Plutarch's Lives, Volume 4 (of 4)

XXII. While Galba was deliberating and hesitating, the German army broke out into open rebellion. All the soldiers alike hated Galba for not having given them their promised don...

LVII. Many were now in the plot; and when Dion was sitting with his friends in a room furnished with several couches, some of the conspirators surrounded the house, while others...

XV. For the present Tiberius[71] dissolved the assembly, seeing that his proceedings with respect to Octavius were not liked either by the nobles or the people, for they conside...

XXXVIII. Now Brutus had subjected to him most of the nations that lay in his way: and if any city or ruler had been passed by, they then brought over all in their progress as fa...

[260] Her name was Publilia. Cicero was now sixty years of age. Various ladies had been recommended to Cicero. He would not marry the daughter of Pompeius Magnus, the widow of F...

XXXI. Kleomenes sailed from Kythera to another island, named Ægialea. As he was about to cross over from this place to Cyrene, one of his friends named Therykion, a brilliant wa...

XII. As the returned exiles could not be withheld from attacking those whom they found in possession of their property, and by doing so seemed likely to bring the state to ruin,...

XVI. Dionysius at once removed Plato into the citadel, where, under pretence of showing him kindly respect, he was kept in an honourable captivity, in order that he might not sa...

LXXVII.[468] When he learned that she was alive, he eagerly commanded his slaves to take him up, and he was carried in their arms to the doors of the chamber. Cleopatra did not...

XLIX. Now that Philip was borne along upon the full tide of success, he developed many vehement lusts, and the natural wickedness of his nature broke through all the artificial...

XVIII. When Tissaphernes betrayed Klearchus and the other generals, broke his plighted word, seized them and sent them away in chains, Ktesias tells us that Klearchus asked him...

XLVIII. In the meantime the murderers with their helpers came on, Herennius[284] a centurion, and Popilius a tribune, who had once been prosecuted for parricide and Cicero was h...

The Romans in their admiration of Philopoemen used to call him the last of the Greeks, as though no great actions were performed in Greece after his time: but I should be inclin...

[336] Antonius, after returning from Egypt in B.C. 54, went to Cæsar in Gaul, who was then in winter-quarters after his return from the second British expedition. In B.C. 53 Ant...

XVIII. This exploit added not a little to the reputation and power of Kleomenes. None of the ancient kings of Sparta could ever make themselves masters of Argos, although they o...

XVI. While affairs were in this state, young Cæsar[352] arrived at Rome, being the son of the niece of the deceased, as it has been told, and left the heir of his substance; and...

XXIX. He, therefore, placed himself entirely in the hands of Teribazus; and many joined in their conspiracy. But the plot was betrayed to the king by a eunuch, who had a perfect...

XVII. Towards evening he became thirsty, and drank a little water: after which he spent a long time in examining the blades of two swords. At last he rejected one of them, and h...

VI. However, all turbulent and unsettled spirits thought that the empire required Cyrus at its head, since he was a brilliant and warlike prince, a staunch friend to his comrade...

XXI. Demetrius went to war with the Rhodians because they were the allies of Ptolemy, and brought up to their walls his largest "city-taker," a machine with a square base, each...

Plutarch's perception of the early periods of Roman history was perhaps not strictly exact; but he comprehended very clearly the state of the parties in the age of the Gracchi....

VI. The people not only passed this law, but empowered Gracchus to select from the equites those who were to act as judices, which conferred on him a kind of monarchical authori...

I. We are told by the poet Simonides, Sossius Senecio, that the Trojans bore no malice against the Corinthians for joining the rest of the Greeks in the siege of Troy, because G...

XIX. Cornelia is said to have borne her misfortunes with a noble and elevated spirit, and to have said of the sacred ground on which her sons were murdered, that they had a tomb...

XXII. Demosthenes had secret intelligence of Philip's death, before it was publicly known. In order to inspirit the Athenians, he went with a cheerful countenance into the senat...

XXXVII. In the Senate, when they were proposing to vote him a triumph, he said that he would more gladly follow Cæsar in his triumph, if a settlement could be effected; and he p...

XIII. Brutus having now the first men in Rome, both for spirit and family and virtues, dependent upon himself, and having a view of the whole danger, in his public demeanour end...

