Commentary

[in chronological order]

Plutarch’s Politics: Between City and Empire by Hugh Liebert

- Liebert, Hugh. Plutarch’s Politics: Between City and Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.
Plutarch’s Lives were once treasured. Today they are studied by classicists, known vaguely, if at all, by the educated public, and are virtually unknown to students of ancient political thought. The central claim of this book is that Plutarch shows how… More

Plutarch and His Roman Readers

- Stadter, P. (2015) Plutarch and His Roman Readers. Oxford.
In his Parallel Lives, Plutarch presented to educated Greek and Roman readers, but especially to leading men of the Roman imperial administration, the moral issues he recognized behind political leadership. The chapters in this book examine his presentation… More

A Companion to Plutarch

- Beck, M., ed. (2014) A Companion to Plutarch. Chichester, West Sussex.
From the publisher: A Companion to Plutarch offers a broad survey of the famous historian and biographer; a coherent, comprehensive, and elegant presentation of Plutarch’s thought and influence Constitutes the first survey of its kind, a unified and… More

The Passionate Statesman by Jeferey Beneker

- Beneker, Jeffrey. The Passionate Statesman: Eros and Politics in Plutarch’s Lives. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
From the publisher: An analysis of Plutarch’s method of interpreting history through the lens of moral virtue, and then using those interpretations to create ethical biography Includes a detailed reading of the Lives of Demetrius and Marc Antony as a… More

Alexander the Great and the History of Globalization

- Liebert, H. (2011) “Alexander the Great and the History of Globalization.” The Review of Politics 73: 1-28.
Abstract: Alexander the Great is often understood to be the first statesman to attempt a “universal state,” owing in large part to his philosophical education under Aristotle. This picture of Alexander informs many of his depictions in popular… More

Hôsper en esoptrôi: The Rhetoric and Philosophy of Plutarch’s Mirrors

- Zadorojnyi, A. V. (2010) “Hôsper en esoptrôi: The Rhetoric and Philosophy of Plutarch’s Mirrors.” In Humble (2010) 169-95.
Excerpt: It will be argued that the programmatic self-referential announcement in Aemilius 1.1-3 is mooted as a ‘readerly’ solution to the deeply entrenched controversy about the epistemological and paideutic value of the mirror. In the last… More

A Partial Cure for the Political Epicurean: Plutarch’s Advice to the Statesman’s Friend

- Shiffman, M.(2010) “A Partial Cure for the Political Epicurean: Plutarch’s Advice to the Statesman’s Friend.” Polis 27: 308-31.
Abstract: Plutarch’s epistolary essay, “That a Philosopher ought to Converse especially with Men in Power”, has been neglected because not recognized for what it is: an attempt to persuade an addressee attached to Epicurean principles that… More

Plutarch’s ‘Tale of Two Cities’

- Pelling, C. B. R.(2010) “Plutarch’s ‘Tale of Two Cities.’” In Humble (2010) 217-35.
Excerpt: One Life is not enough. A Plutarch Life is always a rounded and carefully structured work, but that is not the only artistic unit that matters. The most obvious larger unit is the pair: this whole volume is testimony to how much synkrisis matters… More

Plutarch’s Lives: Parallelism and Purpose

- Humble, N. (2010) Plutarch’s Lives: Parallelism and Purpose. Swansea.
From publisher: Plutarch’s Parallel Lives were written to compare famous Greeks and Romans. This most obvious aspect of their parallelism is frequently ignored in the drive to mine Plutarch for historical fact. However, the eleven contributors to the… More

Plutarch among the Postcolonialists

- Shiffman, M. (2008) “Plutarch among the Postcolonialists.” Perspectives on Politics 37: 223-30.
Abstract: Postcolonial interpreters of Plutarch attempt to resolve apparent contradictions between the rhetoric of the Lives and Plutarch’s attitudes toward Roman dominion by invoking conscious and unconscious tensions incident to the identity politics… More

Models of Education in Plutarch

- Duff, T. (2008) “Models of Education in Plutarch.” Journal of Hellenic Studies 128: 1-26.
Excerpt: This paper examines Plutarch’s treatment of education in the Parallel Lives. Beginning with a close reading of Them. 2, it identifies two distinct ways in which Plutarch exploits the education of his subjects: in the first, a subject’s… More

Dion and Brutus: Philosopher Kings Adrift in a Hostile World

- Dillon, J. (2010 [2008]) “Dion and Brutus: Philosopher Kings Adrift in a Hostile World.” In Plutarch’s Lives: Parallelism and Purpose. ed. N. Humble, 87-102. Swansea.
Excerpt: To be a philosopher king without a kingdom is indeed a sorry fate. As Plato puts it in Book 6 of the Republic(496cd), when describing the problems facing the enlightened philosopher in contemporary (Athenian democratic) society: And those who have… More

With Unperfumed Voice: Studies in Plutarch, in Greek Literature, Religion and Philosophy, and in the New Testament Background

- Brenk. F. E. (2007) With Unperfumed Voice: Studies in Plutarch, in Greek Literature, Religion and Philosophy, and in the New Testament Background. Stuttgart.
From the publisher: Classical scholars tend to work with a narrow focus, specialising on particular subject areas. Frederick Brenk is an exception: he is still a specialist, but, as this third volume of his collected essays makes clear, a multiple specialist,… More

