Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans - Plutarch

Category: Autobiography & Biographies, Classic, History
Language: English
Keywords: Ancient Antiquity Biography Civilization Empire Europe European Greece Greek History Plutarch Roman Rome

Written by Plutarch
Read by Charlton Griffin
Format: M4B
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, commonly called Parallel Lives or Plutarch’s Lives, is a series of 48 biographies of famous men, arranged in tandem to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings, probably written at the beginning of the second century AD. The surviving Parallel Lives (Greek: Βίοι Παράλληλοι, Bíoi Parállēloi) comprises 23 pairs of biographies, each pair consisting of one Greek and one Roman of similar destiny, such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, or Demosthenes and Cicero. It is a work of considerable importance, not only as a source of information about the individuals described, but also about the times in which they lived.

Plutarch (c. AD 46-AD 120) was born to a prominent family in the small Greek town of Chaeronea, about 20 miles east of Delphi in the region known as Boeotia. His best known work is Parallel Lives, a series of biographies of famous Greeks and Romans, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues and vices. The surviving Lives contain 23 pairs, each with one Greek life and one Roman life as well as four unpaired single lives. Currently only 19 of the parallel lives end with comparisons while possibly all of them did at one time.

Plutarch was not concerned with history so much as the influence of character, good or bad, on the lives and destinies of men. Whereas sometimes he barely touched on epoch-making events, he devoted much space to charming anecdotes and incidental triviality, reasoning that this often revealed far more about his subjects than even their most famous accomplishments. In many ways he must be counted among the earliest moral philosophers.

This volume follows the translation of Arthur Hugh Clough and John Dryden.

The whole collection of audiobooks (mega.nz):

https://kutt.it/abmega