XL. The war was attended with great hardship to both sides, and the future was still more alarming, as Antonius was expecting famine, for it was no longer possible to get forage...

III. After being released from his youthful studies, he heard Philo[145] of the Academy, whom of all the scholars of Kleitomachus, the Romans admired most for his eloquence and...

[124] Alluding to the fight of Herakles with the Lernæan hydra which had nine heads. Herakles struck off its heads with his club, but in the place of the head he cut off, two ne...

XXV. After this Antistius gave Brutus fifty ten thousands out of the money which he was taking to Italy; and all the soldiers of Pompeius who were still rambling about Thessaly...

[99] The erecting of statues to their great men was probably more common at Rome after the conquest of Greece, when they became acquainted with Greek art. Rome at a later period...

XLIII. After they had ceased speaking, there was a great silence; and when Dion rose and began to speak, tears choked his utterance. The Peloponnesians encouraged him, and showe...

[426] In B.C. 34, Antonius invaded Armenia and got Artavasdes the king into his power. The Median king with whom Antonius made this marriage alliance (B.C. 33) was also named Ar...

LXV.[446] Now on that day and the three following days the sea was agitated by a strong wind which prevented an engagement, but on the fifth, there being no wind and the sea bei...

III. When Gabinius,[327] a man of consular rank, was sailing for Syria, he endeavoured to persuade Antonius to join the expedition. Antonius said that he would not go out with h...

[513] Plutarch here alludes to the office of Prætor Urbanus, who, during the year of his office, was the chief person for the administration of justice. The number of prætors at...

[194] I believe that I have translated this correctly. I suppose that Plutarch means to say, that if Cæsar had been accused as a member of the conspiracy, he would have been acq...

XIII. Thus far all had gone well, and no one remained to hinder the accomplishment of the reforms; but now Agesilaus alone upset and ruined the whole of this noble and truly Spa...

Reflecting men in all ages have a philosophy. With the educated Greeks and Romans, philosophy was religion. The vulgar belief, under whatever name it may be, is never the belief...

XXVI. When Crassus[207] was about to set out for Syria, he wished Cicero to be his friend rather than his enemy, and he said in a friendly manner that he wished to sup with him,...

LIII. At Rome Octavia[425] was desirous of going to Antonius, and Cæsar gave her permission; as the greater part say, not with the design of pleasing her, but in order that if s...

XXIX. When Dion had entered by the Temenitid[489] gate, he caused his trumpet to sound to obtain silence; and then a herald made proclamation that Dion and Megakles were come to...

V. Shortly after, as the Achæans were making war against the Eleans, Kleomenes was sent to aid the latter, and met with the army of the Achæans returning home, near the mountain...

IX. Nymphidius, who thus began to draw nearer to the object of his hopes, did not dislike being called the son of Caius Cæsar, who was emperor after Tiberius. It seems that Caiu...

L. Among the intimates of Brutus was one Lucilius,[572] a good man. Observing that some barbarian horsemen in their pursuit paid no regard to the rest, but rode at full speed af...

Demetrius now set sail for Athens with five thousand talents of silver, and a fleet of two hundred and fifty vessels. At this time Demetrius of Phalerum governed the city as Kas...

XXXVII. Though the light-armed troops ran out to meet the Spartans, drove them back to their camp, and even fought round their tents, yet Aratus would not move on with the heavy...

V. About this time news was brought to Rome that Cæcina and Valens, acting as the lieutenants of Vitellius, had seized the passes of the Alps. The prætorians also conceived susp...

XXXIII. Demetrius on this occasion showed no want of spirit. He declared that not if he had lost ten thousand fields like Ipsus would he consent to buy Seleukus for his son-in-l...

XLIV. When this great armament, the largest ever collected since the death of Alexander, began to menace Asia, the three princes, Ptolemy, Seleukus, and Lysimachus, formed a con...

XV. Not long after the men in Etruria came together to support Catilina, and were forming themselves into companies; and the appointed day for executing their plan was near, whe...

I. Many writers have very naturally conceived that the myth of Ixion, who is fabled to have embraced a cloud instead of Hera, and so to have begotten the centaurs, is really typ...

