buy provigil overnight delivery Human life used to be significantly more varied than it is now, as this little snapshot from Sparta shows. Lycurgus was the lawgiver who gave Sparta its distinct character, which it maintained for centuries. Now this is a truly radical program of reform: After the creation of the Senate, his next task, and indeed, the […]
Tag Archives: Plutarch
Plutarch on Lycurgus.
05-Dec-11Plutarch on Timon of Athens.
22-Nov-11From the Life of Antony. Antony, at the end of his life, his hopes shattered, said that he just wanted to end his days living the life of Timon of Athens. Plutarch thus digresses: This Timon was a citizen of Athens, and lived much about the Peloponnesian War, as may be seen by the comedies […]
Yet another remarkable story from Plutarch. The similarities to the sacrifice of Isaac are remarkable, and in general, whether or not religious precepts should be exposed to this kind of treatment, as opposed to taken at face value, is one of the perennially relevant theological questions; and whether or not the virtue of actions may […]
Reading a fair amount of Plutarch recently, the lives of Timoleon, Aemilius Paulus, Pelopidas, and Marcellus. What a superb man. Below is very nearly a summa of the highest, deeds-oriented (as opposed to eloquence-oriented) Classicism. You can hear how much he shaped the writerly outlook on Montaigne fifteen centuries later – what a thought, that […]
“Metrobius the Impersonator of Women”
17-Feb-10The associates of Sulla, from Plutarch: “He kept company with actresses, musicians, and dancers, drinking with them on couches night and day. His chief favorites were Roscius the Player, Sorex the Arch Mime, and Metrobius the Impersonator of Women, for whom, though past his prime, he continued to be passionately fond up to the last, […]
Plutarch on Augustus and the Man with the Ass.
22-Nov-11Blagoveshchensk Just before the Battle of Actium: Of Caesar they relate that, leaving his tent and going round, while it was yet dark, to visit the ships, he met a man driving an ass, and asked him his name. He answered him that his own name was Fortunatus, “and my ass,” he said, “is called Conqueror.” […]