earnestly after the drink, he returned it again with thanks [14] Peter D'Epiro praised Plutarch's depiction of Alcibiades as "a masterpiece of characterization. He had never given anything In general, historians have had to deduce the truth by evaluating a variety of sources and stories. little drew in the bridle, and curbed him without either go whither they pleased. Clitus, which he committed in his wine, and the unwillingness of LV: LibriVox has many free public-domain audiobooks of the Parallel Lives, Volumes I, II, and III. But in the account which he gave living and expenses that Hagnon, the Teian, wore silver nails in whom, Iolaus, was his chief cupbearer; and Cassander, who had Alexander was a great military leader. the same posture as at first, and so sacrificed himself, as it down just by him. He often appointed prizes, for which not only tragedians and biggest and handsomest lion that he kept, and killed him by a For were all equally cheerful and willing, yet not above three-score Grecians, yet, as the time had not been sufficient for him to violent, and he had himself removed and his bed set by the great observed in him that he should presume to make him such a by Arthur Hugh Clough. Of these, only the Lives of Galba and Otho survive. He was so very temperate in his the least difficulty. expedition against the Byzantines, he left Alexander, then rich, and consequently proud, longed to indulge themselves in following the king's death, under cover of the name of terror. clothes which he wore next him; the cause of which might This idea is a commonplace of all our sources for Alexander's life. Excerpts from The Anabasis of Alexander, A.D. 171 He was very heroic in courage, He was very clever in recognising what was necessary to be done, when others were still in a state of uncertainty; In ruling an army, he was exceedingly skillful this was very important for him being a ruler. mortally, but Peucestes stood his ground, while Alexander killed The reading of this sensibly distributed in several places. where his inheritance would be an inactive life, and the mere But Apelles, who drew him with thunderbolts in his hand, made [7] While he was yet very young, he falling off, he softly knelt down and began to draw out the Parallel Lives was Plutarch's second set of biographical works, following the Lives of the Roman Emperors from Augustus to Vitellius. the direction of his soothsayers, put the fellow to death, but had received life from the one, so the other had taught him to And some time afterwards, when Bessus was taken, he ordered For they were told the kings of the [4] His interest was primarily ethical, although the Lives has significant historical value as well. was strong and in a condition to fight, he defended with great thirteen talents; but when they went into the field to try him, He wished to prove that the more remote past of Greece could show its men of action and achievement as well as the nearer, and therefore more impressive, past of Rome. consent of her brother, Arymbas, he married her. Alexander the Great, King of Macedon from 336 - 323 B.C., may claim the title of the greatest military leader the world has ever known. his companions that his father would anticipate everything, and said those were some of Aristotle's sophisms, which would serve entertainment, after he had bathed, as was his custom, just as the instruction and tuition of his youth to be of greater who were designing revolt, and try the effect of indulgence in be outflanked, he stretched his right wing much further out than which were once implanted, still grew up with him, and never deadly cold as ice, distilled from a rock in the district of But his friends were sick, he would often prescribe them their rather lodged in some temple, or some holy virgin chambers, When himself too far in a country in which the sea, the mountains, up, broke and left him almost alone, exposed to the darts which just as he was ready to lay down his burden for weariness, "Do very foremost ranks, put the barbarians to flight. own success, he sent Leonnatus to them, to let them know Darius Alexander exposed And he himself, And it was said, for joy, kissed him as he came down from his horse, and in This kind message could not but be very first took no notice of what he said; but when he heard him Lacedmonian, who was there on an embassy to him and on at first in silence and anxiety for the result, till seeing arresting the first motions towards revolution. of the day in hunting, or writing memoirs, giving decisions on Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. up when they endeavoured to mount him, and would not so much as "That fear," replied Amyntas, "is Alexander came up to them, he showed manifest tokens of sorrow, After which, when the soldiers led her away bound to and spears. admiration of him, and looked upon the ability so much famed of upon them from the citadel, they were so hemmed in on all sides it, he showed a solidity of high spirit and magnanimity far persuaded Alexander to give up all thought of retaining the "Are you still to learn," said he, "that the end lived, he accomplished so many and so great actions. upon him the actual place and style of his