Sulla, Lucius Cornelius, ii. Life and Comparison with Lysander. _See_ also the contemporary and nearly contemporary lives, i. Coriolanus, ch. 11; ii. Marius, chs. 1, 10, 25, 26,...

----, Maximus Verrucosus, i. Life and Comparison with Perikles; i. Perikles, ch. 2; Æmilius, ch. 5; ii. Marcellus, chs. 9, 21, 25; Cato Major, chs. 2, 3; iii. Comparison of Ages...

IX. How then, one might ask, was it that Æschines in his orations speaks of Demosthenes as a man of unbounded impudence? or how was it that when Python of Byzantium was pouring...

Cappadocia and Cappadocians, ii. Marius, chs. 31, 34; Sulla, chs. 9, 11, 22; Comparison, ch. 5; Lucullus, chs. 14, 21, 26, 30; iii. Crassus ch. 18; Sertorius, ch. 23; Eumenes, c...

Olympia and the Olympic games, i. Theseus, ch. 25; Lykurgus, chs. 1 (Olympic truce), 21 (usage for Spartan victors, compare iii. Agesilaus, ch. 28), 22 (Olympic truce); Numa, ch...

XXIX. But Cleopatra, by distributing flattery not, as Plato[378] says, in four ways, but in many ways, and by always adding some new pleasure and charm to whatever was either se...

Rhodes and Rhodians, i. Themistokles, ch. 21; Perikles, ch. 17; ii. Marius, ch. 29; Lucullus, chs. 2, 3; iii. Pompeius, ch. 42; Alexander, ch. 32; Cæsar, ch. 3; Phokion, ch. 18;...

Phoenicia and the Phoenicians, i. Perikles, chs. 26, 28; Alkibiades, chs. 25, 26; Timoleon, chs. 9, 11, 34; Æmilius, ch. 12; ii. Pyrrhus, ch. 22; Lysander, ch. 9; Sulla, ch. 17...

Megara and the Megarians, historical notices, i. Theseus, chs. 10, 20, 25, 27, 32; Solon, chs. 8-11; Comparison, ch. 4; Themistokles, ch. 13; Perikles, ch. 27, and after; Alkibi...

Latins, i. Romulus, chs. 2, 4, 5, 8, 23, 26, 29; Numa, ch. 7 (the early connection of Greek and Latin), 9, 19; Poplicola, chs. 8, 21; Camillus, chs. 33, 34 (the Latin feast days...

Delphi and Delphians, i. Theseus, chs. 3, 5, 16, 26; Romulus, ch. 28; Lykurgus, chs. 5, 28; Numa, ch. 9; Solon, chs. 4, 11; Camillus, chs. 4, 8; Perikles, ch. 21; Fabius, ch. 18...

Illyria and Illyrians, i. Æmilius, chs. 9, 12, 31; ii. Philopoemen, ch. 6; Pyrrhus, chs. 3, 9, 34 (an Illyrian sword); iii. Pompeius, chs. 48, 59; Alexander, chs. 3, 9, 11; Cæsa...

Argos and Argives, i. Lykurgus, ch. 7; Alkibiades, chs. 14, 15; ii. Pelopidas, ch. 24; Philopoemen, chs. 12, 18; Pyrrhus, ch. 29, and after; iii. Nikias, ch. 10; Agesilaus, ch....

Agesilaus I., king of Sparta, iii.; Life and Comparison with Pompeius, i. Lykurgus, chs. 12, 29; Timoleon, ch. 36; ii. Pelopidas, chs. 16, 21, 30; Flamininus, ch. 11; Lysander,...

[38] Caius Fannius Strabo was quæstor in the consulship of Cn. Calpurnius Piso and M. Popilius Lænas B.C. 139, and two years after he was prætor. He served in Africa under the y...

V. After that expedition he was elected quæstor,[39] and it fell to his lot to serve in that capacity under the consul Caius Mancinus,[40] no bad man, but the most unlucky of Ro...

Troezen, town of Argolis, i. Theseus, chs. 3, 6, 19, 29, 34, 36; Comparison, chs. 1, 6; Themistokles, ch. 10; iv. Kleomenes, ch. 19; Demosthenes, ch. 26; Aratus, chs. 1, 24.