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121-436: As is the case with many other major poets of ancient Greece, Ibycus became famous not just for his poetry but also for events in his life, largely the stuff of legend: the testimonia are difficult to interpret and very few biographical facts are actually known. The Byzantine encyclopaedia Suda represents a good example of a problematic biography, here translated by David Campbell: Ibycus: son of Phytius; but some say son of

242-526: A Pythagorean lawgiver of Rhegium known as Phytius, but the early 6th century is too early for this candidate also. Ibycus gives no indication of being a Pythagorean himself, except in one poem he identifies the Morning Star with the Evening Star, an identity first popularized by Pythagoras. Ibycus provided the first attestation of an historical Thracian or Thraco-Dacian bard Orpheus , purported composer of

363-470: A deserted place he declared that the cranes which happened to be flying overhead would be his avengers; he was murdered, but afterwards one of the bandits saw some cranes in the city and exclaimed, "Look, the avengers of Ibycus!" Someone overheard and followed up his words: the crime was confessed and the bandits paid the penalty; whence the proverbial expression, "the cranes of Ibycus". Suda's chronology has been dismissed as "muddled" since it makes Ibycus about

484-505: A generation older than Anacreon , another poet known to have flourished at the court of Polycrates, and it is inconsistent with what we know of the Samian tyrant from Herodotus . Eusebius recorded the poet's first experience of fame ("agnoscitur") somewhere between 542 and 537 BC and this better fits the period of Polycrates' reign. Suda's account seems to be corroborated by a papyrus fragment ( P.Oxy. 1790), usually ascribed to Ibycus, glorifying

605-482: A man, for instance, was Acilius, who, in the sea-fight at Massalia, boarded a hostile ship and had his right hand cut off with a sword, but clung with the other hand to his shield, and dashing it into the faces of his foes, routed them all and got possession of the vessel. Such a man, again, was Cassius Scaeva, who, in the battle at Dyrrhachium, had his eye struck out with an arrow, his shoulder transfixed with one javelin and his thigh with another, and received on his shield

726-709: A modern reader who is not well acquainted with Greek is, that being but a moderate stylist, Plutarch is almost as good in a translation as in the original." Jacques Amyot 's translations brought Plutarch's works to Western Europe. He went to Italy and studied the Vatican text of Plutarch, from which he published a French translation of the Lives in 1559 and Moralia in 1572, which were widely read by educated Europe. Amyot's translations had as deep an impression in England as France, because Thomas North later published his English translation of

847-511: A moral-ethical approach, possibly even by Plutarch himself. Plutarch's best-known work is the Parallel Lives , a series of biographies of illustrious Greeks and Romans, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues and vices, thus it being more of an insight into human nature than a historical account. The surviving Lives contain 23 pairs, each with one Greek life and one Roman life, as well as four unpaired single lives. As

968-579: A new vision or recusatio . He composed like Stesichorus in a literary language, largely Epic with some Doric flavouring, and with a few Aeolisms that he borrowed from the love poetry of Sappho and Alcaeus. It is possible however that the Doric dialect was added by editors in Hellenistic and Roman times, when the poet's home town, Rhegium, had become more Doric than it had been in the poet's own time. In addition to this "superficial element of Doric dialect",

1089-443: A painter; indeed, he went to tremendous lengths (often leading to tenuous comparisons) to draw parallels between physical appearance and moral character . In many ways, he must be counted amongst the earliest moral philosophers . Some of the Lives , such as those of Heracles , Philip II of Macedon , Epaminondas , Scipio Africanus , Scipio Aemilianus and possibly Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus no longer exist; many of

1210-454: A passage from Plutarch in support of his position against eating meat: " 'You ask me', said Plutarch, 'why Pythagoras abstained from eating the flesh of beasts... ' " Ralph Waldo Emerson and the transcendentalists were greatly influenced by the Moralia and in his glowing introduction to the five-volume, 19th-century edition, he called the Lives "a bible for heroes". He also opined that it

1331-550: A priest of the Delphic temple , Plutarch was also a magistrate at Chaeronea and he represented his home town on various missions to foreign countries during his early adult years. Plutarch held the office of archon in his native municipality, probably only an annual one which he likely served more than once. Plutarch was epimeletes (manager) of the Amphictyonic League for at least five terms, from 107 to 127, in which role he

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1452-411: A pure idea of God that was more in accordance with Plato . He adopted a second principle ( Dyad ) in order to explain the phenomenal world. This principle he sought, however, not in any indeterminate matter but in the evil world-soul which has from the beginning been bound up with matter, but in the creation was filled with reason and arranged by it. Thus it was transformed into the divine soul of

1573-469: A series of translations by various scholars in 1958 with The Fall of the Roman Republic , which contained six Lives and was translated by Rex Warner. Penguin continues to revise the volumes. Note that only the main translations from the second half of 15th century are given. There are multiple translations of Parallel Lives into Latin, most notably the one titled "Pour le Dauphin" (French for "for

1694-505: A watery marsh, a soldier, while Caesar in person was watching the battle, dashed into the midst of the fight, displayed many conspicuous deeds of daring, and rescued the centurions, after the Barbarians had been routed. Then he himself, making his way with difficulty after all the rest, plunged into the muddy current, and at last, without his shield, partly swimming and partly wading, got across. Caesar and his company were amazed and came to meet

1815-455: A youthful Polycrates, but this was unlikely to have been the Polycrates of Samos and might instead have been his son, mentioned in a different context by Himerius as Polycrates, governor of Rhodes. Suda's list of fathers of Ibycus also presents problems: there were no historians in the early 6th century and Cerdas looks like an invention of the comic stage (it has low associations). There was

1936-411: Is a later interpolation. Plutarch's treatise on marriage questions, addressed to Eurydice and Pollianus, seems to speak of the former as having recently lived in his house, but without any clear evidence on whether she was his daughter or not. Plutarch was either the uncle or grandfather of Sextus of Chaeronea who was one of the teachers of Marcus Aurelius , and who may have been the same person as

