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86-507: The Parallel Lives ( Ancient Greek : Βίοι Παράλληλοι , Bíoi Parállēloi ; Latin : Vītae Parallēlae ) is a series of 48 biographies of famous men written by the Greco-Roman philosopher, historian, and Apollonian priest Plutarch , probably at the beginning of the second century . It is also known as Plutarch's Lives ( Πλούταρχου Βίοι , Ploútarchou Bíoi ; Plutarchī Vītae ); Parallels ( Παράλληλα , Parállēla ; Parallela );

172-537: A pitch accent . In Modern Greek, all vowels and consonants are short. Many vowels and diphthongs once pronounced distinctly are pronounced as /i/ ( iotacism ). Some of the stops and glides in diphthongs have become fricatives , and the pitch accent has changed to a stress accent . Many of the changes took place in the Koine Greek period. The writing system of Modern Greek, however, does not reflect all pronunciation changes. The examples below represent Attic Greek in

258-472: A lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period. They have the same general outline but differ in some of the detail. The only attested dialect from this period is Mycenaean Greek , but its relationship to the historical dialects and

344-419: A lesser degree. Pamphylian Greek , spoken in a small area on the southwestern coast of Anatolia and little preserved in inscriptions, may be either a fifth major dialect group, or it is Mycenaean Greek overlaid by Doric, with a non-Greek native influence. Regarding the speech of the ancient Macedonians diverse theories have been put forward, but the epigraphic activity and the archaeological discoveries in

430-430: A political alliance that Darius had sought during his early reign, due to facing opposition against his rule. Amestris was also married to Hydarnes' son Terituchmes , while Hydarnes was appointed the satrap of Hyrcania . When Darius II was on his deathbed, Arsaces was by his side. According to Xenophon, Darius II summoned Cyrus, who arrived with Tissaphernes and 300 Greek hoplites . Plutarch, however, reports that it

516-543: A prefix /e-/, called the augment . This was probably originally a separate word, meaning something like "then", added because tenses in PIE had primarily aspectual meaning. The augment is added to the indicative of the aorist, imperfect, and pluperfect, but not to any of the other forms of the aorist (no other forms of the imperfect and pluperfect exist). The two kinds of augment in Greek are syllabic and quantitative. The syllabic augment

602-662: A reference to "Archers" ( Toxotai ) the Greek nickname for the darics from their obverse design, because that much money had been paid to politicians in Athens and Thebes to start a war against Sparta. The Achaemenids, allied with Athens, managed to utterly destroy the Spartan fleet at the Battle of Cnidus (394 BC). After that, the Achaemenid satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia , Pharnabazus II , together with former Athenian admiral Conon , raided

688-574: A review of the 1859 A. H. Clough translation, Plutarch's depictions of Antony, Coriolanus, Alcibiades, and the Cato the Elder were praised as deeply drawn. The reviewer found the sayings of Themistocles to be "snowy and splendid", those of Phocion to be "curt and sharp", and those of Cato "grave and shrewdly humorous". Carl Rollyson lauded the biography of Caesar as proof Plutarch is "loaded with perception" and stated that no biographer "has surpassed him in summing up

774-608: A separate historical stage, though its earliest form closely resembles Attic Greek , and its latest form approaches Medieval Greek . There were several regional dialects of Ancient Greek; Attic Greek developed into Koine. Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language , divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic , Aeolic , Arcadocypriot , and Doric , many of them with several subdivisions. Some dialects are found in standardized literary forms in literature , while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms. Homeric Greek

860-609: A standard subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance . This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical periods of the language, which are the best-attested periods and considered most typical of Ancient Greek. From the Hellenistic period ( c.  300 BC ), Ancient Greek was followed by Koine Greek , which is regarded as

946-510: A vowel or /n s r/ ; final stops were lost, as in γάλα "milk", compared with γάλακτος "of milk" (genitive). Ancient Greek of the classical period also differed in both the inventory and distribution of original PIE phonemes due to numerous sound changes, notably the following: The pronunciation of Ancient Greek was very different from that of Modern Greek . Ancient Greek had long and short vowels ; many diphthongs ; double and single consonants; voiced, voiceless, and aspirated stops ; and

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1032-556: Is a literary form of Archaic Greek (derived primarily from Ionic and Aeolic) used in the epic poems , the Iliad and the Odyssey , and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic and other Classical-era dialects. The origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of

1118-418: Is added to stems beginning with consonants, and simply prefixes e (stems beginning with r , however, add er ). The quantitative augment is added to stems beginning with vowels, and involves lengthening the vowel: Some verbs augment irregularly; the most common variation is e → ei . The irregularity can be explained diachronically by the loss of s between vowels, or that of the letter w , which affected

1204-509: Is an "eloquent but hardly reliable source of information" and that it "should be treated with the greatest caution". Arses was the eldest son of Darius II , who ruled the Persian Achaemenid Empire from 424 to 405/4 BC. His mother was Parysatis , a half-sister of Darius II. His age at death is variously given as 86 ( Lucian ) and 94 ( Dinon ) years, which would place his birth around 453 or 445 BC. Briant simply notes that Arses

1290-811: Is attested in several Greek forms including Arsikas ( Plutarch ), Arsakas and Arsaces ( Persica ). From Arsaces also derives the name of the Arsacid dynasty , which ruled the Parthian Empire and claimed descent from Artaxerxes II himself. Artaxerxēs ( Αρταξέρξης ) is the Greek rendition of the Old Persian Artaxšaçā ("whose reign is through truth "). It is known in other languages as; Elamite Ir-tak-ik-ša-iš-ša , Ir-da-ik-ša-iš-ša ; Akkadian Ar-ta-ʾ-ḫa-šá-is-su ; Middle Persian and New Persian Ardašīr . Greek authors gave Artaxerxes II

1376-644: Is called 'East Greek'. Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian Greek had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, as exemplified in the poems of the Boeotian poet Pindar who wrote in Doric with a small Aeolic admixture. Thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to

1462-448: Is considered by some linguists to have been closely related to Greek . Among Indo-European branches with living descendants, Greek is often argued to have the closest genetic ties with Armenian (see also Graeco-Armenian ) and Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ). Ancient Greek differs from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and other Indo-European languages in certain ways. In phonotactics , ancient Greek words could end only in

1548-536: Is famous for having lent his name as editor-in-chief to the first complete English translation of Plutarch's Lives . This 17th-century translation is available at The MIT Internet Classics Archive . These translations are linked with D in the table below; those marked (D) in parentheses are incomplete in the HTML version. G : Project Gutenberg contains several versions of 19th-century translations of these Lives , see here and here . The full text version ( TXT ) of

1634-454: Is known about the children of Darius II and Parysatis. Cyrus was most likely born in 424/423 BC, just after the accession of Darius II. In 408 BC, at the age of 15 or 16, Cyrus was appointed the satrap of Lydia , Greater Phrygia , and Cappadocia . He also succeeded Tissaphernes as the commander-in-chief of the Persian force stationed at Castolus , east of the city of Sardis . Cyrus was given

1720-797: Is mentioned in the Elephantine papyri dated to 407 BC, i.e., during Darius II 's reign, and is also mentioned in Ezra 6:10 after the reign of Darius ( Ezra 6:1 ) and during the rule of Artaxerxes ( Ezra 7:1 ), thereby supporting the chronological sequence. Amongst others , it has been suggested that Artaxerxes II was the Ahasuerus mentioned in the Book of Esther . Plutarch in his Lives (AD 75) records alternative names Oarses and Arsicas for Artaxerxes II Mnemon given by Deinon (c. 360–340 BC ) and Ctesias (Artexerxes II's physician ) respectively. These derive from

1806-620: The Anabasis , focusing on the struggle of the now-stranded Greek mercenaries to return home. Artaxerxes became involved in a war with Persia's erstwhile allies, the Spartans, during the Corinthian War (395-387 BC). The Spartans under their king Agesilaus II had started by invading Asia Minor in 396–395 BC. To redirect the Spartans' attention to Greek affairs, Artaxerxes subsidized their enemies through his envoy Timocrates of Rhodes ; in particular,

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1892-774: The Comparative Lives ( Συγκριτικοί Βίοι , Sygkritikoí Bíoi ; Vitae Comparatae ); the Lives of Illustrious Men ( Vitae Illustrium Virorum ); and the Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans ( Βίοι Ῥωμαίων καὶ Ἑλλήνων , Bioi Rhōmaiōn kai Hellēnōn ; Vitae Illustrium Virorum Graecorum et Romanorum or Graecorum Romanorumque Illustrium Vitae ). The lives are arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings. The surviving Parallel Lives comprises 23 pairs of biographies, each pair consisting of one Greek and one Roman of similar destiny, such as Alexander

