Plutarch's method of work in the Roman Lives

1979 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
pp. 74-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. B. R. Pelling
Keyword(s):  
Roman Republic ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Roman History ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
General Knowledge ◽  
Considerable Research ◽  
Increasing Knowledge

This paper is concerned with the eight Lives in which Plutarch describes the final years of the Roman Republic: Lucullus, Pompey, Crassus, Cicero, Caesar, Cato, Brutus, and Antony. It is not my main concern to identify particular sources, though some problems of provenance will inevitably arise; it is rather to investigate the methods which Plutarch adopted in gathering his information, whatever his sources may have been. Did he, for instance, compose each biography independently? Or did he prepare several Lives simultaneously, combining in one project his reading for a number of different works? Did he always have his source-material before him as he composed? Or can we detect an extensive use of memory? Can one conjecture what use, if any, he made of notes? And can we tell whether he usually drew his material from just one source, or wove together his narrative from his knowledge of several different versions?I start from an important assumption: that, in one way or another, Plutarch needed to gather information before writing these Lives; that, whatever may be the case with some of the Greek Lives, he would not be able to write these Roman biographies simply from his general knowledge. The full basis for this assumption will only become clear as the discussion progresses: for example, we shall find traces of increasing knowledge within these Lives, with early biographies showing only a slight knowledge of some important events, and later ones gradually filling the gaps. It will become probable that Plutarch knew comparatively little of the detail of Roman history before he began work on the Lives, and that considerable ‘research’—directed and methodical reading—would be necessary for their composition.

Roman History

2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-148
Author(s):  
James Corke-Webster
Keyword(s):  
Roman Republic ◽  
Social History ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
New Institutional Economics ◽  
Roman History ◽  
Drivers Of Change ◽  
Ancient Economy

A bumper edition this time, by way of apology for COVID-necessitated absenteeism in the autumn issue. The focus is on three pillars of social history – the economy (stupid), law, and religion. First up is Saskia Roselaar's second monograph, Italy's Economic Revolution. Roselaar sets out to trace the contribution made by economics to Italy's integration in the Roman Republic, focusing on the period after the ‘conquest’ of Italy (post 268 bce). Doing so necessitates two distinct steps: assessing, first, how economic contacts developed in this period, and second, whether and to what extent those contacts furthered the wider unification of Italy under Roman hegemony. Roselaar is influenced by New Institutional Economics (hereafter NIE), now ubiquitous in studies of the ancient economy. Her title may be an homage to Philip Kay's Rome's Economic Revolution, but the book itself is a challenge to that work, which in Roselaar's view neglects almost entirely the agency of the Italians in the period's economic transformation. For Roselaar, the Italians were as much the drivers of change as the Romans; indeed, it is this repeated conviction that unifies her chapters.

Roman History

2014 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-287
Author(s):  
Lucy Grig
Keyword(s):  
Roman Republic ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Political History ◽  
Roman History ◽  
Roman Economy ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
Cultural Turn

This being my first attempt at writing the Roman History subject review, some kind of comment on the nature of the field as illustrated by this issue's crop of books seems appropriate. Firstly, the paucity of books focusing on the period of the Roman Republic is striking, especially if Cicero is taken out of the equation; the Imperial period clearly dominates, though the study of Late Antiquity (in which I must declare an interest) is still clearly on the rise. In terms of subject matter, traditional political history is obviously still largely out of fashion, religion is on a roll and the ‘cultural turn’ continues its rise (again I declare an interest), but the economy is making a late comeback (thanks to the formidable industry of the Oxford Roman Economy Project). This issue's collection offers a healthy mix of genres: biographies, student textbooks/sourcebooks, edited volumes, ‘companions’, and substantial monographs, including both revised PhDs and the reflections of more seasoned scholars, books for specialists and novices alike. I shall be interested to see how the balance of both subject matter and methodology appear in future issues.

Roman Literature After The Gracchi

1951 ◽  
Vol 20 (60) ◽  
pp. 123-136
Author(s):  
R. E. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
The State ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Roman History ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Great Power ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
Roman Society ◽  
Roman Literature

The Gracchi in literature as in all else mark a turning-point in Roman history; they brought one epoch to a close and inaugurated a fresh one; and by their choice of means to effect their end they unwittingly determined the direction of events for the following century. In order to be able to appreciate the literature as a reflection and a phenomenon of its society, we must first briefly consider the effects of the Gracchi upon political life, and then the effects of that political life upon Roman society. The Gracchi set out to solve certain problems; but owing to the twist that they gave to Roman history, those problems fell into the background, to be supplanted by a problem of politics which absorbed all the energies of the governing class to the exclusion of the problems which should have been their main concern and responsibility.The problems that confronted the State at the time of the Gracchi were many; they were social, economic, political, and administrative problems of vast complexity that required wisdom, patience, and, above all, goodwill for their solution. By this time real political power was wielded by a comparatively small number of families, grouped round leading men; they had come to believe that they governed by divine right, and while the better among them were aware of their responsibilities, there were many to whom the emoluments of government were reason enough for restricting the profits of empire among the smallest number. During the second century the attitude of the governing class had become conservative, opposed to any change which might alter the existing organization or deprive them of some of their great power.

scholarly journals Republican friendship and the fall of the Roman Republic in late Elizabethan and early Jacobean drama