2057-450: Is also probable that it was merely a rhetorical exercise, in which Plutarch plays devil's advocate to see what could be said against so favourite and well-known a writer. According to Barrow (1967), Herodotus' real failing in Plutarch's eyes was to advance any criticism at all of the city-states that saved Greece from Persia. Barrow concluded that "Plutarch is fanatically biased in favor of

2178-562: Is dedicated to them. It is likely that a third son, named Soklaros after Plutarch's confidant Soklaros of Tithora, survived to adulthood as well, although he is not mentioned in Plutarch's later works; a Lucius Mestrius Soclarus, who shares Plutarch's Latin family name, appears in an inscription in Boeotia from the time of Trajan . Traditionally, the surviving catalog of Plutarch's works is ascribed to another son, named Lamprias after Plutarch's grandfather; most modern scholars believe this tradition

2299-461: Is depicted at a relatively young age: His hair and beard are rendered in coarse volumes and thin incisions. The gaze is deep, due to the heavy eyelids and the incised pupils. A fragmentary hermaic stele next to the portrait probably did once bear a portrait of Plutarch, since it is inscribed, "The Delphians, along with the Chaeroneans, dedicated this (image of) Plutarch, following the precepts of

2420-494: Is explained in the opening paragraph of his Life of Alexander , 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 anecdote and incidental triviality, reasoning that this often said far more for his subjects than even their most famous accomplishments. He sought to provide rounded portraits, likening his craft to that of

2541-518: Is fragments of 7th-century lyrics – Plutarch's five Spartan lives and "Sayings of Spartans" and "Sayings of Spartan Women", rooted in sources that have since disappeared, are some of the richest sources for historians of Lacedaemonia . While they are important, they are also controversial. Plutarch lived centuries after the Sparta he writes about (and a full millennium separates him from the earliest events he records); and even though he visited Sparta, many of

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2662-488: Is its close connection with religion. However pure Plutarch's idea of God is, and however vivid his description of the vice and corruption which superstition causes, his warm religious feelings and his distrust of human powers of knowledge led him to believe that God comes to our aid by direct revelations, which we perceive the more clearly the more completely that we refrain in "enthusiasm" from all action; this made it possible for him to justify popular belief in divination in

2783-438: Is not always an indication of virtue or vice, indeed a small thing like a phrase or a jest often makes a greater revelation of a character than battles where thousands die." Life of Alexander The remainder of Plutarch's surviving work is collected under the title of the Moralia (loosely translated as Customs and Mores ). It is an eclectic collection of seventy-eight essays and transcribed speeches, including "Concerning

2904-553: Is shown in the following translation: This mythological account of his lover recalls Hesiod 's account of Pandora , who was decked out by the same goddesses (the Graces, the Seasons and Persuasion) so as to be a bane to mankind—an allusion consistent with Ibycus's view of love as unavoidable turmoil. The following poem was quoted by the ancient scholar Athenaeus in his wide-ranging discourses Scholars at Dinner and it demonstrates some of

3025-556: Is unique on the early Roman calendar . Plutarch devotes a great deal of space to Alexander's drive and desire, and strives to determine how much of it was presaged in his youth. He also draws extensively on the work of Lysippos , Alexander's favourite sculptor , to provide what is probably the fullest and most accurate description of the conqueror's physical appearance. When it comes to his character, Plutarch emphasizes his unusual degree of self-control and scorn for luxury: "He desired not pleasure or wealth, but only excellence and glory." As

3146-535: The Orphic Hymns ; ("The earliest literary reference to Orpheus is a two-word fragment of the 6th century BC lyric poet Ibycus of Samos : onomaklyton Orphēn ('Orpheus famous-of-name')."), whose name might indicate an origin in slavery { Orpheus#Etymology }. Not incidentally, enslavenemnt of Thraco-Dacians in Samos , in particular, is also (dimly) attested by the history of another such personnage who rose to prominence among

3267-530: The Battle of Kleidon the Bulgarian forces were completely defeated. and captured. According to medieval legends, 99 out of every 100 Bulgarian soldiers were blinded and the hundredth remaining man was left with one eye so as to lead his compatriots home; reportedly when the aging Tsar Samuil of Bulgaria saw the remains of his once formidable army, he died of a heart attack. In 1018 Bulgaria surrendered and became part of

3388-577: The Eastern Orthodox Church and the Western Catholic Church would have wide-ranging consequences for the future of Europe and Christianity. Plutarch Plutarch ( / ˈ p l uː t ɑːr k / ; Ancient Greek : Πλούταρχος , Ploútarchos ; Koinē Greek : [ˈplúːtarkʰos] ; c.  AD 46 – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at

3509-678: The Flavian dynasty or during the reign of Nerva (AD 96–98). There is reason to believe that the two Lives still extant, those of Galba and Otho, "ought to be considered as a single work." Therefore, they do not form a part of the Plutarchian canon of single biographies – as represented by the Life of Aratus of Sicyon and the Life of Artaxerxes II (the biographies of Hesiod , Pindar , Crates and Daiphantus were lost). Unlike in these biographies, in Galba-Otho

3630-667: The Hagia Sophia during Divine Liturgy on a Saturday afternoon and placed a bull of ex-communication on the altar, the so-called Great Schism was a culmination of centuries of gradual separation. Although the schism was brought about by doctrinal disputes (in particular, Eastern refusal to accept the Western Church doctrine of the filioque , or double procession of the Holy Spirit ), disputes over administration and political issues had simmered for centuries. The formal separation of

3751-422: The Lives in 1579 based on Amyot's French translation instead of the original Greek. Plutarch's Lives were translated into English, from Amyot's version, by Sir Thomas North in 1579. The complete Moralia was first translated into English from the original Greek by Philemon Holland in 1603. In 1683, John Dryden began a life of Plutarch and oversaw a translation of the Lives by several hands and based on

