The Plutarch Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Nicias helps us understand why losers are still worth studying. Like Cassandra, he prophesied for the Athenian people that they could not defeat Syracuse and then when selected as a leader for the expedition, he comes quite close to overturning his own prophecy. See the full show notes here . Parallel: Crassus Important People Cleon - The first demagogue to exert influence after P...

Send us Fan Mail Check out the full show notes here . Pericles brought Athens to its peak, but ended his own life in a plague at the beginning of a long war with Sparta.  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Obscure and under-rated, Cimon gives us a personal look at the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars, also called the Pentecontaetia. Important People Aristides - The Athenian politician and general famous for his integrity. Main political rival of the cunning Themistocles. Themistocles - Mastermind strategist behind the tactics of Salamis and the abandonment of Athens ...

Send us Fan Mail Themistocles saved Athens in its darkest hour, yet he dies in the Persian empire, the inveterate enemy of Athens. Is Themistocles a patriot or a traitor? Important People Aristides - Themistocles's main political rival and a man he has to recall from exile to help him fight Salamis. Plutarch considers Aristides to be one of the noblest Athenians who ever lived, and so their l...

Send us Fan Mail We're wrapping season 2 with a bonus episode looking back at Plutarch's Parallels. We discuss the six biographies of the men who laids the foundations for Greek and Roman greatness. We'll also answer a couple questions that come up, like "Why are the comparison essays so much shorter than the biographies?" and "Why compare the Greek and Roman life at...

Send us Fan Mail Valerius Publius, aka Publicola, topples the tyrant Tarquin with Brutus and founds the Republic on better justice than the Roman kings had exercised. Like his parallel Solon, his obsession with justice makes him seek the happiness of his own people all the way to his death. Remembering Solon's examples of happiness, does Publicola die a happy man? Parallel - Solon Important P...

Send us Fan Mail It is the happy fate of all good and just men to be praised more after they are dead than when they lived Plutarch, Life of Numa 22 Parallel - Lycurgus Important People Pythagoras - the Greek philosopher and mystic mathematician who lived on the southern Italian peninsula and started a school of philosophy obsessed with simple living, observation of the created universe, piety to...

Send us Fan Mail The Agōgē (ἀγωγή) [16-19] Those Laconic Spartans [19-21] Military  Maneuvers [22-24] Education never stops [24-25 Blessing of scholē Freedom and restraint Political Setup How someone elected to Gerousia [26] Over 60 Group of candidates selected Assembly called, and votes decided by length of shout and volume of shout Burying the dead [27] NO injustice or inequality in these laws [...

Send us Fan Mail Lycurgus was once asked why Sparta had no defensive wall around its perimeter. He responded, "A city is well-fortified with a wall of men instead of brick." Parallel - Numa Important Places Sparta   Crete  Asia Minor  Egypt  Important People Homer Alcander Lysander Outline Uncertain origins: second son of King of Sparta Expected to become king when father and brother dea...

Send us Fan Mail Parallel - Theseus Origin Stories  Rome: What's in a name? From Aeneas to Alba Longa Romulus and Remus: Childhood Left to die by a river Wolf and woodpecker Romulus and Remus: Off to Found a City Rome is for runaways! Open the gates and seize the...day? Location, location, location! Vultures? 6/12? First/Second? Walls and Ditches – death of Remus Plows the circumference: pome...

Send us Fan Mail Although Theseus never actually existed, Plutarch, in documenting his life, wants to cull important lessons for Greeks and Romans. Just as Theseus wrestles with villains threatening civilization, Plutarch forces his readers to grapple with the role of virtue in politics, or, less abstractly, the role the virtuous man has to play in his polis: i.e. how to be a citizen rather than a...

Send us Fan Mail We are not born for ourselves alone; a part of us is claimed by our nation, another part by our friends. De Officiis, I.22 Parallel - Demosthenes Cicero lived and died as a political failure. In what ways, then, is his failure worth studying. In what ways did he succeed? In many ways, he and Vergil become the teachers of Western Europe all the way down to the present day. Can we d...

Send us Fan Mail Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise. —Plutarch “Cato the Elder” Para. 9.4 Parallel - Aristides Sometimes called Cato the Censor or Cato the Elder because he is the great-grandfather of the more famous Cato the Younger who resisted Julius Caesar in the first century...

Send us Fan Mail ῥᾷστον ἁπάντων ἐστὶν αὑτὸν ἐξαπατῆσαι: ὃ γὰρ βούλεται, τοῦθ᾽ ἕκαστος καὶ οἴεταιNothing is easier than self-deceit, for what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true.—Demosthenes “Third Olynthiac” 19 Parallel - Cicero OUTLINE Introduces both Cicero and Demosthenes  Learned Latin Late A good city for research Why stay in a small town? Rise to Political Power Philip Alexande...

Send us Fan Mail In this podcast, I introduce you to Plutarch, the man and the biographer.  We answer questions like:  Who was Plutarch?  An ancient biographer who wrote almost 50 biographies comparing Greek and Roman heroes. While his focus in on virtue, his characters are all human and their vices appear alongside their virtues.  Why should I read him?  He gives three reasons in three separate b...

Send us Fan Mail Solon was not only the wisest man to be found in Athens, but the most profound political genius of antiquity; and the easy, bloodless, and pacific revolution by which he accomplished the deliverance of his country was the first step in a career which our age glories in pursuing, and instituted a power which has done more than anything, except revealed religion, for the regeneratio...

Send us Fan Mail Aristides acts as a great introduction to the wars that made Athens great, the defensive wars against the Persian invaders, occurring between 490 and 479 BC. Plutarch admired Aristides immensely, so he serves as a great introduction to the standards Plutarch holds up for the other leaders he studies. The outline of his life pretty much follows the important events of the Persian W...