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Parallel Lives

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For other uses, see Parallel Lives (disambiguation).

The Parallel Lives (Ancient Greek: Βίοι Παράλληλοι, Bíoi Parállēloi; Latin: Vītae Parallēlae) is a series of 48 biographies of famous men written in Greek by the Greco-Roman philosopher, historian, and Apollonian priest Plutarch, probably at the beginning of the second century. The lives are arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings.[1] While any historically valuable similarities are often forced, these stories of contrasting characters hold great literary value.[2]

The surviving Parallel Lives comprises of 23 pairs of biographies, each pair consisting of one Greek and one Roman of similar destiny, such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, or Demosthenes and Cicero. There are also four singular Lives, recounting the stories of Artaxerxes, Aratus, Galba, and Otho. Traces of other biographies point to an additional twelve single Lives that are now missing.[3]

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.

Motivation

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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.[4][5]

As he explains in 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 shed light on the actions and achievements of the Greek men of the distant past through his comparisons with the more recent past of Rome.[6] George Wyndham's introduction in the 1895 publication of the Lives writes of:

"[Plutarch's] desire, as a man, to draw the noble Grecians, long since dead, a little nearer to the noonday of the living...By placing them side by side, he gave back to the Greeks that touch which they had lost with the living in the death of Greece, and to the Romans that distinction from everyday life which they were fast beginning to lose".[7]

Plutarch's interest was primarily ethical rather than historical ("For it is not Histories that I am writing, but Lives."). Because the men he wrote about had been dead nearly 300 years before Plutarch's time, his writing was largely based off of manuscripts of uncertain accuracy.[8] Plutarch himself had little faith in the historic truth found in resources from the past. In his life of Pericles, he states:

"It is so hard to find out the truth of anything by looking at the record of the past. The process of time obscures the truth of former times, and even contemporaneous writers disguise and twist the truth out of malice or flattery."[8]

Translations

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Third Volume of a 1727 edition of Plutarch's Lives, printed by Jacob Tonson

The Lives were circulated enough throughout Rome after their original production that they survived the Dark Ages. However, many of the Lives which appear in a list of his writings have not been found. Among these are his biography of Hercules and his comparison of Epaminondas of Greece and Scipio Africanus of Rome.[9]

The first printed edition of his Parallel Lives appeared in Rome around 1470, translated into Latin from the original Greek. Several more translations would appear through the end of the fifteenth century, with an Italian translation in 1482 then in Spanish in 1491. A German translation would be written in 1541.[10]

The Lives would gain massive popularity after the 1559 French translation by Amyot, the Abbot of Bellozane. This reproduction of the work was an immediate success. Six authorized editions were published by the Parisian house of Vascosan by the end of 1579, and it was largely pirated.[11]

Amyot's translation served as a direct source for Thomas North's 1579 English translation, which phrase for phrase follows Amyot's French version[12]. This rendition would become an important source-material for Shakespeare's Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, and Antony and Cleopatra[13].

In 1683 a new English edition of the Lives was published, this time translated from the original Greek, unlike North's translation based off of the French version. This translation has come to be known as "Dryden's translation", despite the poet John Dryden only serving as the project's editor and ultimately having no role in the actual translation of the work. It was published by Jacob Tonson.[14]

The most popular English translations that exist today are published by Penguin Classics and Oxford World's Classics. Both of these editions provide a solid translation of the entire Lives, as well as introductions, notes, and bibliographies produced by leading experts on Plutarch and the Parallel Lives.[15] Modern translations of Plutarch's work has made Parallel Lives accessible and digestible to vast audiences.

Content

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Plutarch structured Parallel Lives by pairing lives of famous Greeks with those of famous Romans. Eighteen of these close with a formal comparison between its characters.[2]

Plutarch's focus within the Lives is to create a neat depiction of character that fits into his comparison to the parallel life. Historical context is neglected in favor of moral analysis in order to create his desired anecdote. This can be seen in his deviation from the sources he used to understand the characters he represented: "His Eumenes is a far cry from any picture of Eumenes he can have found in the historical literature he used. It is an artificial creation to provide a counterpart to his Sertorius and can only be understood against the background of the Sertorius."[16] The Parallel Lives, therefore, need to be understood primarily as literary biographies, not as histories.

Within the biographies Plutarch presents both the positive and negative attributes of each character. Rather than speaking of the character’s lives in simple terms surrounding the events of their lives, he describes the moral and psychological motivations behind each figure. He uses them as ‘moral actors’, prompting self-examination and self-improvement from the reader. Even when making judgements on the characters within the text, Plutarch still “poses questions to his readers and suggests alternative trains of thought that might be possible for them to follow”.[17] This encourages the reader to acknowledge and appreciate contradicting viewpoints and broaden their moral perspectives.

The table below gives 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.[18] The table also features links to several English translations of Plutarch's Lives available online. While the four unpaired biographies are not considered to be parts of the Parallel Lives, they can be included in the term Plutarch's Lives.

All dates are BC.

№ Greek Roman Comparison
Life Years Translations Life Years Translations
1 Theseus mythic D G L P LV Romulus fl. 771–717 D G L D G L
2 Lycurgus fl. c. 820 (D) G L Numa Pompilius 715–673 D G L D G L
3 Themistocles c. 524–459 D G L P Camillus 446–365 (D) G L n/a
4 Solon 638–558 D G L P Poplicola d. 503 D G L D G L
5 Pericles c. 495–429 (D) G L P Fabius Maximus 275–203 D G L D G L
6 Alcibiades 450–404 (D) G L P Coriolanus fl. 475 (D) G L P D G L
7 Epaminondas d. 362 Lost Scipio Africanus or Aemilianus[19] 236–183 or 185–129 Lost
8 Phocion c. 402 – c. 318 D G L P Cato the Younger 95–46 (D) G L n/a
9–10 Agis fl. 245 D L Tiberius Gracchus c. 164–133 D L D L
Cleomenes d. 219 D L Gaius Gracchus 154–121 D L
11 Timoleon c. 411–337 (D) G L Aemilius Paullus c. 229–160 (D) G L D G L
12 Eumenes c. 362–316 D G L Sertorius c. 123–72 D G L D G L
13 Aristides 530–468 D G L P Cato the Elder 234–149 D G L G L
14 Pelopidas d. 364 D G L Marcellus 268–208 D G L D G L
15 Lysander d. 395 D G L P Sulla 138–78 (D) G L D G L
16 Pyrrhus 319/318–272 (D) G L Marius 157–86 (D) G L n/a
17 Philopoemen 253–183 D G L Titus Flamininus c. 229–174 D G L D G L
18 Nicias 470–413 D G L P Crassus c. 115–53 (D) G L D G L
19 Cimon 510–450 D G L P Lucullus 118–57/56 (D) G L D G L
20 Dion 408–354 (D) L Brutus 85–42 (D) L P D L
21 Agesilaus c. 444 – c. 360 (D) G L Pompey 106–48 (D) G L D G L
22 Alexander 356–323 (D) G L P Julius Caesar (detailed article) 100–44 (D) G L P1 P2[1] n/a
23 Demosthenes 384–322 D L Cicero 106–43 (D) L D L
25[20] Demetrius d. 283 (D) L Mark Antony 83–30 (D) L P D L
Notes

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 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.

  1. ^ The Perseus project also contains a biography of Caesar Augustus, in North's translation, but not from Plutarch's Parallel Lives: P
  2. ^ Though the majority of the Parallel Lives were written with the Greek hero (or heroes) placed in the first position followed by the Roman hero, there are three sets of Lives where this order is reversed: Aemilius Paulus/Timoleon, Coriolanus/Alcibiades and Sertorius/Eumenes.
  3. ^ At the time of composing this table there appears some confusion in the internal linking of the Perseus project webpages, responsible for this split in two references.

Reception

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Plutarch's Parallel Lives has received widespread praise from notable figures throughout its centuries of popularity. The 1559 first French edition was hailed by French author and philosopher Montaigne, who commented "We dunces would have been lost if this book had not raised us out of the dirt". Beethoven, with the progression of his deafness, wrote in 1801, "I have often cursed my Creator and my existence.  Plutarch has shown me the path of resignation.  If it is at all possible, I will bid defiance to my fate, though I feel that as long as I live there will be moments when I shall be God's most unhappy creature ... Resignation, what a wretched resource!  Yet it is all that is left to me." British General Gordon wrote "Certainly I would make Plutarch's Lives a handbook for our young officers.  It is worth any number of 'Arts of War' or 'Minor Tactics'." Ralph Waldo Emerson called the Lives "a bible for heroes."[21]

The individual biographies have their own receptions in addition to responses to the work as a whole. The life of Antonius has been cited by multiple scholars as one of the masterpieces of the series.[22][23][24]. Peter D'Epiro praised his depiction of Alcibiades as "a masterpiece of characterization."[25] Academic Philip A. Stadter singled out Plutarch's Pompey and Caesar as the greatest figures in the Roman biographies.[26] His biography of Caesar has been cited as proof that Plutarch is "loaded with perception".[27] Carl Rollyson's Essays in Biography states that "no biographer has surpassed him in summing up the essence of a life – perhaps because no modern biographer has believed so intensely as Plutarch did in 'the soul of men'."[27]

Within each translation and reiteration of Plutarch's Lives, translators and editors have manipulated his original work in order to put foreword their own ideologies. George Wyndham's 1895 introduction to the Lives denounces how

"Men cut down the genuine Lives to convenient lengths, for summaries and 'treasuries'...[they] epitomized Plutarch's matter and pointed his moral, grinding them to the dust of a classical dictionary and the ashes of a copybook headline".[28]

Here he is speaking of incomplete republications of Plutarch's original work, which had gained popularity but had been rehashed into brief, incomplete outlines that lacked Plutarch's original depth. Rebecca Nesvet argues that the 1683 translation of the text was constructed with the intention of incorporating a message of religious tolerance. Jacob Tonson, with assistance from John Dryden, republished Lives confirming Plutarch's paganism and demonstrating clearly that "adherence to a faith outside the one his readers were expected to follow should not disqualify a rational individual from political involvement in leadership". While the original text of Parallel Lives was produced to progress certain moral ideals, translators of the work have deviated from the original text to incorporate their own ethics.[29]

Plutarch's Parallel Lives has remained relevant centuries after being authored. His merging of biography and ethical commentary continues to be an invaluable reflection on human nature. Put quite plainly: "We find Plutarch surprisingly relevant today because nothing really has changed in human nature over the nineteen centuries since Plutarch wrote".[30]