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3872-461: The Lives . Enough copies were written out over the centuries so that a copy of most of the lives has survived to the present day, but there are traces of twelve more Lives that are now lost. Plutarch's general procedure for the Lives was to write the life of a prominent Greek, then cast about for a suitable Roman parallel, and end with a brief comparison of the Greek and Roman lives. Currently, only 19 of

3993-614: The Moralia include "Whether One Who Suspends Judgment on Everything Is Condemned to Inaction", "On Pyrrho 's Ten Modes", and "On the Difference between the Pyrrhonians and the Academics ". "The soul , being eternal, after death is like a caged bird that has been released. If it has been a long time in the body, and has become tame by many affairs and long habit, the soul will immediately take another body and once again become involved in

4114-545: The Temple of Apollo in Delphi . He is known primarily for his Parallel Lives , a series of biographies of illustrious Greeks and Romans, and Moralia , a collection of essays and speeches. Upon becoming a Roman citizen , he was possibly named Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus ( Λούκιος Μέστριος Πλούταρχος ). Plutarch was born to a prominent family in the small town of Chaeronea , about 30 kilometres (19 mi) east of Delphi , in

4235-754: The 1920s and the 1940s, a complete translation was published in three volumes by the Bialik Institute in 1954, 1971 and 1973. The first volume, Roman Lives , first published in 1954, presents the translations of Joseph G. Liebes to the biographies of Coriolanus , Fabius Maximus , Tiberius Gracchus and Gaius Gracchus , Cato the Elder and Cato the Younger , Gaius Marius , Sulla , Sertorius , Lucullus , Pompey , Crassus , Cicero , Julius Caesar , Brutus , and Mark Anthony . The second volume, Greek Lives , first published in 1971 presents A. A. Halevy's translations of

4356-430: The 1920s, all that survived of Ibycus' work were two large-ish fragments (one seven, the other thirteen lines long) and about fifty other lines scraped together from a variety of ancient commentaries. Since then, papyrus finds have greatly added to the store of Ibycean verses – notably, and controversially, forty-eight continuous lines addressed to Polycrates, whose identification with Polycrates of Rhodes (son of Polycrates,

4477-865: The Amphictyony" ( "Δελφοὶ Χαιρωνεῦσιν ὁμοῦ Πλούταρχον ἔθηκαν | τοῖς Ἀμφικτυόνων δόγμασι πειθόμενοι "). Plutarch's surviving works were intended for Greek speakers throughout the Roman Empire, not just Greeks. Plutarch's first biographical works were the Lives of the Roman Emperors from Augustus to Vitellius . Of these, only the Lives of Galba and Otho survive. The Lives of Tiberius and Nero are extant only as fragments, provided by Damascius (Life of Tiberius, cf. his Life of Isidore), as well as Plutarch himself (Life of Nero, cf. Galba 2.1), respectively. These early emperors' biographies were probably published under

4598-580: The Bulgarians ravaged modern-day northern Greece south to Corinth . Adrianople was captured again in 923 and in 924 the Bulgarian army laid siege to Constantinople. Pressure from the North was alleviated only after Simeon's death in 927. Under the emperor Basil II (reigned 976–1025), Bulgaria became the target of annual campaigns by the Byzantine army. The war was to drag on for nearly twenty years, but eventually, at

4719-670: The Byzantine Empire thus restoring the Danube frontier, which had not been held since the days of Heraclius. During this period the Byzantine princess Theophanu , wife of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto II , served as regent of the Holy Roman Empire , paving the way for the westward spread of Byzantine culture. Between 800 and 1100, the empire developed a mixed relationship with the new state of Kievan Rus' that emerged to

4840-529: The Byzantines grant him the crown of basileus of Bulgaria and had the young emperor Constantine VII marry one of his daughters. When a revolt in Constantinople halted his dynastic project, he again invaded Thrace and conquered Adrianople . A great imperial expedition under Leo Phokas and Romanos Lekapenos ended again with a crushing Byzantine defeat at the Battle of Anchialus (917). The following year

4961-655: The Decline of the Oracles", "On the Delays of the Divine Vengeance", and "On Peace of Mind"; and lighter fare, such as " Odysseus and Gryllus", a humorous dialogue between Homer 's Odysseus and one of Circe 's enchanted pigs. The Moralia was composed first, while writing the Lives occupied much of the last two decades of Plutarch's life. Since Spartans wrote no history prior to the Hellenistic period – their only extant literature

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5082-520: The Delphic maxims actually originated from only five genuine wise men. There was a portrait bust dedicated to Plutarch for his efforts in helping to revive the Delphic shrines. The portrait of a philosopher exhibited at the exit of the Archaeological Museum of Delphi , dates to the 2nd century; due to its inscription, in the past it had been identified with Plutarch. The man, although bearded,

5203-510: The Elder , Mark Antony , and Marcus Junius Brutus . Plutarch's Life of Alexander , written as a parallel to that of Julius Caesar, is one of five extant tertiary sources on the Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great . It includes anecdotes and descriptions of events that appear in no other source, just as Plutarch's portrait of Numa Pompilius , the putative second king of Rome, holds much that

5324-803: The Face Which Appears in the Orb of the Moon" (a dialogue on the possible causes for such an appearance and a source for Galileo's own work), "On Fraternal Affection" (a discourse on honour and affection of siblings toward each other), "On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander the Great " (an important adjunct to his Life of the great king), and "On the Worship of Isis and Osiris " (a crucial source of information on ancient Egyptian religion ); more philosophical treatises, such as "On

5445-563: The Getae" ) ...Plato attributes an holistic approach to healing body and soul (psyche)... in the latter case, not unlike Orpheus ..who ended up with a cave-based oracle in nearby Lesbos island, in the region of Ionia's northern neighbors, the Aeolians . Notably, Using music to relieve lustful urges was a Pythagorean remedy stemming from an anecdote from the life of Pythagoras claiming that, when he encountered some drunken youths trying to break into

5566-578: The Great presented Byzantium with the famous Varangian Guard – an army of vicious Scandinavian mercenaries. Some believe that this was in exchange for the marriage of Basil's sister Anna to Vladimir. However, the Primary Chronicle states the marriage was in exchange for the Rus' conversion to orthodoxy; the Varangian Guard was a by-product (although a significant one) of this exchange. The relationship

