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Plutarch: Plutarch's Lives
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Plutarch is the most famous biographer of the ancient world and the author of a famous collection now known as Plutarch's Lives. Plutarch's original title was Parallel Lives of Famous Greeks and Romans, and that describes his unique approach: the biographies are presented in pairs, the life of one Greek contrasted with that of a similar Roman. Plutarch's subjects were statesmen, generals and public figures including Alexander the Great, Solon, Pyrrhus and Marc Antony, and together the biographies present a basic history of all Greece and Rome up to Plutarch's times. Hence Plutarch has been a favorite of scholars and schoolteachers for centuries. Plutarch's other famous work is the Morals, a collection of essays on topics ranging from religion and zoology to marriage.
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The Loeb Classical Library's Plutarch's Lives, translated by Bernadotte Perrin (11 vols., 1914-1926), is indispensable, as is the Loeb's Plutarch's Moralia, translated by Frank Cole Babbitt and others (15 vols., 1927-1969). An exhaustive and still essential study is Bishop Richard C. Trench, Plutarch: His Life, His Lives and His Morals (1873), which remained the primary study until Reginald Haynes Barrow, Plutarch and His Times (1967). C. J. Gianakaris, Plutarch (1970), is a convenient synthesis and appraisal which contains an extensive bibliography. A work on Plutarch's moral interests is George D. Hadzsits, Prolegomena to a Study of the Ethical Ideal of Plutarch and of the Greeks of the First Century A.D. (1906); and on religion, John Oakesmith, The Religion of Plutarch (1902).
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Discussion of Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans. Intended for non-specialists reading Plutarch for personal enrichment and to garner leadership lessons from the live of the most powerful and successful men and women of the ancient world. Professional scholars are welcome to contribute. Also for discussion of Plutarch's Moralia.
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Plutarch's Lives were translated into English, from Amyot's version, by Sir Thomas North in 1579. The complete Moralia was first translated into English from the original Greek by Philemon Holland (q.v.) in 1603.
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There is ... a great danger in taking "Plutarch's Lives" with children. Plutarch places himself in the position of his heroes; he takes their point of view, and often seems only a little indulgently amused by clever roguery. This danger can easily be avoided by a few words from the teacher, an intonation in the voice when reading the passages, and then instead of presenting injurious ideas, the passage will only strengthen good and helpful ideas. For example, in the "Life of Alcibiades":--
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Plutarch's Lives