The Statesman in Plutarch’s Works

- De Blois, L., J. Bons, T. Kessels, and D. M. Schenkeveld. (2004-5) The Statesman in Plutarch’s Works. 2 vols. Leiden and Boston.
From the publisher: The proceedings of the Sixth International Conference of the International Plutarch Society (2002). The selected papers are divided by theme in sections concentrating on political, philosophical, and literary aspects of Plutarch’s… More

Plutarch and History

- Pelling, C. B. R. (2002) Plutarch and History. London.
Much of ancient history can only be written thanks to evidence supplied by Plutarch. The historical methods and qualities of this vital source were for long subjected to little systematic analysis. However, over the last two decades an authoritative and… More

Greek Literature and the Roman Empire: The Politics of Imitation

- Whitmarsh, T. (2001) Greek Literature and the Roman Empire. Oxford.
Greek Literature and the Roman Empire uses up-to-date literary and cultural theory to explore the phenomenal rise of interest in literary writing in Greece under the Roman Empire. Greek identity cannot be properly understood without appreciating the brilliant… More

Nature, Woman and the Art of Politics

- Crawford, M. B. (2000b) “Plutarch on Philosophic Eros and Married Life." In Nature, Woman and the Art of Politics. Ed. E. A. Velásquez, 115-36. Lanham, MD.
Excerpt: Montaigne holds out the possibility of a full-fledged friendship between men and women that would engage both the body and the soul, only to dismiss it on the authority of the ancients. Yet the “common agreement of the ancient schools”… More

Plutarch on Women

- Walcot, P. (1999) “Plutarch on Women.” Symbolae Osloenses 74 (1): 163-83.
The evidence offered by the Lives and the Moralia shows that Plutarch had a low opinion of women, regarding them as being deceitful, savage, sexually insatiable, frivolous and gossips. Women are thought to be weak and to need to be protected, from themselves… More

Plutarch’s Lives: Exploring Virtue and Vice

- Duff, T. (1999) Plutarch’s Lives: Exploring Virtue and Vice. Oxford.
From the publisher: 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… More

Plutarch and His Intellectual World.

- Mossman, J., ed. (1997) Plutarch and His Intellectual World. Swansea.
From the publisher: Thirteen essays which examine Plutarch in his own right, rather than as a source for earlier periods. Papers include: Hadrian, Favorinus and Plutarch (Ewen Bowie); Plutarch’s de Stoicorum repugnantiis (George Boys-Stones); Family and… More

Plutarch and the End of History

- Dillon, J. (1997) “Plutarch and the End of History.” In Plutarch and His Intellectual World ed. J. Mossman, 235-40. Swansea.
Excerpt: This essay is provoked, as its title implies, by a reading of Francis Fukuyama’s recent controversial work,The End of History. It was also stimulated by my attendance at the June 1993 conference of the International Plutarch Society in Siena, on… More

Hellenism and Empire: Language, Classicism, and Power in the Greek World AD 50-250

- Swain, S. (1996) Hellenism and Empire: Language, Classicism, and Power in the Greek World AD 50-250. Oxford.
Hellenism and Empire explores identity, politics, and culture in the Greek world of the first three centuries AD, the period known as the second sophistic. The sources of this identity were the words and deeds of classical Greece, and the emphasis placed on… More

Histoire et morale dans les Vies parallèles de Plutarque

- Frazier, F. (1996) Histoire et morale dans les Vies parallèles de Plutarque. Paris.
« L’histoire des grands hommes est comme un miroir que je regarde pour tâcher en quelque mesure de régler ma vie et de me conformer à l’image de leur vertu. M’occuper d’eux, c’est, ce me semble, comme si j’habitais et vivais avec eux,… More

A Further Note on Certain of Hamilton’s Pseudonyms: The ‘Love of Fame’ and the Use of Plutarch

- Owens, M. T. (1984) “A Further Note on Certain of Hamilton’s Pseudonyms: The ‘Love of Fame’ and the Use of Plutarch.” Journal of the Early Republic 4: 275-86.
Excerpt: Those who study the early republic owe a debt of gratitude to Douglass Adair for his rediscovery of the principle of fame in his article, “Fame and the Founding Fathers.”‘ He and his col- league Gerald Stourzh were the first to show… More

À propos de la Politique de Plutarque

- Carrière, J.-C. (1977) “À propos de la Politique de Plutarque.” Dialogues d'histoire ancienne 3(1): 237-51.
Excerpt: L’exposé de Cécile Panagopoulos, en mettant en contact un texte littéraire et des inscriptions, montre avec beaucoup de force comment l’un et les autres représentent une même tentative pour ériger en modèle le système de… More

Fame and the Founding Fathers

- Adair, D. (1974) “Fame and the Founding Fathers.” In Fame and the Founding Fathers, ed. T. Colbourn, 3-26. New York.
From the publisher: The fifteen articles, essays, notes, and documents gathered in this collection are a permanent contribution to study of the American founding. As teacher, critic, and editor of the William & Mary Quarterly, Adair demonstrated what… More

Plutarch

- Russell, D. A. (1973) Plutarch. New York.
A general introduction to Plutarch which aims “to explain what it is like to read Plutarch” (Preface). The book begins with a survey of Plutarch’s life.

Plutarch and Rome by C.P. Jones

- Jones, C. P. Plutarch and Rome. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971.
This brief book consists of two parts. The first discusses Plutarch’s life and the society in which he moved. The second treats of his attitude towards Rome through his writings.