5687-408: The Greek cities; they can do no wrong." The lost works of Plutarch are determined by references in his own texts to them and from other authors' references over time. Parts of the Lives and what would be considered parts of the Moralia have been lost. The 'Catalogue of Lamprias', an ancient list of works attributed to Plutarch, lists 227 works, of which 78 have come down to us. The Romans loved

5808-504: The Greek region of Boeotia . His family was long established in the town; his father was named Autobulus and his grandfather was named Lamprias . His name is a compound of the Greek words πλοῦτος , ( ' wealth ' ) and ἀρχός , ( ' ruler, leader ' ). In the traditional aspirational Greek naming convention the whole name means something like "prosperous leader". His brothers, Timon and Lamprias, are frequently mentioned in his essays and dialogues, which speak of Timon in particular in

5929-473: The Greek word for the bird ἶβυξ or ibyx —it might even have been told of somebody else originally. Another proverb associated with Ibycus was recorded by Diogenianus : "more antiquated than Ibycus" or "more silly than Ibycus". The proverb was apparently based on an anecdote about Ibycus stupidly or nobly turning down an opportunity to become tyrant of Rhegium in order to pursue a poetic career instead (one modern scholar however infers from his poetry that Ibycus

6050-638: The Macedonians The Byzantine Empire under the Macedonian dynasty underwent a revival during the late 9th, 10th, and early 11th centuries. Under the Macedonian emperors, the empire gained control over the Adriatic Sea , Southern Italy , and all of the territory of the Tsar Samuil of Bulgaria . The Macedonian dynasty was characterised by a cultural revival in spheres such as philosophy and

6171-666: The Prince") written by a scribe in the court of Louis XV of France and a 1470 Ulrich Han translation. In 1519, Hieronymus Emser translated De capienda ex inimicis utilitate ( wie ym eyner seinen veyndt nutz machen kan , Leipzig). The biographies were translated by Gottlob Benedict von Schirach (1743–1804) and printed in Vienna by Franz Haas (1776–1780). Plutarch's Lives and Moralia were translated into German by Johann Friedrich Salomon Kaltwasser : Following some Hebrew translations of selections from Plutarch's Parallel Lives published in

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6292-469: The Pythian oracle at Delphia: one of his most important works is the "Why Pythia does not give oracles in verse" ( "Περὶ τοῦ μὴ χρᾶν ἔμμετρα νῦν τὴν Πυθίαν" ). Even more important is the dialogue "On the 'E' at Delphi" ( "Περὶ τοῦ Εἶ τοῦ ἐν Δελφοῖς" ), which features Ammonius , a Platonic philosopher and teacher of Plutarch, and Lambrias, Plutarch's brother. According to Ammonius, the letter E written on

6413-424: The Samian tyrant) requires a careful selection of historical sources. Authorship of the poem is attributed to Ibycus on textual and historical grounds but its quality as verse is open to debate: "insipid", "inept and slovenly" or, more gently, "not an unqualified success" and optimally "the work of a poet realizing a new vision, with a great command of epic material which he could manipulate for encomiastic effect." In

6534-673: The Spartan egalitarianism and superhuman immunity to pain that have seized the popular imagination are likely myths, and their main architect is Plutarch. While flawed, Plutarch is nonetheless indispensable as one of the only ancient sources of information on Spartan life. Pomeroy et al. conclude that Plutarch's works on Sparta, while they must be treated with skepticism, remain valuable for their "large quantities of information" and these historians concede that "Plutarch's writings on Sparta, more than those of any other ancient author, have shaped later views of Sparta", despite their potential to misinform. He

6655-667: The ancient customs he reports had been long abandoned, so he never actually saw what he wrote about. Plutarch's sources themselves can be problematic. As the historians Sarah Pomeroy , Stanley Burstein , Walter Donlan, and Jennifer Tolbert Roberts have written, "Plutarch was influenced by histories written after the decline of Sparta and marked by nostalgia for a happier past, real or imagined." Turning to Plutarch himself, they write, "the admiration writers like Plutarch and Xenophon felt for Spartan society led them to exaggerate its monolithic nature, minimizing departures from ideals of equality and obscuring patterns of historical change." Thus,

6776-467: The arts, and has been dubbed the " Golden Age " of Byzantium . The cities of the empire expanded, and affluence spread across the provinces because of the newfound security. The population rose, and production increased, stimulating new demand for trade . Culturally, there was considerable growth in education and learning (the " Macedonian Renaissance "). Ancient texts were preserved and recopied. Byzantine art flourished, and brilliant mosaics graced

6897-447: The audacity of Caesar and his refusal to dismiss Cinna's daughter, Cornelia . Other important parts are those containing his military deeds, accounts of battles and Caesar's capacity of inspiring the soldiers. His soldiers showed such good will and zeal in his service that those who in their previous campaigns had been in no way superior to others were invincible and irresistible in confronting every danger to enhance Caesar's fame. Such

7018-408: The biographies of Lycurgus , Aristides , Cimon , Pericles , Nicias , Lysander , Agesilaus , Pelopidas , Dion , Timoleon , Demosthenes , Alexander the Great , Eumenes , and Phocion . Three more biographies presented in this volume, those of Solon , Themistocles , and Alcibiades were translated by M. H. Ben-Shamai. The third volume, Greek and Roman Lives , published in 1973, presented

7139-460: The blows of one hundred and thirty missiles. In this plight, he called the enemy to him as though he would surrender. Two of them, accordingly, coming up, he lopped off the shoulder of one with his sword, smote the other in the face and put him to flight, and came off safely himself with the aid of his comrades. Again, in Britain, when the enemy had fallen upon the foremost centurions, who had plunged into

