Plutarch’s writings were of a wide variety including Philosophy, rhetoric, antiquarianism, and biography. A series of biographies called Parallel Lives written towards the end of Plutarch’s life compared Roman and Greek people to find similarities in the two cultures, although many of his biographies were written considering the personalities of the people rather than strict historical events. The ancient Greeks thought that Plutarch’s work were concrete histories and took them as truth when looking at the past and at other cultures (i.e. Romans considering Greeks and vice- versa). Plutarch was born into an aristocratic Greek family and lived in the late 1st / early 2nd century. He traveled through much of the Greek and Roman empires and studied/ wrote about things that he didn’t understand or had questions, such as Spartan sayings. …show more content…
The biographies were possibly meant to reconcile the two groups by showing the similarities between each other and thus improve relations. He also seemed to used the texts to look further into aspects of cultures that he didn’t fully understand or was confused by. Plutarch lived centuries after the Sparta that he writes about, and probably used other historian’s works in forming his writings as well as most likely over exaggerating certain aspects of the Spartan culture. Many of his other writings centered around events that occurred long before he wrote about them. His Parallel Lives were also written without personal encounters with many of his subjects. Some historians claim that many of Plutarch’s works also include his personal experiences and ideologies in his works, some of which are presented as the experiences and ideology of those he was writing about. Plutarch may have been using some of his biographies to strengthen Roman- Greek relationships by creating comparisons of great heroes in the two
Hanson explained that Diodorus, Plutarch, and Pausanias were all biased sources. Diodorus followed Ephorus and lacked information. Plutarch included a narrative on Leuktra that followed Pelopidas and was derived from Kallisthenes. Pausanias used a lost account of Plutarch’s about Epameinondas indebted to Ephorus. The innovations were derived from Kallisthenes and Ephorus. These accounts sided with the Thebans and were not of a contemporary
A Comparison of Plutarch's The Lives of the Ancient Grecians and Romans and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
Life of Alexander the Great of Macedonia is one of the most remarkable Ancient Greece stories that prevail even in this present era. The ancient Greek sources clearly identify the life of Alexander as the one which broaden our understanding about the heroes of the Ancient times. Plutarch parallel lives are one of the sources that equip classical study and any other studies with necessary details of how Alexander manifested his life as an Ancient Greek hero. However the invention of motion pictures (cinema) had created another dimension in analysing Life of Alexander. Firstly Robert Rossen released a life of Alexander a nearly half century ago, which did not make much effort addition to what literature has far reached, and it was argued that his film consist some inaccuracies. Oliver Stone, a screenwriter also wrote a Life of Alexander (2004-2005) and it reached its hype as a cinematic presentation and it also depicts nearly accurate historical information about the life of Alexander the great. Oliver Stone’s Life of Alexander remains the controversial presentation when studying the Life of Alexander. This short essay will critically investigate how Stone went about constructing his ‘biopic’ of Alexander, including a consideration of which episodes were included as well as those which were excluded.
Thyclydies and Herodotus were the two definers in the early histories on how histories are normally written. Herodotus is more a narrative type writer and likes to write to appeal to the writer’s feelings. Thyclides who is more of a writer like Alexander writes analytical. He looks how people write to explain how people did things other than supernatural forces. Alexander is an analytical when he looks at things season by season. He also is analytical by including all the facts and data to back up his points. Being an analytical writer helps Alexander establish his
"The Internet Classics Archive | Themistocles by Plutarch." The Internet Classics Archive | Themistocles by Plutarch. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. .
The book Plutarch: Lives of the Noble Greeks was created by Edmund Fuller because of his fondness of the book Parallel Lines by the famous Plutarch and the relationship he created between him and the characters. Parallel Lines is a collection of biographies of famous men in the Roman and Greek time period. The twenty-three biographies included in the book focus on the men’s moral virtues and how they impacted the lives of others. This book is considered to be of great importance, by not only Edmund Fuller, because of its comparison of the lives of Roman and Greek men.
