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Life of Lysander
Plutarch was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia . Thanks to his writings and lectures Plutarch became a celebrity in the Roman Empire. At his country estate, guests from all over the empire congregated for serious conversation, presided over by Plutarch in his marble chair. Many of these dialogues were recorded and published, and the 78 essays and other works which have survived are now known collectively as the Moralia .
Plutarch’s best-known work is the Parallel Lives , a series of biographies of famous Greeks and Romans, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues and vices. The surviving Lives contain 23 pairs, each with one Greek Life and one Roman Life , as well as four unpaired single Lives . Some of the Lives , such as those of Heracles, Philip II of Macedon and Scipio Africanus, no longer exist; many of the remaining Lives are truncated, contain obvious lacunae or have been tampered with by later writers. Extant Lives include those on Aristides, Pericles, Pompey, Julius Caesar, Cicero, Cato the Younger, Mark Antony, and Marcus Junius Brutus.
Plutarch also wrote a series of biographies, including the biographies of Demetrius, Pyrrhus, Agis and Cleomenes, Aratus and Artaxerxes, Philopoemen, Camillus, Marcellus, Flamininus, Aemilius Paulus, Galba and Otho.
Plutarch’s best-known work is the Parallel Lives , a series of biographies of famous Greeks and Romans, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues and vices. The surviving Lives contain 23 pairs, each with one Greek Life and one Roman Life , as well as four unpaired single Lives . Some of the Lives , such as those of Heracles, Philip II of Macedon and Scipio Africanus, no longer exist; many of the remaining Lives are truncated, contain obvious lacunae or have been tampered with by later writers. Extant Lives include those on Aristides, Pericles, Pompey, Julius Caesar, Cicero, Cato the Younger, Mark Antony, and Marcus Junius Brutus.
Plutarch also wrote a series of biographies, including the biographies of Demetrius, Pyrrhus, Agis and Cleomenes, Aratus and Artaxerxes, Philopoemen, Camillus, Marcellus, Flamininus, Aemilius Paulus, Galba and Otho.
- GenresBiography
33 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 3, 2015
12 people want to read
About the author
Plutarch
4,279 books922 followersPlutarch (later named, upon becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus; AD 46–AD 120) was a Greek historian, biographer, and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He is classified as a Middle Platonist. Plutarch's surviving works were written in Greek, but intended for both Greek and Roman readers.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 5, 2018
The Conquerer of Athens
5 October 2018
I’m slowly making my way through the lives, and with the two volume edition that I have, I am almost halfway there (and it has taken almost a year to get to this point). Then again, since I’m reading one life at a time spaced out between other books I am not surprised that this endeavour is taking as long as it has done, though I have previously read the first volume, just not the second. Oh, and throw in all the technical books I am reading, as well as a plethora of assignments, my devouring of literature is certainly become quite slow these days (though I should point out one of my assignments involved developing an e-commerce site, and not surprisingly, I’ve chosen books).
So, Lysdander is probably famous for the fact that he was the guy that brought Athens to its knees during the Peloponesian war. After their defeat at Sicily, Athens was surprisingly capable of being able to rebuild itself, and the one problem that Spartan faced was that they didn’t have a navy. Well, Lysander helped solve that by approaching Cyrus II of Persia and asking for some help (isn’t it interesting that the empire that was once the enemy of Greece, is now supporting one of the factions that defeated them, but then again I probably shouldn’t be all that surprised).
However, while Lysander was a pretty effective captain (or admiral – the correct term is a Navarch), the problem was that he could only be admiral once, and never again. Sure, that helps deal with people becoming entrenched, but it also has the problem of getting rid of somebody that is particularly good at the role that they are holding. Well, they got around that by appointing him deputy, and it turned out that he was pretty good at what he was doing, that is commanding (or at least being deputy to the commander, though in reality he was calling the shots) a fleet of ships. Not only was he able to defeat the Athenian fleet numerous times, but he also captured the Hellespont, took control of the trade routes, and basically starved Athens into submission.
Another interesting thing about Lysander was that he was the guy that appointed the Thirty Tyrants who ruled Athens after her defeat, and he also brought a heap of treasure back to Sparta so as to help them maintain their fleet. There was a problem with that though because the Spartans had never been big on money, even if the money was owned by the state. As it turned out, this huge influx of money resulted in the state pretty much becoming corrupted, and not surprisingly their hold on Athens pretty much slipped within a few years, and the city-state itself, while at this time sat on top of the Greek world, didn’t maintain its position for all that long. Money will do that to people, particularly when it comes down to the other thing that the Spartans didn’t particularly like – luxury.
