Nicias

Plutarch’s Life and Works, Including His Greek and Roman Lives, and Moralia, His Stoic Sayings
Book Reviews and Miscellaneous

Plutarch’s Life and Works, Including His Noble Greek and Roman Lives, and Moralia, His Stoic Sayings

07/17/2026 Bruce Strom 0

Over half of Plutarch’s Lives of Noble Romans influenced the history of the corrupt and violent last years of the Roman Republic, and the rise of the Roman Empire under Julius Caesar. Plutarch paired Greek and Roman lives based on their personalities and accomplishments. For example, Julius Caesar is paired with Alexander the Great, and the Greek companion to Cicero is Demosthenes, the renowned Greek orator who opposed Alexander the Great’s conquest of Greece. Plutarch used Xenophon as one of his sources for his lives of the Spartan Kings Agis and Agesilaus, Alcibiades, the lost life of Epaminondas of Thebes, and possibly Lycurgus of Sparta. The majority of Plutarch’s Roman lives featured the strivings of great men during the breakdown of the Roman Republic, and the subsequent struggles and civil wars that culminated in the reign of the first two emperors of the Roman Empire, Julius Caesar and Caesar Augustus, or Octavian.
Plutarch is more interested in highlighting the moral and character strengths and weaknesses of the famous men of history than he is in revealing how these great men influenced historical events. For this reason, you cannot consult only Plutarch for a complete historical review. We also consulted Will Durant’s account in his Story of Civilization, Volume 3, Caesar and Christ. Will Durant often quotes Cicero directly, and Plutarch is his primary source out of necessity. We also consulted the Wikipedia article on Cicero to fill in some background and details. […]

Plato’s Republic, Book 1, Reflecting on Old Age, Morality, and Justice
Aging

Plato’s Republic, Book 1, On Aging and Morality, a Better Word for Justice

12/27/2025 Bruce Strom 1

Reading Robin Waterfield’s translation was like breathing fresh alpine air. When I thought that Plato’s Republic was about justice, I reasoned that this was because Socrates sought to train Athenians to be better citizens in a direct democracy, a skill that would not be needed in the later totalitarian Roman Empire. But Robin Waterfield’s translation of the Republic makes more sense and is more in line with Stoic and Christian moral values. I demur from the conventional scholarly opinion that who the translator is does not matter. […]

Greek and Roman History

Comeback of Alcibiades in Peloponnesian War, according to Plutarch, Thucydides, and Xenophon

07/15/2022 Bruce Strom 0

Thucydides quotes the comic playwrights who say that regarding Alcibiades, the Athenians Love Him, Hate Him, and Can’t Do Without Him. During the war, he first advises the Athenians, then the Spartans, then the Persians, then he advises and leads the Athenians again, and everyone who takes his advice is successful in the war, but he manages to irritate so many Greeks and, after the war ends, is eventually slain by the Persians and Spartans. […]

Greek and Roman History

Athens’ Disastrous Defeat at Syracuse in Sicilian Expedition, Peloponnesian Wars

06/29/2022 Bruce Strom 5

We cannot improve on Will Durant’s summary of this ignoble defeat:
“The disaster broke the spirit of Athens. Nearly half the citizen body was enslaved or dead; half the women of the citizen class were widows, and their children were orphans.”

With modern scholarship, Professor Kenneth Harl estimates that only a quarter to a third of the male citizens of Athens were lost at Syracuse, which makes more sense, but is still a devastating blow. […]

Greek and Roman History

Aristophanes’ Comedy on the Peace of Nicias, Peloponnesian Wars

06/22/2022 Bruce Strom 0

Although many people in Athens and Sparta were opposed to the Peace of Nicias, and definitely most Spartan allies opposed the peace, many Athenians and Spartans were weary of war, so the peace did somewhat hold for six years. The play “Peace” by Aristophanes won second prize at the Dionysian Festival just a few days before the ratification of the Peace of Nicias, it celebrates the peace and a return to the idyllic life in the countryside. This play, the Peace, reflects the yearning of many Greeks for peace at last. […]

Greek and Roman History

From the Death of Pericles to the Peace of Nicias, Peloponnesian War, Thucydides and Plutarch

06/17/2022 Bruce Strom 0

After the death of Pericles, no popular leader arose that was able to dominate the Assembly like Pericles, which meant that it was impossible to follow a consistently stable wartime policy. Instead, Thucydides described a series of orators call demagogues. Pericles was the last Assembly orator who was also a general, he was elected to be a general for a dozen yearlong terms, in this war generals had to fight long campaigns and we unable to constantly address the Assembly, which led to the rise of the demagogue orators, who were often more interested in promoting polices that were popular with the people, and themselves, rather than promoting policies that would benefit the state. […]