1978-589: The Athenians , Thebans , and Corinthians received massives subsidies. Tens of thousands of darics , the main currency in Achaemenid coinage , were used to bribe the Greek states to start a war against Sparta. These subsidies helped to engage the Spartans in what would become known as the Corinthian War. According to Plutarch , Agesilaus said upon leaving Asia Minor, "I have been driven out by 10,000 Persian archers",

2064-523: The Great Satraps' Revolt , starting with the powerful satrap Datames . Following the failure of Pharnabazus II in Egypt, Datames had been entrusted by the Persian king with the chief command of a force designed for the recovery of Egypt , but the machinations of his enemies at the Persian court, and the risks to which he was in consequence exposed, induced him to change his plan, and throw off his allegiance to

2150-698: The Greek region of Macedonia during the last decades has brought to light documents, among which the first texts written in Macedonian , such as the Pella curse tablet , as Hatzopoulos and other scholars note. Based on the conclusions drawn by several studies and findings such as Pella curse tablet , Emilio Crespo and other scholars suggest that ancient Macedonian was a Northwest Doric dialect , which shares isoglosses with its neighboring Thessalian dialects spoken in northeastern Thessaly . Some have also suggested an Aeolic Greek classification. The Lesbian dialect

2236-564: The Lives that Shakespeare based plays on: North's translations of most of the Lives, based on the French version by Jacques Amyot , preceded Dryden's translation mentioned above. These translations are linked with P in the table. Ancient Greek language Ancient Greek ( Ἑλληνῐκή , Hellēnikḗ ; [hellɛːnikɛ́ː] ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and

2322-600: The ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek ( c.  1400–1200 BC ), Dark Ages ( c.  1200–800 BC ), the Archaic or Epic period ( c.  800–500 BC ), and the Classical period ( c.  500–300 BC ). Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers . It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been

2408-501: The present , future , and imperfect are imperfective in aspect; the aorist , present perfect , pluperfect and future perfect are perfective in aspect. Most tenses display all four moods and three voices, although there is no future subjunctive or imperative. Also, there is no imperfect subjunctive, optative or imperative. The infinitives and participles correspond to the finite combinations of tense, aspect, and voice. The indicative of past tenses adds (conceptually, at least)

2494-562: The 360s and 350s BC, led by distinguished figures such as Datames , Ariobarzanes , and Autophradates . The rulers of the Parthian Empire notably considered Artaxerxes II their progenitor . The given name of Artaxerxes II was, as rendered in Greek , Arses ( Ἄρσης ; Babylonian : Aršu ), derived from the Old Persian *Ṛšā- ("man", "hero"). He was also widely known by the hypocorism [[[wikt:𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎣|Aršak]]] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) , which

2580-1031: The 5th century BC. Ancient pronunciation cannot be reconstructed with certainty, but Greek from the period is well documented, and there is little disagreement among linguists as to the general nature of the sounds that the letters represent. /oː/ raised to [uː] , probably by the 4th century BC. Greek, like all of the older Indo-European languages , is highly inflected. It is highly archaic in its preservation of Proto-Indo-European forms. In ancient Greek, nouns (including proper nouns) have five cases ( nominative , genitive , dative , accusative , and vocative ), three genders ( masculine , feminine , and neuter ), and three numbers (singular, dual , and plural ). Verbs have four moods ( indicative , imperative , subjunctive , and optative ) and three voices (active, middle, and passive ), as well as three persons (first, second, and third) and various other forms. Verbs are conjugated through seven combinations of tenses and aspect (generally simply called "tenses"):

2666-490: The Archaic period of ancient Greek (see Homeric Greek for more details): Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί' Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε' ἔθηκε, πολλὰς δ' ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προΐαψεν ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι· Διὸς δ' ἐτελείετο βουλή· ἐξ οὗ δὴ τὰ πρῶτα διαστήτην ἐρίσαντε Ἀτρεΐδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν καὶ δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς. The beginning of Apology by Plato exemplifies Attic Greek from

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2752-705: The Classical period of ancient Greek. (The second line is the IPA , the third is transliterated into the Latin alphabet using a modern version of the Erasmian scheme .) Ὅτι [hóti Hóti μὲν men mèn ὑμεῖς, hyːmêːs hūmeîs,   Artaxerxes II Soon after his accession, Artaxerxes II faced opposition from his younger brother Cyrus the Younger , who assembled an army composed of troops from his Lydian and Ionian satrapies as well as Greek mercenaries in his bid for