The final thing that I should mention is Lysander’s ancestry. Sure, a lot of it is shrouded in mystery, but in one sense he was seen as being one of those rags to riches stories – he apparently started off as a slave, or a peasant, and rose to the rank of citizen (it seemed as if the Spartans were more open to granting citizenship than some of the other places). The other story suggests that he was one of the Heraclidae, that is that Heracles was actually one of his ancestors, though he wasn’t actually nobility, however that claim to being an Heraclidae may have assisted with the granting of citizenship, though I’m not entirely sure how he could have proved it – it isn’t as if the Spartans had advanced genetic tests available, or even a copy of Heracle’s DNA. While we might write Heracles off as basically a legend (you know, the super-godlike tough guy, or The Rock), the thing is that writers at the time, even ones with the calibre of Plutarch, really did believe in his existence.
5 October 2018
I’m slowly making my way through the lives, and with the two volume edition that I have, I am almost halfway there (and it has taken almost a year to get to this point). Then again, since I’m reading one life at a time spaced out between other books I am not surprised that this endeavour is taking as long as it has done, though I have previously read the first volume, just not the second. Oh, and throw in all the technical books I am reading, as well as a plethora of assignments, my devouring of literature is certainly become quite slow these days (though I should point out one of my assignments involved developing an e-commerce site, and not surprisingly, I’ve chosen books).
So, Lysdander is probably famous for the fact that he was the guy that brought Athens to its knees during the Peloponesian war. After their defeat at Sicily, Athens was surprisingly capable of being able to rebuild itself, and the one problem that Spartan faced was that they didn’t have a navy. Well, Lysander helped solve that by approaching Cyrus II of Persia and asking for some help (isn’t it interesting that the empire that was once the enemy of Greece, is now supporting one of the factions that defeated them, but then again I probably shouldn’t be all that surprised).
However, while Lysander was a pretty effective captain (or admiral – the correct term is a Navarch), the problem was that he could only be admiral once, and never again. Sure, that helps deal with people becoming entrenched, but it also has the problem of getting rid of somebody that is particularly good at the role that they are holding. Well, they got around that by appointing him deputy, and it turned out that he was pretty good at what he was doing, that is commanding (or at least being deputy to the commander, though in reality he was calling the shots) a fleet of ships. Not only was he able to defeat the Athenian fleet numerous times, but he also captured the Hellespont, took control of the trade routes, and basically starved Athens into submission.
Another interesting thing about Lysander was that he was the guy that appointed the Thirty Tyrants who ruled Athens after her defeat, and he also brought a heap of treasure back to Sparta so as to help them maintain their fleet. There was a problem with that though because the Spartans had never been big on money, even if the money was owned by the state. As it turned out, this huge influx of money resulted in the state pretty much becoming corrupted, and not surprisingly their hold on Athens pretty much slipped within a few years, and the city-state itself, while at this time sat on top of the Greek world, didn’t maintain its position for all that long. Money will do that to people, particularly when it comes down to the other thing that the Spartans didn’t particularly like – luxury.
The final thing that I should mention is Lysander’s ancestry. Sure, a lot of it is shrouded in mystery, but in one sense he was seen as being one of those rags to riches stories – he apparently started off as a slave, or a peasant, and rose to the rank of citizen (it seemed as if the Spartans were more open to granting citizenship than some of the other places). The other story suggests that he was one of the Heraclidae, that is that Heracles was actually one of his ancestors, though he wasn’t actually nobility, however that claim to being an Heraclidae may have assisted with the granting of citizenship, though I’m not entirely sure how he could have proved it – it isn’t as if the Spartans had advanced genetic tests available, or even a copy of Heracle’s DNA. While we might write Heracles off as basically a legend (you know, the super-godlike tough guy, or The Rock), the thing is that writers at the time, even ones with the calibre of Plutarch, really did believe in his existence.
June 29, 2021
Reading Xenophon's Hellenika, I read this biography of a major character as a supplement. I found that Plutarch draws heavily on Xenophon, and much of it was redundant.
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November 13, 2023so anyways this was when my flop era started
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews