The Validity of Plutarch Essay

A Comparison of Plutarch's The Lives of the Ancient Grecians and Romans and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

When people wonder about Ancient Greece the first thing that comes to their minds is Greek mythology; gods and goddesses that have helped shape many historical events. “In ancient Greece, stories about gods and goddesses and heroes and monsters were an important part of everyday life.” (“Greek Mythology.”) The civilization showed that numerous characters and stories helped shape Greeks. The beliefs the Greeks had with mythologies was they understood the meaning behind all the characters that are known today. However, to the Greeks, they were not just characters, these were their gods and goddesses who gave them meaning and understanding of the world around them. Worshiping the gods and goddesses helped them with their religious rituals and the temperament of the weather. A famous wine-jar that was made during this time period was “Achilles killing the Amazon Queen Penthesilea, 540-530 BCE, black-figured amphora”. (Khan Academy) The civilization that they lived in grew around their worship and achievements.

Greece was a very high-class civilization, where the government was based on city-states. Perhaps their greatest invention of all was the form of government they came up with, which we still use today-democracy. However these Greek democracies are nothing like our democracy today. The probably most well known ruler of Greece was Alexander the Great. He was the leader of Macedonia, the city-state that took control over Greece, and he eventually gained control over Greece as a whole. Alexander the Great was probably the best leader of all time in Greece. He conquered new lands, but he was the first person to adopt the new land's customs, instead of forcing his customs on the new territory. This is why many of the civilizations he conquered actually were glad he took them over. He also encouraged his soldiers to marry the women from the new territories to show cultural involvement.

Plutarch's popularity rested upon his ability to avoid raising situations which people may find disquieting. Plutarch wrote freely and superficially, using a combination of anecdote and his own morals and ethics, to please the general audience.

Plutarch (45-120 AD), a Greek biographer and moral philosopher, is the author of Life of Antony: an ancient source chronicling the life and dealings of Mark Antony (83-30 BC). Part of a larger collection of biographies focused on prominent Roman and Greek figures, the Life of Antony was intended as a character study (Fear, 2008). Plutarch was exceedingly intrigued by the ways in which the personalities, integrities and shortcomings of legendary men influenced the path of history. Life of Antony is infamous for its amalgamation of history and myth (Kimball, 2000). In the modern sense, Plutarch would not be considered a true historian. However, the source gives notable insight into significant figures in Antony’s life in particular Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt (69-30 BC). It is considered the principal ancient source of Cleopatra’s life (Fear, 2008), detailing the effect Plutarch believed Cleopatra to have on Antony.

Plutarch was a well-known and respected historian, biographer, and philosopher. He held a very high status in society. He taught philosophy in Rome for some time and was granted high office by the royal family. When he returned to his native town in Greece, he was appointed as the Priest of Apollo. He wrote many philosophical essays as well as biographies of influential people during the times. This particular document was written by Plutarch as a biographical text about Pericles’ political influence in society during his time as a politician. He wrote this selection to thoroughly describe how Pericles used his platform to manipulate the people into giving him the opportunity to gain ultimate power.

Plutarch presented history through biographical stories of the people that were important and influential during the time period he wished to address. However, after having read some of his work, one realizes that Plutarch inserts his own personal opinion and views of the people at hand into the factual documentation of their lives. For example, in The Life of Crassus, Plutarch expresses a general dislike and negative view of the man, but in The Life of Caesar he portrays the life through a lens of praise. It also seems that he uses his opinions of the people that he writes about to subtly extend moral lessons to the reader. What follows is a further isolation of Plutarch's opinions and

The culture and political environment created by Alexander’s Empire made the competition of Greek city-states almost obsolete. This competition being gone helped to create a mentality more focused on being part of a vast Empire, rather than being the citizen of a certain city-state which had till this time been a predominate part of Greek culture and politics.

The Greek Empire was a time when people studied arts and mathematics, established democratic government, and built a massive army. The Greek Empire would give to the world many great works of art, philosophy, massive amounts of education in many fields, and influenced many government structures. Although much was gained from the Greek Empire, much darkness came with it. In order to have such great products of the Greek Empire, many suffered because of “progress”. Land was the most valuable item to the Greeks, mainly due to large populations and the need for agriculture. To acquire land, one would have to conquer other territories or “bully” those who occupied the land to willingly be ruled by Greece.

Plutarch, ethnically Greek, had a Latin name of Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus. By the time he was born, approximately midway through the first century AD, the Pax Romana existed for several decades. He was born in Greece, in a prominent town not far from the famous city of Delphi, known in Greek history for the famous oracles. Plutarch had many occupations

Plutarch outlines that Tiberius and his brother Gaius were ``the most gifted young men of their generation in Rome, their education was generally held to have a played a more important part than nature in forming their qualities.'' Plutarch further emphasises the prominence of Tiberius by stating, "Soon after reaching maturity, his fame was great enough to earn him entry into the so-called priesthood of augurs, an honor he owed to his excellence, rather than to his noble birth."

To conclude, Plutarch Roman Lives “Sulla” teaches the lessons of the effects of powers on people by showing what power had done to a man who was once a kind-hearted, compassionate citizen. Sulla’s change came in different life events including: his first victory that led him to be vain, the Social War and Mithridatic War that took away his compassion, and becoming a cruel leader of Rome. Maybe if everyone would have read Plutarch’s Lives, history would not have repeated itself with leaders like Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, and today’s Kim Jong Un.

Classical Greek culture had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts of the Mediterranean region and Europe. Greek culture influenced the development of Roman civilization because at first Rome absorbed ideas from Greek colonists in southern Italy, and they continued to borrow from Greek culture after they conquered Greece. Ancient Greece has had an enormous amount of impact on culture in the western world. For this reason, Classical Greece is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the foundation of Western civilization. Rome conquered the Greek empire and its civilization, but Greek culture conquered imperial Rome. Furthermore, the Romans willingly

The last Olympic swimmer just touched the wall and the race has ended. Cameras are replaying every single movement from the race and a winner has been clearly decided. Just as these Olympic swimmers will gain a medal for placing, ancient Athens had numerous accomplishments of its own. Athens “prosperity … was due in large part to its stable and effective government” (SOURCE 1). When analyzing the history of ancient Athens, is easy to see how the accomplishments of a democracy, Greek philosophy, and Greek literature all shape Athens.

Plato was among the most important and creative thinkers of the ancient world. He was born in Athens in 428 BC to an aristocratic and well-off family. Even as a young child Plato was familiar with political life because his father, Ariston was the last king of Athens. Ariston died when Plato was a young boy. However, the excessive Athenian political life, which was under the oligarchical rule of the Thirty Tyrants and the restored democracy, seem to have forced him to give up any ambitions of political life. In 388 BC he journeyed to Italy and Sicily, where he became the friend of Dionysius the ruler of Syracuse, and his brother-in-law Dion. The following year he returned to Athens, where he devoted his