Greece fought all battles mainly to enslave herself
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Through 9 Greek Lives (Theseus, the democracy builder; Aristides, the `Spartan' Athenian; Themistocles, the arrogant but victorious supreme commander; Solon, the legislator; Cimon, the alcoholic but conquering oligarch; Pericles, the noble and unselfish democrat; the richissime Niceas, exploiter of silver mines; Alcibiades, the debauched double-dealing chameleon; and Lysander, the killer of Athens and its democrats), Plutarch sketches eminently the main political and social issues of ancient Greece and of Athens in particular.
In Athens, the vicious battle between the few and the many, the haves and have-nots, equality and liberty was fought through two political parties: the aristocrats (oligarchs) supported by Sparta, Socrates, Plato and the priests (`the power of the ruler as the image of the god') on the one hand, and on the other hand, the democrats.
The Greek cities were evidently united against their common enemy, Persia, whose policies aimed at defeating the Greek outright or at inciting them to destroy one another. But the cities fought one another even in foreign countries (e.g. for the gold mines in Thrace). It all ended with Niceas's disastrous expedition in Sicily and Lysander's bloody victory over Athens.
Plutarch's book is still very actual indeed. He shows us Pericles as the first Keynesian, organizing huge public works and `transforming the whole people into wage-earners', or the anti-scientific stance of religion (`natural philosophers belittled the power of the gods by explaining it away as nothing more than the operation of irrational causes').
Plutarch is an excellent psychologist: `people as so often happens at moments of crisis, were ready to find salvation in the miraculous rather than in a rational course of action'.
Market manipulation with foreknowledge is of all times: `Solon confided to his most intimate friends that he did not intend to touch land, but had decided to abolish debts. They promptly took advantage by borrowing large sums ...'
But Plutarch times were still extremely barbarous: a decree ... that all prisoners of war should have their right thumb cut off to prevent holding a spear, although they could still handle an oar.'
This book is a must read for all those interested in the history of mankind.
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Gateway to Ancient Athens
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Arriving at this book by way of the Renaissance writers and artists and wanting an accesible and user-friendly yet comprehensive and authoritative introduction to classical Athens, I was not dissapointed. The editor has juggled Plutarch's original scheme but by forming a chronological string of biographies out of Plutarch's original material we are given a linear view of Athen's experiment with democracy, and where it took them under the aegis of various commanders, law-makers and statesmen. And these figures are mommentous not just for Athens and her 'Allies' but for the whole eastern mediteranean world. Plutarch begins hesitantly with the semi-mythical Theseus but as his sources become more numerous and less distant in time he breaks into more confident, deeply drawn portraits. By the time he reaches the last of the lives, particularly those of Alcibiades and Lysander the charactures are playing for truly awful stakes: nothing less the future of power politics throughout the Greek world. Perhaps there are more reliable and authoritative books on the subject but for a readable and thought-provoking glimpse into a seminal period of civilisation this book works both as a self-contained window on the past and as a springboard and incentive to find out more!
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The human condition 'warts and all'!
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I have taken a liking to Greek literature within the last year and (rightly) believed Plutarch's lives to be an essential read. I am forever coming across references to Plutarch's work so I decided that it was time to embark on a read. This particular translation is particularly good. I was able to make comparisons with other translations Ian Scott-Kilvert's was by far the most readable without losing much of richness that Greek literature implicitly stores. The book itself contains some of the greatest moments of human virtue and vice that I have ever read, and you are able to forgive him for his historical inaccuracy simply because he depicts the characters as so very, very human. Plutarch is by no means Homer, and anyone who begins to read this book hoping to make any such comparison will be sorely disappointed. Yet like most Greek literature he deals with the human condition so very well that you can appreciate Plutarch not as a historian, but as a biographer of the human species in general.
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