2838-581: The Elder, Philopoemen, Flamininus, Pyrrhus, Marius, Lysander, Sulla, Cimon, Lucullus, Nicias, Crassus. Volume 2. Sertorius, Eumenes, Agesilaus, Pompey, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Phocion, Cato the Younger, Agis, Cleomenes, Tiberius Gracchus and Gaius Gracchus, Demosthenes, Cicero, Demetrius, Mark Antony, Dion, Marcus Brutus, Aratus, Artaxerxes II, Galba, Otho. Of the biographies in Parallel Lives , that of Antonius has been cited by multiple scholars as one of

2924-493: 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. Parallel Lives was Plutarch's second set of biographical works, following the Lives of the Roman Emperors from Augustus to Vitellius . Of these, only the Lives of Galba and Otho survive. As he explains in

3010-714: The Greek cities of Ionia and Aeolis on the Anatolian coast to the Persians, while giving Sparta dominance on the Greek mainland. In 385 BC, he campaigned against the Cadusians . Although successful against the Greeks, Artaxerxes had more trouble with the Egyptians , who had successfully revolted against him at the beginning of his reign. An attempt to reconquer Egypt in 373 BC under the command of Pharnabazus , satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia ,

3096-581: The Greek city-states at the time of the Theban hegemony , especially the Theban–Spartan War . He sent Philiscus of Abydos , a hyparch (vice-regent) and military commander of the Achaemenid satrap Ariobarzanes , to Delphi in order to help the Greek negotiate peace. The objective of Philicus of Abydos was such to help broker a Common Peace between the Greek belligerents reunited at Delphi . The negotiation collapsed when Thebes refused to return Messenia to

3182-646: The Greek general Chabrias , who was in the service of the Egyptians, but in vain. The Egyptian ruler Nectanebo I was thus supported by Athenian General Chabrias and his mercenaries. The Achaemenid force landed in Egypt with the Athenian general Iphicrates near Mendes in 373 BC. The expedition force was too slow, giving time to the Egyptians to strengthen defenses. Pharnabazus and Iphicrates appeared before Pelusium , but retired without attacking it, Nectanebo I , king of Egypt, having added to its former defences by laying

3268-756: The King, to help them recover the Chersonese militarily. Both Philiscus and Ariobarzanes were made citizens of Athens, a remarkable honor suggesting important services rendered to the city-state. During autumn of 367 BCE, first the Spartans, soon followed by the Athenians, the Arcadians, the Argives, the Eleans, the Thebans, and other Greek city-states, sent envoys to Susa in attempts to obtain

3354-612: The Persian name Khshayarsha as do "Ahasuerus" ("(Arta)Xerxes") and the hypocoristicon "Arshu" for Artaxerxes II found on a contemporary inscription ( LBAT 162 ). These sources thus arguably identify Ahasuerus as Artaxerxes II in light of the names used in the Hebrew and Greek sources and accords with the contextual information from Pseudo-Hecataeus and Berossus as well as agreeing with Al-Tabari and Masudi's placement of events. The 13th century Syriac historian Bar-Hebraeus in his Chronography , also identifies Ahasuerus as Artaxerxes II citing

3440-438: The Spartans. Before returning to Abydos, Philicus used Achaemenid funds to finance an army for the Spartans, suggesting that he was acting in support of the Spartans from the beginning. With the Achaemenid financing of a new army, Sparta was able to continue the war. Among the mercenaries whom he had recruited, Philiscus gave 2,000 to the Spartans. He also probably provided funds to the Athenians and promised them, on behalf of

3526-454: The Younger declared his claim to the throne, based on the argument that he was born to Darius and Parysatis after Darius had ascended to the throne, while Artaxerxes was born prior to Darius II's gaining the throne. Artaxerxes II initially wanted to resolve the conflict peacefully, but the negotiations fell through. Cyrus also ran into issues with the locals, who were loyal to Artaxerxes. Artaxerxes defended his position against his brother Cyrus

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3612-473: The Younger's claims to be on a military expedition to attack the Pisidians had many flaws that led him to believe that Cyrus was planning to revolt. These claims became realized when Cyrus began to seek political support for his campaign. Cyrus found support from Sparta , who sent soldiers to aid the campaign against Artaxerxes II. Notably, Cyrus found support from a Persian kingdom of Cilicia , who contributed to

