Plutarch's Lives: Exploring Virtue and Vice

This is a study of a set of biographies of Greek and Roman statesmen. They were written when Roman power was at its height, and are examples of a renaissance classicism which formed a Greek reaction to Roman domination. They explore issues of psychology, education, morality, and cultural identity.
The "Parallel Lives" of Plutarch (c. AD 45-120), a vast retrospective series of biographies of Greek and Roman statesmen, have always been one of the most widely read of the works which survive from classical antiquity. They were written when Roman imperial power was reaching its height, and are sophisticated examples of a renaissance classicism, both linguistic, literary, philosophical and historical, which formed a Greek reaction to Roman domination. The "Parallel Lives" thus offers an insight into the reception of Classical Greece and Republican Rome in the Greek world of the second century AD. They also explore and challenge issues of psychology, education, morality, and cultural identity. In this study discussions of Plutarch's literary techniques and moral conceptions are combined with case studies of a number of paired Lives (Pyrrhos - Marius, Phokion - Cato Minor, Lysander - Sulla, and Coriolanus - Alkibiades). As the author demonstrates, the parallel structure of the "Lives" is not only vital to their interpretation but also reflects a Greek attempt to appropriate and make sense of the pasts of both Greece and Rome.