7260-587: The border with the Arab territories remained fluid, with the Byzantines alternatively on the offensive or defensive. Kievan Rus' , who appeared near Constantinople for the first time in 860 , constituted another new challenge. In 941 they appeared on the Asian shore of the Bosporus , but this time they were crushed, showing the improvements in the Byzantine military position after 907, when only diplomacy had been able to push back

7381-517: The characteristics of Ibycean verse: The poem establishes a contrast between the tranquility of nature and the ever restless impulses to which the poet's desires subject him, while the images and epithets accumulate almost chaotically, communicating a sense of his inner turmoil. In the original Greek, initial tranquility is communicated by repeated vowel sounds in the first six lines. His love of nature and his ability to describe it in lively images are reminiscent of Sappho's work. Byzantium under

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7502-586: The constitutional principles of the Principate in the time of the civil war after Nero's death. While morally questioning the behavior of the autocrats, he also gives an impression of their tragic destinies, ruthlessly competing for the throne and finally destroying each other. "The Caesars' house in Rome, the Palatium, received in a shorter space of time no less than four Emperors", Plutarch writes, "passing, as it were, across

7623-550: The consulars Quintus Sosius Senecio , Titus Avidius Quietus , and Arulenus Rusticus , all of whom appear in his works. He lived most of his life at Chaeronea, and was initiated into the mysteries of the Greek god Apollo . He probably took part in the Eleusinian Mysteries . During his visit to Rome, he may have been part of a municipal embassy for Delphi : around the same time, Vespasian granted Delphi various municipal rights and privileges. In addition to his duties as

7744-413: The destiny of his murderers, just after a detailed account of the scene when a phantom appeared to Brutus at night. Plutarch's Life of Pyrrhus is a key text because it is the main historical account on Roman history for the period from 293 to 264 BCE, for which both Dionysius ' and Livy 's texts are lost. "It is not histories I am writing, but lives ; and in the most glorious deeds there

7865-477: The east, to Calabria in Southern Italy in the west. Many successes had been achieved, ranging from the conquest of Bulgaria , to the annexation of parts of Georgia and Armenia, to the total annihilation of an invading force of Egyptians outside Antioch . Yet even these victories were not enough; Basil considered the continued Arab occupation of Sicily to be an outrage. Accordingly, he planned to reconquer

7986-480: The east. The process of reconquest began with variable fortunes. The temporary reconquest of Crete (843) was followed by a crushing Byzantine defeat on the Bosporus , while the emperors were unable to prevent the ongoing Muslim conquest of Sicily (827–902). Using present-day Tunisia as their launching pad, the Muslims conquered Palermo in 831, Messina in 842, Enna in 859, Syracuse in 878, Catania in 900 and

8107-538: The empire well into Syria , defeating the emirs of north-west Iraq and reconquering Crete and Cyprus . At one point under John, the empire's armies even threatened Jerusalem , far to the south. The emirate of Aleppo and its neighbors became vassals of the empire in the east, where the greatest threat to the empire was the Egyptian Fatimid kingdom. The traditional struggle with the See of Rome continued, spurred by

8228-409: The erudite Theoktistos (died 855). The latter in particular favoured culture at the court, and, with a careful financial policy, steadily increased gold reserves. The rise of the Macedonian dynasty coincided with developments that strengthened the religious unity of the empire. The iconoclast movement experienced a steep decline; this favoured its soft suppression by the emperors, and mitigation of

8349-622: The final Greek stronghold, the fortress of Taormina , in 902. These drawbacks were later counterbalanced by a victorious expedition against Damietta in Egypt (853), the defeat of the Emir of Melitene (863), the confirmation of the imperial authority over Dalmatia (867) and Basil I's offensives towards the Euphrates (870s). The threat from the Arab Muslims was meanwhile reduced by inner struggles and by

8470-437: The games of Delphi where the emperor Nero competed and possibly met prominent Romans, including future emperor Vespasian . Plutarch and Timoxena had at least four sons and one daughter, although two died in childhood. The loss of his daughter and a young son, Chaeron, are mentioned in his letter to Timoxena. Two sons, named Autoboulos and Plutarch, appear in a number of Plutarch's works; Plutarch's treatise on Plato's Timaeus

8591-442: The historian Herodotus for all manner of prejudice and misrepresentation. It has been called the "first instance in literature of the slashing review". The 19th century English historian George Grote considered this essay a serious attack upon the works of Herodotus, and speaks of the "honourable frankness which Plutarch calls his malignity". Plutarch makes some palpable hits, catching Herodotus out in various errors, but it

8712-436: The historian Polyzelus of Messana, others son of Cerdas; of Rhegium by birth. From there he went to Samos when it was ruled by the father of the tyrant Polycrates. This was in the time of Croesus , in the 54th Olympiad (564–60 BC). He was completely crazed with love for boys, and he was the inventor of the so-called sambyke , a kind of triangular cithara . His works are in seven books in the Doric dialect. Captured by bandits in

8833-412: The home of a virtuous woman, he sang a solemn tune with long spondees and the boys' "raging willfulness" was quelled. Suda's extraordinary account of the poet's death is found in other sources, such as Plutarch and Antipater of Sidon and later it inspired Friedrich Schiller to write a ballad called " The Cranes of Ibycus " yet the legend might be derived merely from a play upon the poet's name and

8954-492: The individual characters of the persons portrayed are not depicted for their own sake but instead serve as an illustration of an abstract principle; namely the adherence or non-adherence to Plutarch's morally founded ideal of governing as a Princeps (cf. Galba 1.3; Moralia 328D–E). Arguing from the perspective of Platonic political philosophy (cf. Republic 375E, 410D-E, 411E-412A, 442B-C), in Galba-Otho Plutarch reveals

9075-447: The interiors of the many new churches. Though the empire was much smaller than during the reign of Justinian , it was stronger, as its territories were both less dispersed and more politically and culturally integrated. Although tradition attributed the "Byzantine Renaissance" to Basil I (867–886), initiator of the Macedonian dynasty, some later scholars have credited the reforms of Basil's predecessor, Michael III (842–867) and of