3698-483: The Younger, who with the aid of a large army of Greek mercenaries called the " Ten Thousand ", attempted to usurp the throne. Though Cyrus' mixed army fought to a tactical victory at the Battle of Cunaxa in Babylon (401 BC), Cyrus himself was killed in the exchange by Mithridates, rendering his victory irrelevant. The Greek historian Xenophon , himself one of the leaders of the Greek troops, would later recount this battle in

3784-550: The aorist. Following Homer 's practice, the augment is sometimes not made in poetry , especially epic poetry. The augment sometimes substitutes for reduplication; see below. Almost all forms of the perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect reduplicate the initial syllable of the verb stem. (A few irregular forms of perfect do not reduplicate, whereas a handful of irregular aorists reduplicate.) The three types of reduplication are: Irregular duplication can be understood diachronically. For example, lambanō (root lab ) has

3870-419: The augment when it was word-initial. In verbs with a preposition as a prefix, the augment is placed not at the start of the word, but between the preposition and the original verb. For example, προσ(-)βάλλω (I attack) goes to προσ έ βαλoν in the aorist. However compound verbs consisting of a prefix that is not a preposition retain the augment at the start of the word: αὐτο(-)μολῶ goes to ηὐ τομόλησα in

3956-438: The center of Greek scholarship, this division of people and language is quite similar to the results of modern archaeological-linguistic investigation. One standard formulation for the dialects is: West vs. non-West Greek is the strongest-marked and earliest division, with non-West in subsets of Ionic-Attic (or Attic-Ionic) and Aeolic vs. Arcadocypriot, or Aeolic and Arcado-Cypriot vs. Ionic-Attic. Often non-West

4042-525: The coasts of Peloponnesia , putting increased pressure on the Spartans. This encouraged the resurgence of Athens, which started to bring back under her control the Greek cities of Asia Minor, thus worrying Artaxerxes II that his Athenian allies were becoming too powerful. In 386 BC, Artaxerxes II betrayed his allies and came to an arrangement with Sparta, and in the Treaty of Antalcidas , he forced his erstwhile allies to come to terms. This treaty restored control of

4128-563: The dialect of Sparta ), and Northern Peloponnesus Doric (including Corinthian ). All the groups were represented by colonies beyond Greece proper as well, and these colonies generally developed local characteristics, often under the influence of settlers or neighbors speaking different Greek dialects. After the conquests of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BC, a new international dialect known as Koine or Common Greek developed, largely based on Attic Greek , but with influence from other dialects. This dialect slowly replaced most of

4214-434: The early Roman calendar . Plutarch has been praised for the liveliness and warmth of his portrayals, and his moral earnestness and enthusiasm, and the Lives have attracted a large circle of readers throughout the ages. Plutarch structured his Lives by pairing lives of famous Greeks with those of famous Romans. After each pair of lives he generally writes out a comparison of the preceding biographies. The table below gives

4300-530: The effort through funds. During this time, due to Tissaphernes' reports, Artaxerxes II began to build up a force to contend with his younger brother's revolt. By the time of Darius II's death, Cyrus had already been successful in defeating the Syrians and Cilicians and was commanding a large army made up of his initial supporters plus those who had joined him in Phrygia and beyond. Upon hearing of his father's death, Cyrus

4386-407: The epithet "Mnemon" ( Ancient Greek : Μνήμων ; Old Persian : abiataka ), meaning "remembering" or "having a good memory." The life and reign of Artaxerxes II is mostly attested in classical Greek sources, which generally focuses on the history of the western front. However, due to Artaxerxes II's younger brother Cyrus the Younger recruiting many Greeks during his rebellion against his brother,

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4472-483: The essence of a life – perhaps because no modern biographer has believed so intensely as Plutarch did in 'the soul of men'. John Langhorne, D.D. and William Langhorne, A.M.'s English translation, noted that Amiot, Abbe of Bellozane, published a French translation of the work during the reign of Henry II in the year 1558; and from that work it was translated into English, in the time of Elizabeth I . No other translation appeared until that of John Dryden . D : Dryden

4558-456: The first paragraph of his Life of Alexander , Plutarch was not concerned with writing histories, but with exploring the influence of character, good or bad, on the lives and destinies of famous men. He wished to prove that the more distant past of Greece could show its men of action and achievement as well as the more recent past of Rome. Plutarch's interest was primarily ethical ("For it is not Histories that I am writing, but Lives."), although