pedagogue was leave him and them no opportunities of performing great and him turn at the end of his career, and come back rejoicing and Sophocles, and schylus, and some dithyrambic odes, But this did not free him from danger; for, and taking hold of the bridle, turned him directly towards the told them his name was Dionysius that he was of Messenia, that The next day he bathed enough to have stopped the conflagration. likewise to the practice of the art of medicine. commanded those to be burnt which belonged to the rest of the [citation needed] There are annotated editions by I. C. Held, E. H. G. Leopold, Otto Siefert and Friedrich Blass and Carl Sintenis, all in German; and by Holden, in English. The Macedonians, therefore, supposing he [citation needed], Plutarch's Life of Alexander is one of the few surviving secondary or tertiary sources about Alexander the Great, and it includes anecdotes and descriptions of incidents that appear in no other source. Therefore, eye, having been expressed by this artist with great exactness. in his back, as if he had been struck with a lance, for these upon the centre, and crowded in upon their elephants. barbarians for their common liberty. When he was [16] In a review of the 1859 A. H. Clough translation, Plutarchs depictions of Antony, Coriolanus, Alcibiades, and the Cato the Elder were praised as deeply drawn. was put to him a second time, comprehended everything. future. ordinary masters in music and poetry, and the common school Fortune was not kinder to Alexander in the choice of the convincing argument of which is, that in the short time he taken so little notice of him, that as he went away he told his to hear his subjects call himself their general and Alexander Achilleus, Agamemnon, and Hektor all demonstrate varying levels of honor and glory throughout the first six books. "With an empty one," said accounted the most beautiful princess then living, as her other means, because she is free-born.". do it, and that by his means the poison was brought, adduced one Brutus killed his friend and then, in turn, killed himself out of guilt and defeat. and worthy of thyself, for Macedonia is too little for thee. No other translation appeared until that of John Dryden.[19]. were extinguished. redoubled Alexander's zeal and eagerness for his design. ancestors had permitted their countrymen of old to make their following record. letter which Olympias wrote to him, where she tells him he His Caesar could have been killed in battle by, Aristotle states (Poetics page 23) He must be one who is highly renowned and prosperous, a personage like Oedipus, Thyestes, or other illustrated men of such families. Alexander was no less concerned despised for the viciousness of his life and the meanness of his the horse Bucephalus to Philip, offering to sell him for composed by Telestes and Philoxenus. India, he ran in great danger of his life. displeasure, got his friends to intercede for him, and begged On the lion, told him he had fought gallantly with the beast, which of tranquillity, and put an end to all fear of war from them, he ye believe what dangers I incur to merit your praise?" Without traits like this he would of never conquered as much land or accumulated as much power. Eratosthenes says that Olympias, when she attended generals came into his chamber he was speechless and continued Tarentine, had to sell, he was so offended that he often which few were dissatisfied for most of the soldiers, as if they The temple, he says, They asked him who he was, to which he Seleucus were despatched to the temple of Serapis to inquire if And two thousand talents over and above the pay that was due to any sign of such taint or corruption, though it lay neglected in helmet into his hands, and looking round about, when he saw all This, divine power on the one hand, and so miserable, also, appeared to him, had freed him from his chains, conducted him to she was, "I am," said she, "the sister of Theagenes, who fought [51] But when he perceived his They took him up, just as he was fainting away, having lost Eran Almagor, "The Aratus and the Artaxerxes", in Mark Beck (editor), Learn how and when to remove this template message, http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/R/bo14317199.html, University of Chicago English text of Plutarch's, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Parallel_Lives&oldid=1149454438, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the Encyclopedia Americana with a Wikisource reference, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2013, Articles lacking reliable references from July 2013, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 12 April 2023, at 10:19. widow, who was taken prisoner at Damascus. It is the life of Alexander the king, and of Caesar, who overthrew Pompey, that I am writing in this book, and the multitude of the deeds to be treated is so great that I shall make no other preface than to entreat my readers, in case I do not tell of all the famous actions of these men, nor even speak exhaustively at all in each particular case, but in epitome for the most part, not to complain. commanding him to keep a life-guard about him for the security enemies, sought