Parallel Lives Vol. 4 - Plutarch Plutarch

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Résumé :
Parallel Lives Vol. 4 presents the concluding portion of Plutarch's great work of classical biography, pairing Greek and Roman public figures in a searching study of character, leadership, ambition, virtue, and failure. Known for centuries in English as Plutarch's Lives, the work examines statesmen, soldiers, reformers, rulers, orators, and rebels not merely as historical figures, but as moral examples. Plutarch is concerned with the habits, choices, strengths, and weaknesses that shape public action and leave their mark on history. This SMK edition is suited to readers of classical literature, ancient history, Greek and Roman biography, political thought, moral philosophy, and the long tradition of civic education shaped by Plutarch's work. Parallel Lives influenced Shakespeare, Renaissance humanists, Enlightenment thinkers, statesmen, historians, and generations of readers because it treats biography as a way to understand power, judgment, courage, vanity, patriotism, and consequence. For anyone interested in Greece, Rome, leadership, virtue, and the classical tradition, Volume 4 continues one of the central monuments of ancient biographical writing....

Biographie:
Plutarch (c. AD 46 - c. 120), later named, upon becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus, was a Greek biographer and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. Plutarch was born to a prominent family in the small town of Chaeronea, about 80 kilometres (50 mi) east of Delphi, in the Greek region of Boeotia. Plutarch studied mathematics and philosophy at the Academy of Athens under Ammonius. Plutarch lived most of his life at Chaeronea, and was initiated into the mysteries of the Greek god Apollo. For many years Plutarch served as one of the two priests at the temple of Apollo at Delphi, the site of the famous Delphic Oracle, twenty miles from his home. He probably took part in the Eleusinian Mysteries. By his writings and lectures Plutarch became a celebrity in the Roman Empire, yet he continued to reside where he was born, 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. Plutarch was also a magistrate at Chaeronea and he represented his home town on various missions to foreign countries during his early adult years. Plutarch held the office of archon in his native municipality, probably only an annual one which he likely served more than once. He busied himself with all the little matters of the town and undertook the humblest of duties.

Sommaire:
Plutarch, also known as Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus, was a Greek biographer, essayist, philosopher, and priest at Delphi who lived during the first and second centuries AD. Born in Chaeronea in Boeotia, he was educated in Greek philosophy and became one of antiquity's most important writers of moral biography. His best-known work, Parallel Lives, commonly known in English as Plutarch's Lives, presents paired biographies of Greek and Roman figures, using their careers to examine character, virtue, ambition, leadership, political judgment, and moral failure.Plutarch's influence on Western literature and political thought has been immense. His biographies shaped Renaissance and Enlightenment ideas of civic virtue, supplied Shakespeare and other writers with historical material, and remained central to classical education for centuries. Unlike a modern historian concerned only with chronology or evidence, Plutarch wrote to reveal the moral pattern of a life. His portraits of generals, statesmen, reformers, orators, rulers, and rebels remain essential reading for students of ancient Greece, ancient Rome, classical biography, moral philosophy, and the history of political leadership....