4644-556: The historical Dorians . The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, who regarded themselves as descendants of the population displaced by or contending with the Dorians. The Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people – Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians (including Athenians), each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Allowing for their oversight of Arcadian, an obscure mountain dialect, and Cypriot, far from

4730-472: The historical circumstances of the times imply that the overall groups already existed in some form. Scholars assume that major Ancient Greek period dialect groups developed not later than 1120 BC, at the time of the Dorian invasions —and that their first appearances as precise alphabetic writing began in the 8th century BC. The invasion would not be "Dorian" unless the invaders had some cultural relationship to

4816-409: The king. He withdrew with the troops under his command into Cappadocia , and made common cause with the other satraps who were revolting from Persia. The Pharaoh Nectanebo provided financial support to the rebelling satraps and re-established ties with both Sparta and Athens. Artaxerxes II finally quashed the revolt of the satraps by 362 BC. Artaxerxes again attempted to mediate in conflicts between

4902-490: The list of the biographies. Its order follows the one found in the Lamprias Catalogue , the list of Plutarch's works made by his hypothetical son Lamprias. The table also features links to several English translations of Plutarch's Lives available online. In addition to these 48 Parallel Lives , Plutarch wrote an additional four unpaired biographies that although not considered part of Parallel Lives , can be included in

4988-523: The lives, those of Epaminondas and Scipio Africanus or Scipio Aemilianus , are lost, and many of the remaining lives are truncated, contain obvious lacunae and/or have been tampered with by later writers. Plutarch's Life of Alexander is one of the few surviving secondary or tertiary sources about Alexander the Great , and it includes anecdotes and descriptions of incidents that appear in no other source. Likewise, his portrait of Numa Pompilius , an early Roman king, contains unique information about

5074-465: The masterpieces of the series. In 1895, George Wyndham wrote that the first rank consists of the biographies of Themistocles, Alcibiades, Marius, Cato the Elder, Alexander, Demetrius, Antonius, and Pompey. Peter D'Epiro praised Plutarch's depiction of Alcibiades as "a masterpiece of characterization." Academic Philip A. Stadter singled out Pompey and Caesar as the greatest figures in the Roman biographies. In

5160-512: The mutual distrust that had arisen between Iphicrates and Pharnabazus prevented the enemy from reaching Memphis . Then, the annual Nile flood and the Egyptian defenders' resolve to defend their territory turned what had initially appeared as certain defeat for Nectanebo I and his troops into a complete victory. After several weeks, the Persians and their Greek mercenaries under Iphicrates had to re-embark. The expedition against Egypt had failed. It

5246-552: The neighboring lands under water, and blocking up the navigable channels of the Nile by embankments. ( Diodorus Siculus xv. 42; Cornelius Nepos , Iphicrates c. 5.) Fortifications on the Pelusiac branch of the Nile ordered by Nectanebo forced the enemy fleet to seek another way to sail up the Nile . Eventually the fleet managed to find its way up the less-defended Mendesian branch. At this point,

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5332-499: The older dialects, although the Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language , which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek . By about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosed into Medieval Greek . Phrygian is an extinct Indo-European language of West and Central Anatolia , which

5418-409: The opponents of the Achaemenid king. Athens and Sparta provided support for the revolted satraps, in particular Ariobarzanes . Sparta sent a force to Ariobarzanes under an aging Agesilaus II , while Athens sent a force under Timotheus , which was however diverted when it became obvious that Ariobarzanes had entered frontal conflict with the Achaemenid king. An Athenian mercenary force under Chabrias

5504-487: The perfect stem eilēpha (not * lelēpha ) because it was originally slambanō , with perfect seslēpha , becoming eilēpha through compensatory lengthening. Reduplication is also visible in the present tense stems of certain verbs. These stems add a syllable consisting of the root's initial consonant followed by i . A nasal stop appears after the reduplication in some verbs. The earliest extant examples of ancient Greek writing ( c.  1450 BC ) are in

5590-439: The reign of Artaxerxes II is well documented until Cyrus' death at the Battle of Cunaxa in 401 BC. Following that, detailed information on the rest of Artaxerxes II's reign become much more sparse. Plutarch, when writing his Life of Artaxerxes II , used Ctesias, Dinon, Xenophon, and a few others as references. The work is the only biography of an Achaemenid king. According to the modern historian Carsten Binder, Plutarch's work

5676-562: The revision of Dryden's translation by the English poet Arthur Hugh Clough is available (via download) Gutenberg here . These translations are linked with G in the table below. L : LacusCurtius has the translation by Bernadotte Perrin of part of the Moralia and all the Lives , published in the Loeb Classical Library 1914–1926; see here . These translations are linked with L in

5762-452: The support of Achaemenid king Artaxerxes II in the Greek conflict. The Achaemenid king proposed a new peace treaty, this time highly tilted in favour of Thebes, which required Messenia to remain independent and that the Athenian fleet to be dismantled. This Peace proposal was rejected by most Greek parties except Thebes. Sparta and Athens, dissatisfied with the Persian king's support of Thebes , decided to provide careful military support to

5848-517: The syllabic script Linear B . Beginning in the 8th century BC, however, the Greek alphabet became standard, albeit with some variation among dialects. Early texts are written in boustrophedon style, but left-to-right became standard during the classic period. Modern editions of ancient Greek texts are usually written with accents and breathing marks , interword spacing , modern punctuation , and sometimes mixed case , but these were all introduced later. The beginning of Homer 's Iliad exemplifies

5934-539: The table below. LV : LibriVox has many free public-domain audiobooks of the Parallel Lives , Volumes I, II, and III. These translations are linked with LV in the table below. P : The Perseus Project has several of the Lives , see here . The Lives available on the Perseus website are in Greek and in the English translation by Bernadotte Perrin (see under L above), and/or in an abbreviated version of Thomas North 's translations. This edition concentrates on those of

6020-416: The term Plutarch's Lives . The subjects of these four biographies are Artaxerxes , Aratus , Galba , and Otho . All dates are BC . The two-volume edition of Dryden's translation contains the following biographies: Volume 1. Theseus, Romulus, Lycurgus, Numa, Solon, Publicola, Themistocles, Camillus, Pericles, Fabius, Alcibiades, Coriolanus, Timoleon, Aemilius Paulus, Pelopidas, Marcellus, Aristides, Cato

6106-527: The throne. The forces of the brothers clashed at Cunaxa in 401 BC, which resulted in the defeat and death of Cyrus. Following this, Artaxerxes II had to contend with several other revolts; a revolt by Evagoras I ( r.  411–374 BC ) in Cyprus between 391–380 BC, by the Phoenicians in c.  380 BC , and most importantly, the revolts by the western satraps (known as the Great Satraps' Revolt ) in

6192-459: The title of karanos ( Old Iranian : *Karana ), which greatly expanded his authority both politically and militarily, and allowed him to become largely autonomous. Before his accession, Arsaces married Stateira , the daughter of the Persian nobleman Hydarnes , who was descended from Hydarnes , one of the seven Persian conspirators who overthrew the Pseudo-Smerdis . The marriage was part of

6278-469: The work has significant historical value as well. The Lives was published by Plutarch late in his life after his return to Chaeronea and, if one may judge from the long lists of authorities given, it must have taken many years to compile. The chief manuscripts of the Lives date from the 10th and 11th centuries, and the first printed edition appeared in Rome in 1470. Thomas North 's 1579 English translation

6364-546: The worship of Anahita, erecting temples and statues of the goddess across the empire. This included the cities of Ecbatana , Susa, and Babylon . The temple of Anahita in Istakhr was also most likely founded by Artaxerxes II. At the start of the 3rd century AD, the temple was repaired and adorned by the Persian Sasanian family , who acted as the hereditary caretakers of the temple. The Persian Empire under Artaxerxes II

6450-475: Was Aeolic. For example, fragments of the works of the poet Sappho from the island of Lesbos are in Aeolian. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, or to an island. Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric (including Cretan Doric ), Southern Peloponnesus Doric (including Laconian ,

6536-487: Was Parysatis who summoned Cyrus, as she favoured him over Arsaces. He further adds that she attempted to convince Darius II to choose Cyrus as his heir, as the position was still vacant. Modern historians question Plutarch's account, and state that Arsaces must have already been chosen as heir previously, probably several years earlier. During the coronation of Arsaces at the southern capital of Pasargadae , Cyrus allegedly attempted to have his brother assassinated. The plan

