Plutarch Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~750,000 words · 3,583 passages
Cite this work
- APAPlutarch. (n.d.). Plutarch Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/plutarch/plutarch-lives-of-the-noble-grecians-and-romans
- MLAPlutarch. Plutarch Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/plutarch/plutarch-lives-of-the-noble-grecians-and-romans.
- ChicagoPlutarch. Plutarch Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/plutarch/plutarch-lives-of-the-noble-grecians-and-romans.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
Twenty-three paired lives, one Greek and one Roman, set against each other: Alexander with Caesar, Demosthenes with Cicero.
Context and history
Plutarch wrote them in the early second century and warns that he is not writing history but lives: a small gesture or a phrase, he says, reveals character better than a battle with thousands of dead. Through North's English translation they reached Shakespeare, who drew Julius Caesar, Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra from them almost scene by scene.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
those that were to be sent, there arose fresh discontents and accusations against Aegeus among the people, who were full of grief and indignation that he, who was the cause of all their miseries, was the only person exempt from the punishment; adopting and settling his kingdom upon a bastard and foreign son, he took no thought, they said, of their destitution and loss, not of bastards, but lawful children. These things sensibly affected Theseus, who, thinking it but just not to disregard, but rather partake of, the sufferings of his fellow citizens, offered himself for one without any lot. All else were struck with admiration for the nobleness and with love for the goodness of the act; and Aegeus, after prayers and entreaties, finding him inflexible and not to be persuaded, proceeded to the choosing of the rest by lot. Hellanicus, however, tells us that the Athenians did not send the young men and virgins by lot, but that Minos himself used to come and make his own choice, and pitched upon Theseus before all others; according to the conditions agreed upon between them, namely, that the Athenians should furnish them with a ship, and that the young men that were to sail with him should carry no weapon of war; but that if the Minotaur was destroyed, the tribute should cease. On the two former occasions of the payment of the tribute, entertaining no hopes of safety or return, they sent out the ship with a black sail, as to unavoidable destruction; but now, Theseus encouraging his father and speaking greatly of himself, as confident that he should kill the Minotaur, he gave the pilot another sail, which was white, commanding him, as he returned, if Theseus were safe, to make use of that; but if not, to sail with the black one, and to hang out that sign of his misfortune.…