9196-399: The introduction to his own Life of Samuel Johnson . Other admirers included Ben Jonson , John Dryden , Alexander Hamilton , John Milton , Edmund Burke , Joseph De Maistre , Mark Twain , Louis L'amour , and Francis Bacon , as well as such disparate figures as Cotton Mather and Robert Browning . Plutarch's influence declined in the 19th and 20th centuries, but it remains embedded in

9317-473: The invaders . The vanquisher of the Rus' was the famous general John Kourkouas , who continued the offensive with other noteworthy victories in Mesopotamia (943): these culminated in the reconquest of Edessa (944), which was especially celebrated for the return to Constantinople of the venerated Mandylion . The soldier emperors Nikephoros II Phokas (reigned 963–69) and John I Tzimiskes (969–76) expanded

9438-461: The island, which had belonged to the empire for over three hundred years (c. 535 – c. 902). However, his death in 1025 put an end to the project. The 11th century was also momentous for its religious events. In 1054, relations between Greek and Slavic-speaking Eastern and Latin-speaking Western Christian traditions reached a terminal crisis. Although there was a formal declaration of institutional separation, on July 16, when three papal legates entered

9559-430: The lyre "for some considerable time." Some modern scholars have found in the surviving poetry evidence that Ibycus might have spent time at Sicyon before journeying to Samos—mythological references indicate local knowledge of Sicyon and could even point to the town's alliance with Sparta against Argos and Athens. His depiction of the women of Sparta as "thigh-showing" (quoted by Plutarch as proof of lax morals among

9680-402: The master's manner and then turned to other purposes and made his poetry the vehicle for his own private, or public, emotions. — Cecil Maurice Bowra Although scholars like Bowra have concluded that his style must have changed with his setting, such a neat distinction is actually hard to prove from the existing verses, which are an intricate blend of the public, "choral" style of Stesichorus, and

9801-594: The most affectionate terms. Rualdus , in his 1624 work Life of Plutarchus , recovered the name of Plutarch's wife, Timoxena, from internal evidence afforded by his writings. A letter is still extant, addressed by Plutarch to his wife, bidding her not to grieve too much at the death of their two-year-old daughter, who was named Timoxena after her mother. He hinted at a belief in reincarnation in that letter of consolation. Plutarch studied mathematics and philosophy in Athens under Ammonius from AD 66 to 67. He attended

9922-587: The narrative progresses, the subject incurs less admiration from his biographer and the deeds that it recounts become less savoury. The murder of Cleitus the Black , which Alexander instantly and deeply regretted, is commonly cited to this end. Together with Suetonius 's The Twelve Caesars , and Caesar 's own works de Bello Gallico and de Bello Civili , the Life of Caesar is the main account of Julius Caesar 's feats by ancient historians. Plutarch starts by telling of

10043-510: The north across the Black Sea . The Byzantine Empire quickly became the main trading and cultural partner for Kiev. After Christianizing, Rus' Vladimir the Great employed many architects and artists to work on numerous cathedrals and churches around Rus', expanding the Byzantine influence even further. Kievan Rus' princes were often married into the Byzantine imperial family and Constantinople often employed princes' armies; most notably, Vladimir

10164-616: The original Greek, with notes critical and historical, and a new life of Plutarch" in 6 volumes and dedicated to Lord Folkestone. Their translation was re-edited by Archdeacon Wrangham in the year 1813. From 1901 to 1912, an American classicist, Bernadotte Perrin , produced a new translation of the Lives for the Loeb Classical Library . The Moralia is also included in the Loeb series, translated by various authors. Penguin Classics began

10285-601: The original Greek. This translation has been reworked and revised several times, most recently in the 19th century by the English poet and classicist Arthur Hugh Clough (first published in 1859). One contemporary publisher of this version is Modern Library . Another is Encyclopædia Britannica in association with the University of Chicago, ISBN   0-85229-163-9 , 1952, LCCN   55-10323 . In 1770, English brothers John and William Langhorne published "Plutarch's Lives from

10406-466: The parallel lives end with a comparison, while possibly they all did at one time. Also missing are many of his Lives which appear in a list of his writings: those of Hercules, the first pair of Parallel Lives , Scipio Africanus and Epaminondas , and the companions to the four solo biographies. Even the lives of such important figures as Augustus , Claudius and Nero have not been found and may be lost forever. Lost works that would have been part of

10527-445: The pathos he sought to evoke—his account of Menelaus 's failure to kill Helen of Troy , under the spell of her beauty, was valued by ancient critics above Euripides 's account of the same story in his play Andromache . The following lines, dedicated to a lover, Euryalus, were recorded by Athenaeus as a famous example of amorous praise: The rich language of these lines, in particular the accumulation of epithets, typical of Ibycus,

10648-547: The philosopher Sextus Empiricus . His family remained in Greece down to at least the fourth century, producing a number of philosophers and authors. Apuleius , the author of The Golden Ass , made his fictional protagonist a descendant of Plutarch. Plutarch was a vegetarian , although how long and how strictly he adhered to this diet is unclear. He wrote about the ethics of meat-eating in two discourses in Moralia . At some point, Plutarch received Roman citizenship . His sponsor

10769-468: The poem, Ibycos parades the names and characteristics of heroes familiar from Homer's Trojan epic, as types of people the poem is not about, until he reaches the final stanza, where he reveals that his real subject is Polycrates, whom he says he will immortalize in verse. This "puzzling" poem has been considered historically significant by some scholars as a signal from Ibycus that he is now turning his back on epic themes to concentrate on love poetry instead:

10890-456: The popular ideas of Greek and Roman history. One of his most famous quotes was one that he included in one of his earliest works. "The world of man is best captured through the lives of the men who created history." There are translations, from the original Greek , in Latin , English , French , German , Italian , Polish and Hebrew . British classical scholar H. J. Rose writes "One advantage to

