"The Just" (530 - 468 B.C.) ARISTEIDHS by Plutarch Aristides was so respected throughout Greece for his fairness that Athens assumed the leadership of the alliance against the Persian invaders. His character is a model for all ages. Aristides was a close friend of Cleisthenes, the man who had stampe...
(all dates B.C.) circa 9000 Atlantis disappears. circa 1600 Island of Thera explodes, causing a tidal wave that inundates coastal settlements in the Aegean, and cripples the civilization of Crete. circa 1300 Theseus establishes the city of Athens. circa 1250 Troy falls to Agamemnon and his Greek a...
The Athenian Adventurer (circa 1300 B.C.) QHSEUS by Plutarch Theseus suppressed crime and brought the natives of Attica together into the first democracy. He saved the Athenian children from the Minotaur, but his kidnap of the queen of the Amazons brought trouble, and he ended his days in disgrace. ...
Alexander"The Great"(356 -323 B.C.) In an amazing eleven-year journey of conquest, young Alexander of Macedonia conquered all the way from Egypt to India. Behind him came Greek institutions and the Greek language, which became the standard of the ancient world. The intoxication of power caused Alexa ...
The Greeks were the first to formulate many of the Western world's fundamental concepts in politics, philosophy, science, and art. How was itthat a relative handful of people could bequeath such a legacy tocivilization? The definitive answer may always elude the historian, but a goodpart of the expl...
The Savior of Syracuse (409 - 354 B.C.) DIWN by Plutarch Sicily was an important part of the Greek world. Dion led the struggle against tyranny in its largest city, Syracuse. Ingratitude and betrayal were his reward for indulging the democrats of Syracuse. Dionysius [the Elder] 1 had become tyrant o...
PLOUTARXOS (circa 45 - 125 A.D.) Priest of the Delphic Oracle Greece, by the turn of the first millenium, was a sad ruin of its former glory. Mighty Rome had looted its statues and reduced Greece to conquered territory. 1 Despite these circumstances, Mestrius Plutarchus (known to history as Plutarch...
"The Olympian" (495 - 429 B.C.) PERIKLHS by Plutarch By the power of his eloquence, and the money embezzled from Athens' unwilling allies, Pericles built Athens into a beautiful city and a powerful empire. Athenian imperialism, however, soon led to war with Sparta. Augustus Caesar observed some fore...
A Vital Legacy The final complexity in dealing with classical Greece (and then Rome)involves its relationship to us - to contemporary residents of North America.For most Americans, Greece constitutes the first phase of "our own" classicalpast. The framers of the Constitution of the United States wer...
The Reformer of Sparta (reigned 245 - 241 B.C.) AGIS by Plutarch The love of money had virtually destroyed the laws of Lycurgus in Sparta by the time Agis became king. This idealistic young man tried to restore the old way of life that had made Sparta great, but he was defeated by the power of greed...
If we explore the literature of Heroism, we shall quickly come to Plutarch, who is its Doctor and historian. ... I must think we are more deeply indebted to him than to all the ancient writers. Each of his "Lives" is a refutation to the despondency and cowardice of our religious and political theori...
The Lawmaker of Athens (died 559 B.C.) SOLWN by Plutarch Athens, unlike Sparta, was a money-mad commercial city. The constitution written by Solon mitigated the class struggle between rich and poor, and allowed for the growth of democratic institutions. Solon was born into a well-to-do family of Ath...