2021 ◽  
pp. 018476782110293
Author(s):  
Ross Moncrieff
Keyword(s):  
William Shakespeare ◽  
Roman Republic ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Ben Jonson ◽  
Roman History ◽  
The Political ◽  
Historical Scholarship ◽  
Jacobean Drama ◽  
The Ideal

This article synthesises historical scholarship on early modern friendship and classical republicanism to argue that Cicero, through the ideal of ‘republican friendship’, exerted a much greater influence over early modern understandings of Roman history than has previously been realised. Exploring Roman plays by William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, with reference to other classical dramas, it examines how dramatists used the Ciceronian ideal of republican friendship to create a historical framework for the political changes they were portraying, with Jonson using it to inform a Tacitean perspective on Roman history and Shakespeare scrutinising and challenging the nature of republican friendship itself.

scholarly journals An attempt at legal regulation of ambitus (canvassing before Roman elections) in the period of the Roman Republic

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 309-328
Author(s):  
Nataša Deretić ◽  
Milan Milutin
Keyword(s):  
Roman Republic ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Roman History ◽  
Entire Period ◽  
Broad Definition ◽  
Easy Task ◽  
The Republic

The emergence of pre-election canvassing, for which the Roman state had a special term - ambitus - has outlived centuries, so that we find this phenomenon even today. We shall here try to answer the question as to whether the campaigning before elections is a type of corruption after analyzing laws dating from the period of the Roman Republic. Defining ambitus is no easy task. A very broad definition would define it as the use of illegal methods to persuade a voter to vote for a particular candidate. This definition applies to the entire period of the Republic, and even later, to the end of the Roman history. In an attempt to understand the meaning of ambitus, it is not completely clear what means are illegal. Is it recruiting voters, blackmailing, bribing, giving presents, rendering or promising favours, organizing free feasts, staging public games, etc.? What was the punishment? Who could be punished? These things varied both during the period of the Republic and throughout the entire Roman history.

scholarly journals Reconstructing Republican Oratory in Cassius Dio’s Roman History

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Burden-Strevens
Keyword(s):  
Roman Republic ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Roman History ◽  
First Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Rhetorical Strategies ◽  
Roman Oratory ◽  
The Way

This chapter explores the way in which Cassius Dio—a third-century Greek historian of the Roman Republic—used published oratory of the late Republic as a basis for his own historiographical speeches. It argues that, far from belonging in a sophistic thought-world divorced from their depicted historical context, Cassius Dio’s historiographical speeches display a marked attention for preserving not only specific arguments, but also the rhetorical strategies and turns of phrase used to make those arguments in the oratory of the first century AD. While Cicero inevitably appears to predominate in Dio’s register of sources for Roman oratory, this chapter nevertheless demonstrates Dio’s awareness of non-Ciceronian oratory—such as the speeches of Catulus, Hortensius, and M. Antonius—preserved in quoted material and testimonies of these orators in Ciceronian texts, which the historian reproduced accordingly.

Roman history and the ideological vacuum

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. P. Wiseman
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Roman Republic ◽  
Political History ◽  
Roman History ◽  
The Political ◽  
History Of ◽  
Concepts Of Democracy ◽  
The Many

For the twentieth century, the political history of Athens was essentially ideological, involving great issues of freedom and tyranny, while that of the Roman Republic was merely a struggle for power, with no significant ideological content. But why should that be? The Romans were perfectly familiar with the concepts and terminology of Greek political philosophy and used them to describe their own politics, as Cicero explains in writing in 56 bc. Not surprisingly. Greek authors who dealt with Roman politics used the concepts of democracy and oligarchy, the rule of the many or the rule of the best, without any sense that it was an inappropriate idiom.

Roman History: Early to Republic

Classics ◽  
2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erich S. Gruen
Keyword(s):  
Roman Republic ◽  
Roman History ◽  
Small City ◽  
American Founding ◽  
Founding Fathers ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Deep Impression

The Roman Republic continues to intrigue researchers and students alike. The rise of a small city to become mistress of the Mediterranean provoked the great Greek historian Polybius already in the 2nd century bce and still fascinates scholars, whose output consistently swells a bibliography that can only be very selectively surveyed here. The vision of the Republic left a deep impression upon medieval Europe, upon writers and thinkers like Machiavelli, Montesquieu, and the American Founding Fathers, and it resonates even with contemporary political theorists. The achievement of the Roman Republic and the foundations upon which it rested remain subjects of compelling interest.

Reassessing the ‘Cumaean Chronicle’: Greek Chronology and Roman History in Dionysius of Halicarnassus

2007 ◽  
Vol 97 ◽  
pp. 50-67
Author(s):  
Andrew B. Gallia
Keyword(s):  
Roman Republic ◽  
Early History ◽  
Roman History ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
Dionysius Of Halicarnassus ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Greek Source ◽  
Greek World

A biographical digression on the Cumaean tyrant Aristodemus Malacus in Dionysius' Roman Antiquities has elicited widespread speculation about the existence of an early Greek source for events in Italy contemporaneous with the origins of the Roman Republic. The communis opinion about the importance of this hypothetical ‘Cumaean chronicle’ warrants reconsideration on two grounds. First, the events in question fall well before the development of Greek historical writing concerned with contemporary events. Second, we must not overlook the potential impact on the tradition of Roman historians who wished to integrate their city's early history with that of the wider (Greek) world.

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