11011-447: The pre-Hellenistic Greeks: namely, X/ Zalmoxis , reputedly a Thraco-Dacian slave in the household of reputed-one-time Hierophant of Eleusis , Pythagoras (also of Samos ). X/ Zalmoxis apparently achieved some form of apprenticeship with that most famous practitioner of Pythagoreanism , and evidently goes on to earn his freedom as well as a reputation as a great healer of 'body and soul (psyche),' via Plato (see Zalmoxis#"Religion of

11132-535: The private, "soloist" style of the Lesbian poets. It is not certain that he ever in fact composed monody (lyrics for solo performance), but the emotional and erotic quality of his verse, and the fact that his colleague in Samos was Anacreon, who did compose monody, suggest that Ibycus did too. On the other hand, some modern scholars believe that 'choral' lyrics were actually performed by soloists and therefore maybe all Ibycus' work

11253-456: The question of religious supremacy over the newly Christianized Bulgaria . This prompted an invasion by the mighty Tsar Simeon I in 894, but this was pushed back by Byzantine diplomacy, which called on the help of the Hungarians. The Byzantines were in turn defeated, however, at the Battle of Bulgarophygon (896), and obliged to pay annual subsidies to the Bulgarians. Later (912) Simeon even had

11374-411: The religious strife that had drained resources in previous centuries. Despite some tactical defeats, the administrative, legislative, cultural and economic situation continued to improve under Basil's successors, especially with Romanos I Lekapenos (920–944). The theme system reached its definitive form in this period. The Eastern Orthodox Church establishment began to support the imperial cause, and

11495-565: The remaining Lives are truncated, contain obvious lacunae or have been tampered with by later writers. Extant Lives include those on Solon , Themistocles , Aristides , Agesilaus II , Pericles , Alcibiades , Nicias , Demosthenes , Pelopidas , Philopoemen , Timoleon , Dion of Syracuse , Eumenes , Alexander the Great , Pyrrhus of Epirus , Romulus , Numa Pompilius , Coriolanus , Theseus , Aemilius Paullus , Tiberius Gracchus , Gaius Gracchus , Gaius Marius , Sulla , Sertorius , Lucullus , Pompey , Julius Caesar , Cicero , Cato

11616-409: The remaining biographies and parallels as translated by Halevy. Included are the biographies of Demetrius , Pyrrhus , Agis and Cleomenes , Aratus and Artaxerxes , Philopoemen , Camillus , Marcellus , Flamininus , Aemilius Paulus , Galba and Otho , Theseus , Romulus , Numa Pompilius , and Poplicola . It completes the translation of the known remaining biographies. In the introduction to

11737-621: The rise of the Turks in the east. Muslims received assistance however from the Paulician sect, which had found a large following in the eastern provinces of the Empire and, facing persecution under the Byzantines, often fought under the Arab flag. It took several campaigns to subdue the Paulicians, who were eventually defeated by Basil I. In 904, disaster struck the empire when its second city, Thessaloniki ,

11858-514: The same time constantly pitted Kievan Rus', Bulgaria, and Poland against each other. The Byzantine influence on Kievan Rus' cannot be overstated. Byzantine-style writing became a standard for the adopted from Bulgaria Cyrillic alphabet, Byzantine architecture dominated in Kiev, and as the main trading partner the Byzantine Empire played a critical role in the establishment, rise, and fall of Kievan Rus'. The Byzantine Empire now stretched to Armenia in

11979-468: The soldier with cries of joy; but he, in great dejection, and with a burst of tears, cast himself at Caesar's feet, begging pardon for the loss of his shield. Again, in Africa, Scipio captured a ship of Caesar's in which Granius Petro, who had been appointed quaestor, was sailing. Of the rest of the passengers Scipio made booty, but told the quaestor that he offered him his life. Granius, however, remarking that it

12100-494: The stage, and one making room for another to enter" (Galba 1). Galba-Otho was handed down through different channels. It can be found in the appendix to Plutarch's Parallel Lives as well as in various Moralia manuscripts, most prominently in Maximus Planudes ' edition where Galba and Otho appear as Opera XXV and XXVI. Thus it seems reasonable to maintain that Galba-Otho was from early on considered as an illustration of

12221-478: The state limited the power of the landowning class in favour of agricultural small-holders, who made up an important part of the military. These conditions contributed to the ability of the emperors to wage war against the Arabs . By 867, the empire had stabilized its position in both the east and the west, while the success of its defensive military structure had enabled the emperors to begin planning wars of reconquest in

12342-499: The style of Ibycus features mainly dactylic rhythms (reflecting the Epic traditions he shared with Stesichorus), a love theme and accumulated epithets. His use of imagery can seem chaotic but it is justified as an artistic effect. His style has been described by one modern scholar as "graceful and passionate." The ancients sometimes considered his work with distaste as a lecherous and corrupting influence but they also responded sympathetically to

12463-545: The temple of Apollo in Delphi originated from the Seven Sages of Greece , whose maxims were also written on the walls of the vestibule of the temple and were not seven but actually five: Chilon , Solon , Thales , Bias , and Pittakos . The tyrants Cleobulos and Periandros used their political power to be incorporated in the list. Thus, the E , which was used to represent the number  5, constituted an acknowledgement that

12584-470: The troubles of the world. The worst thing about old age is that the soul's memory of the other world grows dim, while at the same time its attachment to things of this world becomes so strong that the soul tends to retain the form that it had in the body. But that soul which remains only a short time within a body, until liberated by the higher powers, quickly recovers its fire and goes on to higher things." Plutarch ("The Consolation", Moralia ) Plutarch

12705-424: The vestments and ornaments of a consul. Some time c.  AD 95 , Plutarch was made one of the two sanctuary priests for the temple of Apollo at Delphi; the site had declined considerably since the classical Greek period. Around the same time in the 90s, Delphi experienced a construction boom, financed by Greek patrons and possible imperial support. His priestly duties connected part of his literary work with

12826-498: The way which had long been usual among the Stoics. His attitude to popular religion was similar. The gods of different peoples are merely different names for one and the same divine Being and the powers that serve it. The myths contain philosophical truths which can be interpreted allegorically. Thus, Plutarch sought to combine the philosophical and religious conception of things and to remain as close as possible to tradition. Plutarch