6622-531: Was also sent to the Egyptian Pharaoh Tachos , who was also fighting against the Achaemenid king. Much of Artaxerxes' wealth was spent on building projects. He restored the Palace of Darius I at Susa , and also the fortifications; including a strong redoubt at the south-east corner of the enclosure and gave Ecbatana a new apadana and sculptures. The tomb of Artaxerxes II is located at Persepolis , and

6708-724: Was an important source-material for Shakespeare . Jacob Tonson printed several editions of the Lives in English in the late 17th century, beginning with a five-volume set printed in 1688, with subsequent editions printed in 1693, 1702, 1716, and 1727. The most generally accepted text is that of the minor edition of Carl Sintenis in the Bibliotheca Teubneriana (five volumes, Leipzig 1852–1855; reissued without much change in 1873–1875). There are annotated editions by I. C. Held, E. H. G. Leopold, Otto Siefert and Friedrich Blass and Carl Sintenis, all in German; and by Holden, in English. Two of

6794-402: Was born before his father's accession in 424, while another author states that he was "at least in his late seventies in the early 360s". Darius II and Parysatis had thirteen children, most of whom died prematurely. Thus the only known full siblings of Arsaces were his younger brothers Cyrus, Ostanes , Oxathres, and an older sister, Amestris. With the exception of Arsaces and Cyrus, not much

6880-589: Was built on the model of his predecessors at Naqsh-e Rustam . On the upper register of the tomb appear reliefs of the Emperor, supported by the soldiers of all ethnicities of the Empire. On the lintel over each figure appears a trilingual inscription describing each ethnicity. These are known collectively as "Inscription A2Pa" . Since the reign of Darius the Great ( r.  522–486 BC ), Achaemenid inscriptions make mention of unnamed gods alongside Ahura Mazda , who

6966-620: Was completely unsuccessful, but in his waning years, the Persians did manage to defeat a joint Egyptian–Spartan effort to conquer Phoenicia . In 377 BC, Pharnabazus was reassigned by Artaxerxes II to help command a military expedition into rebellious Egypt, having proven his ability against the Spartans. After four years of preparations in the Levant, Pharnabazus gathered an expeditionary force of 200,000 Persian troops, 300 triremes, 200 galleys, and 12,000 Greeks under Iphicrates . The Achaemenid Empire had also been applying pressure on Athens to recall

7052-563: Was considered the supreme god of the Zoroastrian pantheon by the royal family. It was first under Artaxerxes II that the identities of these gods were uncovered. In a trilingual inscription at Susa , he invokes the deities Anahita and Mithra alongside Ahura Mazda. Artaxerxes II was thus the first known Achaemenid king to recognize Anahita, who was the divinity of "the Waters" and hence associated with fertility, healing and wisdom. He promoted

7138-400: Was exposed by Tissaphernes, but Cyrus was spared following the intervention of Parysatis and sent back to Asia Minor. The authenticity of this event is deemed uncertain by modern historians. According to Binder, the transition of power between Darius II and Arsaces was seemingly peaceful. During his investiture , Arsaces adopted the throne name of Artaxerxes. Tissaphernes noted that Cyrus

7224-851: Was that of the Palace of Darius in Susa . He would also be remembered for his tomb in Persepolis. The image of Artaxerxes from contemporary foreign sources depicts him in a similar light to his image among those in the Achaemenid Empire. The Greek portrayal highlights his long rule with many conflicts and shortcomings of Artaxerxes II in his ability to control his empire. Greek sources also focus on his problems in his court with his harem and eunuchs , as in Claudius Aelianus 's accounts of Aspasia of Phocaea and Tiridates . Greek sources portray Artaxerxes II as sad in his reign. The Jewish high priest Johanan

7310-463: Was the end of the career of Pharnabazus, who was now over 70 years old. Pharnabazus was replaced by Datames to lead a second expedition to Egypt, but he failed and then started the "Satraps' Revolt" against the Great King. The Achaemenid defeat in Egypt led to unrest among the Achaemenid nobility. From 372 BC, many western satrapies of the Achaemenid Empire started to rebel against Artaxerxes II, in

7396-523: Was viewed as a political power that had many unfortunate complications, such as the many wars with Greece. One aspect of his legacy which would have great influence upon his successors was his conflict with Cyrus the Younger. This conflict was remembered due to the power vacuum that followed, allowing the Satrap Revolt and the rebellion of Egypt . Artaxerxes II was also remembered for his works to restore monuments of his predecessors. His largest restoration

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