Book description
Dramatic artist, natural scientist and philosopher, Plutarch is widely
regarded as the most significant historian of his era, writing sharp and
succinct accounts of the greatest politicians and statesman of the
classical period. Taken from the Lives, a series of biographies spanning
the Graeco-Roman age, this collection illuminates the twilight of the
old Roman Republic from 157-43 bc. Whether describing the would-be
dictators Marius and Sulla, the battle between Crassus and Spartacus,
the death of political idealist Crato, Julius Caesar's harrowing triumph
in Gaul or the eloquent oratory of Cicero, all offer a fascinating
insight into an empire wracked by political divisions. Deeply
influential on Shakespeare and many other later writers, they continue
to fascinate today with their exploration of corruption, decadence and
the struggle for ultimate power.
Plutarch (c. 50-c. 120 AD) was a writer and thinker born into a
wealthy, established family of Chaeronea in central Greece. His
voluminous surviving writings are broadly divided into the 'moral'
works and the Parallel Lives of outstanding Greek and Roman leaders.
The former (Moralia) are a mixture of rhetorical and antiquarian
pieces, together with technical and moral philosophy (sometimes in
dialogue form). The Lives have been influential from the Renaissance onwards.
Robin Seager is a Reader in Classics and Ancient History at the
University of Liverpool and the author of a biography of Pompey.
Rex Warner (translator) translated widely from Latin and Greek
including, for Penguin, Xenophon, Thucydides and Plutarch.