See also

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Footnotes

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References

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  1. ^ James Romm (ed.), Plutarch: Lives that Made Greek History, Hackett Publishing, 2012, p. vi.
  2. ^ a b "Plutarch • Parallel Lives — Translator's Introduction". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2025-06-07.
  3. ^ "Plutarch • Parallel Lives — Translator's Introduction". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2025-06-07.
  4. ^ Kimball, Roger. "Plutarch & the issue of character". The New Criterion Online. Archived from the original on 2006-11-16. Retrieved 2006-12-11.
  5. ^ McCutchen, Wilmot H. "Plutarch – His Life and Legacy". Archived from the original on 2006-12-05. Retrieved 2006-12-10.
  6. ^ Life of Alexander 1.2
  7. ^ Plutarch (1895). Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans. D. Nutt.
  8. ^ a b McCutchen, Wilmot H. "Plutarch - His Life and Legacy". e-classics.com. Archived from the original on 2006-12-05. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  9. ^ McCutchen, Wilmot H. "Plutarch - His Life and Legacy". e-classics.com. Archived from the original on 2006-12-05. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  10. ^ McCutchen, Wilmot H. "Plutarch - His Life and Legacy". e-classics.com. Archived from the original on 2006-12-05. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  11. ^ "Shakespeare's Plutarch, Vol. I (containing the main sources of Julius Caesar) | Online Library of Liberty". oll.libertyfund.org. Retrieved 2025-06-07.
  12. ^ "Shakespeare's Plutarch, Vol. I (containing the main sources of Julius Caesar) | Online Library of Liberty". oll.libertyfund.org. Retrieved 2025-06-07.
  13. ^ "Plutarch • Parallel Lives — Translator's Introduction". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2025-06-07.
  14. ^ Nesvet, Rebecca (2005-06-01). "Parallel Histories: Dryden's Plutarch and Religious Toleration". The Review of English Studies. 56 (225): 424–437. doi:10.1093/res/hgi059. ISSN 1471-6968.
  15. ^ Fletcher, Lucy E. (2014-03-20). "PLUTARCH'S GREEK LIVES - (J.) Romm, (P.) Mensch (trans.) Plutarch. Lives that Made Greek History. Pp. xvi + 295, maps. Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc, 2012. Paper, £9.95, US$12.95 (Cased, £29.95, US$39.95). ISBN: 978-1-60384-846-6 (978-1-60384-847-3 hbk)". The Classical Review. 64 (1): 93–94. doi:10.1017/s0009840x13002485. ISSN 0009-840X.
  16. ^ Stadter, Philip A., ed. (2002-09-11). Plutarch and the Historical Tradition (0 ed.). Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203076637 (inactive 12 June 2025). ISBN 978-0-203-07663-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of June 2025 (link)
  17. ^ Chrysanthou, Chrysanthos S. (2018-02-19). Plutarch's >Parallel Lives< - Narrative Technique and Moral Judgement. De Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110574715. ISBN 978-3-11-057471-5.
  18. ^ Plutarch's Moralia, XV, edited and translated by F. H. Sandbach, Loeb Classical Library, 1987, pp. 3–11.
  19. ^ Kevin Herbert, "The Identity of Plutarch's Lost Scipio Archived 2019-07-13 at the Wayback Machine", in The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 78, No. 1 (1957), pp. 83–88. Plutarch only gives the name "Scipio". Herbert favours Scipio Aemilianus as the topic of the lost Life; he notes that Scipio Africanus was the subject of another (lost) biography by Plutarch.
  20. ^ Eran Almagor, "The Aratus and the Artaxerxes", in Mark Beck (editor), A Companion to Plutarch, pp. 278, 279. The n°24 in the Lamprias catalogue was a pair of biographies of Aratus and Artaxerxes, but they did not belong to the Parallel Lives.
  21. ^ McCutchen, Wilmot H. "Plutarch - His Life and Legacy". e-classics.com. Archived from the original on 2006-12-05. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  22. ^ Shakespeare's Principal Plays. Century Company. 1922.
  23. ^ Stadter, Philip A., ed. (2002). Plutarch and the Historical Tradition. Routledge. p. 159. ISBN 1-134-91319-2.
  24. ^ Plutarch (1906). Plutarch's Lives of Coriolanus, Caesar, Brutus, and Antonius: In North's Translation. Translated by North, Thomas. Clarendon Press.
  25. ^ D'Epiro, Peter (2010). The Book of Firsts: 150 World-Changing People and Events from Caesar Augustus to the Internet. Anchor Books. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-307-38843-8.
  26. ^ Brice, Lee L.; Slootjes, Daniëlle, eds. (2014). Aspects of Ancient Institutions and Geography: Studies in Honor of Richard J.A. Talbert. BRILL. p. 38. ISBN 978-9004283725.
  27. ^ a b Rollyson, Carl (2005). Essays in Biography. iUniverse. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-595-34181-8.
  28. ^ Plutarch (1895). Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans. D. Nutt.
  29. ^ Nesvet, Rebecca (2005-06-01). "Parallel Histories: Dryden's Plutarch and Religious Toleration". The Review of English Studies. 56 (225): 424–437. doi:10.1093/res/hgi059. ISSN 1471-6968.
  30. ^ McCutchen, Wilmot H. "Plutarch - His Life and Legacy". e-classics.com. Archived from the original on 2006-12-05. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
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