Tag: Greece

The Fool of Hope (319 - 272 B.C.) P U R R O S by Plutarch In Pyrrhus' wild career of restless trouble-making, we see a soul incapable of satisfaction. He was a mighty man of war, and nearly conquered Rome, but he could never finish what he started before getting distracted by a new project. Glaucias...

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 Freedom Fighter (410 - 364 B.C.) PELOPIDAS by Plutarch Pelopidas led the Thebans to recover their liberty, then he led them to victory over the invincible Spartans. From beginning to end, his was the life of a hero. Pelopidas, the son of Hippoclus, was born into a prominent family of Thebes. He ...

From Plutarch's Lives, still inspirational after 19 centuries: 15 Ancient Greek Heroes from Plutarch's Lives Ploutarcou A modern English edition, abridged and annotated by Wilmot H. McCutchen Preface It's brief, so start here, then read these biographies in chronological order: Theseus The Athenian...

"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...

The Slave of Fear (died 413 B.C.) N I K I A S by Plutarch The turning point of the war with Sparta was the disastrous Sicilian Expedition, eagerly undertaken by the greedy Athenians. Superstitious old Nicias was their reluctant leader in this debacle. After the death of Pericles, the democracy of At...

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...

(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...

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"The Good" (402 - 318 B.C.) FWKIWN by Plutarch After her defeat in the Peloponnesian War, Athens became a decadent democracy. Phocion did his best over many years to save his fellow citizens from their own foolishness, and at last he earned the reward of Socrates. In the conflict between good men an...

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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...