Around 1200-350 B.C.E, ancient Greece was mostly dominated by the rivalry between the two city-states, Sparta and Athens. Athens was the birthplace of democracy, thus, was also the least rigid of the two. Athens contained the most sophisticated people in Greece whereas Sparta was comprised of unsophisticated people and were more militaristic. Spartans considered their youth to be property of the Spartan states, and trained them for military life from a young age. Athenians, however, had different expectations for their youth. They believed that their children should be honest, loyal, respectful, and should serve their community to the best of their abilities. The two texts, Plutarch’s Lives by John W. McFarland, Pleasant F. Graves, Jr. and Aubrey Graves and The Oath of Athenian Youth by Anonymous, describe the different expectations and behaviors the city-states of Sparta and Athens had for their respective youth.
Procopius of Caesarea was a famous scholar in his time period, and produced three important historical works, which were History of the Wars, Secret History and The Buildings of Justinian. The duality of Procopius of Caesarea for the reign of Justinian the Great depends on his historiographic interpretations about Justinian the Great, and it is totally related to what Justinian did for his empire and what kind of a man he was during his time period because “he was the last Roman emperor, and very important to his period. While Procopius of Caesarea, who was a famous historian in his time period, was declaring, mentioning, and giving clues to his audience about the duality of Justinian the Great, he produced historical works and put his objective
When talking about the differences between these two writing styles one important thing to keep in mind is that Xenophon lived during the fourth century BC and Plutarch lived in the first century AD. This means that these two writers had different contexts and intentions when creating their account. One thing that they both talked about was how the political aspect of Spartan society was changed by the Lycurgan reforms. The biggest of these reforms was changing the role of a king. The two kings were no longer excused from normal citizen activities. Plutarch gives an example of this with the story of King Agis. “King Agis returned from the campaign and wanted to eat at home with his wife instead of at the communal mess and called
Plutarch explains in source A how boys at the age of seven were put into the care of the state, and how they would grow up constantly training physically. When in the education system the boys learnt reading a...
Literature can portray more than just a story. It can show the reader about a civilization’s ideals and people during different time periods. The literature of ancient Greece is no exception. In itself, literature cannot be seen as an accurate depiction of the past, but it can reveal the opinions of the writers. In Hecuba, it is significant that most of the central characters are women, who Euripides’ depicts as powerful. Through the comparison of Euripides’ depiction of women and men, he portrays his sympathy for women and therefore his radical views.
almost as Fate were deeming it necessary for him to die, and that he had no
Who is Marcus Aurelius? What did he do to make his mark in the pages of history? Why did the people of Rome respect and admire him? To the common person, Marcus was just a man who was an emperor of Rome and just another person who helped shaped this world. Marcus Aurelius was more than that! Anthony Birley writes, “The acquaintance of a man like Marcus Aurelius is an imperishable benefit.” The character of Marcus Aurelius is truly special, but was molded by many important people and figures in his life. With the absence of honor and duty in Rome, influences such as Junius Rusticus, a book called “The Discourses of Epictetus”, and the Roman Emperor Hadrian, led Marcus Aurelius to become one of the most important stoics and one of Rome’s greatest Emperors.
It hides the fact that Greek society type of justice is wrongly served by those who have no power. Odysseus is a king, he never got questioned of his actions. May this be because he is a king. Or Socrates being accused of corrupting the young? May this be because of his poverty. There is and unbalance in injustice especially what social class Greeks came from that maybe these stories depicted, but hide it from what these stories
While comparing the two pieces of literature, The Histories, by Herodotus, and The Peloponnesian War, by Thucydides they had many resemblances but what really caught my eye was the strong differences between them. The two historians, who were seen as the original fathers of Greek Historiography, played a huge role in narrating history. Although there were some similarities, Herodotus’ and Thucydides’ works differ significantly in the amount of detail, writing style, and topics discussed.