Books by Plutarch

Plutarch (c. 45-120 CE) wrote on many subjects. His forty-six Parallel Lives are biographies planned to be ethical examples in pairs, one Greek figure and one similar Roman, though the last four lives are single. They not only record careers and illustrious deeds but also offer rounded portraits of statesmen, orators, and military leaders.

ONE OF THE FEW COMPLETE AND UNABRIDGED EDITIONS OF PLUTARCH'S LIVES--all fifty biographies, and eighteen comparisons."To be ignorant of the lives of the most celebrated men of antiquity is to continue in a state of childhood all our days." Plutarch"I would rather excel in the knowledge of what is excellent than in the extent of my power or possessions." Plutarch "Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech." Plutarch "To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future." Plutarch "It is part of a good man to do great and noble deeds, though he risk everything." Plutarch Plutarch's Lives is a brilliant collection of biographies by one of the greatest biographers and moralists of all time. By comparing a famous Roman with a famous Greek, Plutarch intended to provide model patterns of behaviour and to encourage mutual respect between Greeks and Romans. There are fifty biographies of famous soldiers, legislators, orators, and statesmen, and an additional eighteen comparisons. The form of Plutarch's Lives was new; he outlined the birth, youth, achievements, and death of his characters, followed by a formal comparison. The Lives display formidable learning and research. Plutarch is essentially a moralist whose aim is to edify the reader; destiny follows from character, which he illustrates by anecdotes. Plutarch (AD 46 -119 ) was a philosopher, teacher, and biographer, whose writing strongly influenced the evolution of the essay, the biography, and historical writing in Europe from the 16th to the 19th century, especially the work of Michel de Montaigne and William Shakespeare. He lived mostly in Greece, where he was a local magistrate, though he was a Roman citizen who knew the Emperors Trajan and Hadrian.

An outstanding new edition of Plutarch, the inventor of biography, focused on five lives that remade the Roman world.

Ideal Commonwealths is comprised of five writings on the ideal civilization including politics and social programs. Inspired by the philosophy of Plato and Socrates and often viewed as satirical, each essay each essay portrays an ideal form of human existence. Life of Lycurgus by Plutarch is a biography of Lycurgus, the legendary lawgiver of Sparta, who established the military-oriented reformation of Spartan society. All his reforms were directed towards the three Spartan virtues: equality, military fitness, and austerity.Utopia by the Tudor statesman and Catholic martyr, Sir Thomas More describes a communist society austerely dedicated to organized happiness. The New Atlantis by James I's Lord Chancellor, Sir Francis Bacon, describes a South Pacific community committed to scientific research; doing pioneering work in aeronautical and submarine technology and in genetic engineering. The City of the Sun by Tomaso Campanella, is located on an island in the Indian Ocean. This is one of the most important utopias, and may have influenced Bacon's New Atlantis.Mundus Alter et Idem by Joseph Hall is a satirical utopian fantasy in which the narrator takes a voyage in the ship Fantasia, in the southern seas.

ONE OF THE FEW COMPLETE AND UNABRIDGED EDITIONS OF PLUTARCH'S LIVES--all fifty biographies, and eighteen comparisons."I would rather excel in the knowledge of what is excellent than in the extent of my power or possessions." Plutarch "To be ignorant of the lives of the most celebrated men of antiquity is to continue in a state of childhood all our days." Plutarch "Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech." Plutarch "To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future." Plutarch "It is part of a good man to do great and noble deeds, though he risk everything." Plutarch Plutarch's Lives is a brilliant collection of biographies by one of the greatest biographers and moralists of all time. By comparing a famous Roman with a famous Greek, Plutarch intended to provide model patterns of behaviour and to encourage mutual respect between Greeks and Romans. There are fifty biographies of famous soldiers, legislators, orators, and statesmen, and an additional eighteen comparisons. The form of Plutarch's Lives was new; he outlined the birth, youth, achievements, and death of his characters, followed by a formal comparison. The Lives display formidable learning and research. Plutarch is essentially a moralist whose aim is to edify the reader; destiny follows from character, which he illustrates by anecdotes. Plutarch (AD 46 -119 ) was a philosopher, teacher, and biographer, whose writing strongly influenced the evolution of the essay, the biography, and historical writing in Europe from the 16th to the 19th century, especially the work of Michel de Montaigne and William Shakespeare. He lived mostly in Greece, where he was a local magistrate, though he was a Roman citizen who knew the Emperors Trajan and Hadrian.