12947-486: The women there) is vivid enough to suggest that he might have composed some verses in Sparta also. It is possible that he left Samos at the same time as Anacreon, on the death of Polycrates, and there is an anonymous poem in the Palatine Anthology celebrating Rhegium as his final resting place, describing a tomb located under an elm, covered in ivy and white reeds. Ibycus' role in the development of Greek lyric poetry

13068-414: The work of Stesichorus into twenty-six books, each probably a self-contained narrative that gave its title to the whole book, they compiled only seven books for Ibycus, which were numbered rather than titled and whose selection criteria are unknown. Recent papyrus finds suggest also that Ibycus might have been the first to compose 'choral' victory odes (an innovation usually credited to Simonides ). Until

13189-422: The world, but continued to operate as the source of all evil. He elevated God above the finite world, and thus daemons became for him agents of God's influence on the world. He strongly defends freedom of the will, and the immortality of the soul. Platonic-Peripatetic ethics were upheld by Plutarch against the opposing theories of the Stoics and Epicureans. The most characteristic feature of Plutarch's ethics

13310-411: Was Lucius Mestrius Florus , who was an associate of the new emperor Vespasian, as evidenced by his new name, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus. As a Roman citizen, Plutarch would have been of the equestrian order, he visited Rome some time c.  AD 70 with Florus, who served also as a historical source for his Life of Otho . Plutarch was on familiar terms with a number of Roman nobles, particularly

13431-501: Was sacked by an Arab fleet led by a Byzantine renegade . The Byzantines responded by destroying an Arab fleet in 908, and sacking the city of Laodicea in Syria two years later. Despite this revenge, the Byzantines were still unable to strike a decisive blow against the Muslims, who inflicted a crushing defeat on the imperial forces when they attempted to regain Crete in 911. The situation on

13552-489: Was a Platonist , but was open to the influence of the Peripatetics , and in some details even to Stoicism despite his criticism of their principles. He rejected only Epicureanism absolutely. He attached little importance to theoretical questions and doubted the possibility of ever solving them. He was more interested in moral and religious questions. In opposition to Stoic materialism and Epicurean atheism he cherished

13673-588: Was also referenced in saying unto Sparta, "The beast will feed again." Book IV of the Moralia contains the Roman and Greek Questions (Αἰτίαι Ῥωμαϊκαί and Αἰτίαι Ἑλλήνων). The customs of Romans and Greeks are illuminated in little essays that pose questions such as "Why were patricians not permitted to live on the Capitoline?" (no. 91), and then suggests answers to them. In " On the Malice of Herodotus ", Plutarch criticizes

13794-461: Was as a mediator between eastern and western styles: Sappho and Alcaeus wrote while Stesichorus was developing the different art of the choral ode in the West. They owed nothing to him, and he owed nothing to them. But soon afterwards the art of the West was brought to Ionia , and the fusion of the two styles marked a new stage in Greek poetry. For Stesichorus left a disciple, who began by writing in

13915-663: Was impossible to "read Plutarch without a tingling of the blood; and I accept the saying of the Chinese Mencius : 'A sage is the instructor of a hundred ages. When the manners of Loo are heard of, the stupid become intelligent, and the wavering, determined. ' " Montaigne 's Essays draw extensively on Plutarch's Moralia and are consciously modelled on the Greek's easygoing and discursive inquiries into science, manners, customs and beliefs. Essays contains more than 400 references to Plutarch and his works. James Boswell quoted Plutarch on writing lives, rather than biographies, in

14036-449: Was in fact wise enough to avoid the lure of supreme power, citing as an example Plato's quotation from one of his lyrics: "I am afraid it may be in exchange for some sin before the gods that I get honour from men"). There is no other information about Ibycus' activities in the West, apart from an account by Himerius, that he fell from his chariot while travelling between Catana and Himera and injured his hand badly enough to give up playing

14157-452: Was monody. He modelled his work on the "choral" lyrics of Stesichorus at least in so far as he wrote narratives on mythical themes (often with original variations from the traditional stories) and structured his verses in triads (units of three stanzas each, called "strophe", "antistrophe" and "epode"), so closely in fact that even the ancients sometimes had difficulty distinguishing between the two poets Whereas however ancient scholars collected

14278-556: Was not always friendly. During this three-hundred-year interval Constantinople and other Byzantine cities were attacked several times by the armies of Kievan Rus' (see Rus'-Byzantine Wars ). Kiev never went far enough to actually endanger the empire; the wars were primarily a tool to force the Byzantines to sign increasingly favorable trade treaties, the texts of which are recorded in the Primary Chronicle ( Rus'–Byzantine Treaty (907) ) and other historical documents. Constantinople at

14399-662: Was responsible for organising the Pythian Games . He mentions this service in his work, Whether an Old Man Should Engage in Public Affairs (17 = Moralia 792f). The Suda , a medieval Greek encyclopedia, states that Trajan made Plutarch procurator of Illyria ; most historians consider this unlikely, since Illyria was not a procuratorial province. According to the 8th/9th-century historian George Syncellus , late in Plutarch's life, Emperor Hadrian appointed him nominal procurator of Achaea – which entitled him to wear

14520-546: Was the custom with Caesar's soldiers not to receive but to offer mercy, killed himself with a blow of his sword. Plutarch's life shows few differences from Suetonius' work and Caesar's own works (see De Bello Gallico and De Bello Civili ). Sometimes, Plutarch quotes directly from the De Bello Gallico and even tells us of the moments when Caesar was dictating his works. In the final part of this life, Plutarch recounts details of Caesar's assassination . It ends by telling

14641-433: Was the teacher of Favorinus . Plutarch's writings had an enormous influence on English and French literature . Shakespeare paraphrased parts of Thomas North 's translation of selected Lives in his plays , and occasionally quoted from them verbatim. Jean-Jacques Rousseau quotes from Plutarch in the 1762 Emile, or On Education , a treatise on the education of the whole person for citizenship. Rousseau introduces

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