of biographies of famous Greeks and Romans, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues and vices. The surviving Lives contain twenty-three pairs, each with one Greek Life and one Roman Life, as well as four unpaired single Lives. As is explained in the opening paragraph of his Life of Alexander, Plutarch was not concerned with history so much as the influence of character, good or bad, on the lives and destinies of men. Whereas sometimes he barely touched on epoch-making events, he devoted much space to charming anecdote and incidental triviality, reasoning that this often said far more for his subjects than even their most famous accomplishments.

The remainder of Plutarch's surviving work is collected under the title of the Moralia (loosely translated as Customs and Mores). It is an eclectic collection of seventy-eight essays and transcribed speeches, which includes On Fraternal Affection—a discourse on honour and affection of siblings toward each other, On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander the Great—an important adjunct to his Life of the great king, On the Worship of Isis and Osiris (a crucial source of information on Egyptian religious rites), along with more philosophical treatises, such as On the Decline of the Oracles, On the Delays of the Divine Vengeance and lighter, more humorous writings such as Odysseus and Gryllus—an entertaining dialogue between Homer’s Odysseus and one of Circe’s enchanted pigs.

In addition to his duties as a priest of the Delphic temple and his prolific writing, Plutarch was also a magistrate in Chaeronea. He represented his home on various missions to foreign countries during his early adult years, but forever a consummate citizen, he busied himself with all the little matters of the town and undertook even the humblest of duties. According to the eighth/ninth century historian George Syncellus, late in Plutarch's life, the emperor Hadrian also appointed him nominal procurator of Achaea (a roman province, part of modern-day Greece). The veracity of this statement is still hotly contested however. Plutarch died between the years AD 119 and 127 (most likely AD 120; aged seventy-four) in Delphi, Phocis (Greece).

LIFE OF PELOPIDAS.

I. Cato the elder, speaking to some persons who were praising a man of reckless daring and audacity in war, observed that there is a difference between a man's setting a high value on courage, and setting a low value on his own life—and rightly. For a daring soldier in the army of Antigonus, but of broken and ill health, being asked by the king the reason of his paleness, confessed that he was suffering from some secret disorder. When then the king, anxious for him, charged his physicians to use the greatest care in their treatment, if a cure were possible, at length this brave fellow, being restored to health, was no longer fond of peril and furious in battle, so that Antigonus reproved him, and expressed surprise at the change. The man made no secret of his reason, but answered: "My, king, you have made me less warlike by freeing me from those miseries on account of which I used to hold my life cheap." And the Sybarite seems to have spoken to the same effect about the Spartans, when he said that "they do no great thing by dying in the wars in order to escape from such labours and such a mode of life as theirs." However, no wonder if the Sybarites, effete with luxurious debauchery, thought men mad who despised death for love of honour and noble emulation; whereas the Lacedæmonians were enabled by their valour both to live and to die with pleasure, as the elegy shows, which runs thus:

"'Twas not that life or death itself was good,That these heroic spirits shed their blood:This was their aim, and this their latest cry,'Let us preserve our honour, live or die.'"

For neither is avoidance of death blameable, if a man does not cling to his life from dishonourable motives; nor is exposure to peril honourable, if it springs from carelessness of life. For this reason Homer always brings the most daring and warlike heroes into battle well and beautifully armed, and the Greek lawgivers punish the man who throws away his shield, but not him who throws away his sword or spear, showing that it is each man's duty to take more care that he does not receive hurt himself, than to hurt the enemy, especially if he be the chief of an army or city.

II. For if, as Iphikrates defined it, the light troops resemble the hands, the cavalry the feet, the main body the breast and trunk, and the general the head, then it would appear that he, if he runs into danger and shows personal daring, risks not only his own life, but that of all those whose safety depends upon him; and vice versâ. Wherefore Kallikratidas, although otherwise a great man, yet did not make a good answer to the soothsayer; for when he begged him to beware of death, which was presaged by the sacrifices, he replied that Sparta had more men besides himself. No doubt, in fighting either by sea or land[1] Kallikratidas only counted for one, but as a general, he combined in his own person the strength of all the rest, so that he by whose death so many perished, was indeed more than one. A better answer was that of old Antigonus, who, as he was about to begin a sea-fight off Andros, some one having said that the enemy's fleet was the more numerous, asked, "And for how many do you count me?"—setting a high value, as is due, upon a skilful and brave leader, whose first duty is to keep safe him who preserves all the rest.

So Timotheus said well, when Chares was displaying to the Athenians the wounds on his body, and his shield pierced by a dart. "Now I," said he, "when I was besieging Samos, was quite ashamed if an arrow fell near me, thinking that I was exposing myself more boyishly than was fitting for the general and leader of so important a force." In cases where the personal risk of the general is of great moment to his army, then he must fight and expose himself without stint, and disregard those who say that a general should die of old age, or at any rate, when an old man. But where the gain is small in case of success, while failure ruins everything, no one demands that the work of the common soldier be performed at the risk of the general's life.

These prefatory remarks occurred to me in writing the Lives of Pelopidas and Marcellus, great men who fell in a manner scarce worthy of themselves: for being both of them most stout in battle, and having each illustrated his country by splendid campaigns, against, too, the most terrible antagonists—the one, as we read, having routed Hannibal, who before was invincible, and the other having in a pitched battle conquered the Lacedæmonians, the ruling state by sea and land—yet they without any consideration endangered themselves and flung away their lives just at the time when there was special need for such men to live and command. And on this account I have drawn a parallel between their lives, tracing out the points of resemblance between them.

III. The family of Pel...

Table of contents

• Plutarch
• LIFE OF PELOPIDAS.
• LIFE OF MARCELLUS.
• THE COMPARISON OF PELOPIDAS WITH MARCELLUS.
• LIFE OF ARISTEIDES.
• LIFE OF MARCUS CATO.
• COMPARISON OF ARISTEIDES AND CATO.
• LIFE OF PHILOPŒMEN.
• LIFE OF TITUS FLAMININUS.
• COMPARISON OF PHILOPŒMEN AND TITUS.
• LIFE OF PYRRHUS.
• LIFE OF CAIUS MARIUS.
• LIFE OF LYSANDER
• LIFE OF SULLA.
• COMPARISON OF LYSANDER AND SULLA
• LIFE OF KIMON.
• LIFE OF LUCULLUS.
• COMPARISON OF KIMON AND LUCULLUS.