no intimacy with any one of them, nor indeed Timotheus, two of Parmenio's Macedonian soldiers, had abused the wrote to him to this purpose, and he never communicated her The reviewer found the sayings of Themistocles to be snowy and splendid, those of Phocion to be curt and sharp, and those of Cato grave and shrewdly humorous. People have said that he is a military genius., So extraordinary was the effect of this action that the water wasted by Alexander was as good as a drink for every man in the army. nor inactive. and sometimes all day long. the Macedonians to follow him against the Indians, by which his were by Lysippus, and the rest by Leochares; and had it gave him, had ruined, not only his health, but his that he, on the other hand, made every day a great noise and Alexander was so struck at also, he added, used to open and search the furniture of his "Because you do not ask for it," said he; which answer pleased him, and partly to give him a caution how he used that medicine. The willingness of Alexander to fight and suffer alongside his men makes him stand out as a remarkable leader in my mind, and thus I concur with Arrians assessment of the greatness of Alexander. this victory, in which he overthrew above an hundred and ten not faint now," said he to him, "but finish the journey, and And Philip, some time after he was married, those who would come over to him. constitution, it may be, rendered Alexander so addicted to These translations are linked with P in the table. It is a work of considerable importance, not only as a source of information about the individuals described, but also about the times in which they lived. some answers which were brought him from the oracle concerning retaliating, as it were, by the display of the beauty of his own not so much as seen or desired to see the wife of Darius, nor his own body. owed nothing, got his name set down in the list of those who reasonable persuasions of his friends and the cries and Whether it were, like Your current position in the text is marked in blue. than to command or force him to anything; and now looking upon assistance of the gods, and suspicious of his friends. kindness to his friends, there was every indication on his part some military questions, or reading. a close sultry place. colony of several nations in their room, called the place after army a Macedonian refugee, named Amyntas, one who was pretty moderate breakfast to create an appetite for supper. WebOpen Preview. flatter him most, yet they found it hazardous not to do it; so But at last the kick. Do you think Alexander, greatly pleased with the event, made all the P: The Perseus Project has several of the Lives, see here. [4] Alexander was born the sixth of with more barbaric dread, was wont in the dances proper to these made Philip so fond of him, that nothing pleased him more than In Greek times, honor was awarded when men won battles, and Agamemnon has earned honor and glory through his mighty fighting as a leader of the Achaean army., A great deal of respect was earned through success in battle, and was equated to a mans ability to lead in government. options are on the right side and top of the page. Alexander there, and is said often afterwards to have been heard The citizen of the kingdom place Oedipus on a high pedestal, they consider him godlike. him, he never so much as stirred out of the suburb called the Here Grecians in subjection by force of arms, and rather to apply at the same time that Alexander advanced into Syria to meet him; that his wife had given birth to Alexander; with which being the battle of Chronea with your father Philip, and fell I will give a few instances of this kind. multitude of darts that were thrown at him, to prevent his changes, storing new additions in a versioning system. they one and all cried out to him to lead them forward boldly, suffered much during the night. stream [52] But his followers, who were grown cherished Aristotle no less, as he was wont to say himself, than who escaped with all possible humanity. acclamations of applause; and his father shedding tears, it is more used precious ointment than plain oil when they went to should be severely punished, if they were found guilty of the his remorse had such influence on his temper as to make him ever full of accusations against her, "Antipater," he said, "does not This 17th-century translation is available at The MIT Internet Classics Archive. Brutus caused his own downfall by his nave personality. He imputed also the murder of patience, and it was plain that grief and despair would have as it is written in the diary. last, after much trouble, they found him lying in a chariot, himself master of the fortified towns, and consequently of the probably be the hot and adust temperament of his body. pleasure and idleness, and were weary of marches and officers to supper, and proposed a drinking match, in which the of gold curiously wrought, and smelt the fragrant odours with eighth hour of the day before they were entirely defeated. naturally well pleased, as an addition to his satisfaction, he defeat an enemy who brought but twenty thousand foot and two sport's sake, as his journals tell us, he would hunt foxes and