C. K. Barrett has taught in the theological faculty of Durham University in England. His books include Epistle to the Romans, Gospel according to St. John, Luke the Historian in Recent Study, Biblical Problems, and Biblical Preaching.
In Plutarch’s Pragmatic Biographies, Susan Jacobs argues for a major revision in how we interpret the Parallel Lives. She integrates the existing focus on moral issues into the much broader paradigm of effective leadership found in Plutarch’s Moralia. There, in addition to moral virtue, the successful leader needed good critical judgment, persuasiveness and facility in managing alliances and rivalries. The analysis of six sets of Lives shows how Plutarch carefully portrayed Greek and Roman leaders of the past assessing situations and solving problems that paralleled those faced by his politically-active audience. By linking victories and defeats to specific strategic insights and practical skills, Plutarch created “pragmatic biographies” that could instruct statesmen and generals of every era.
Surveying the beginnings of critical consciousness in Greece and proceeding to the writings of Aristophanes, Plato, Aristotle, and Hellenistic and Roman authors, this volume is not only for classicists but for those with no Greek or Latin who are interested in the origins of literary history, theory, and criticism.
This volume is a collection of fifteen papers written by a team of international experts in the field of Hellenistic literature. In an attempt to reassess methods such as the detection of intertextual allusions or the general notion of neoteric poetics, the authors combine current critical trends (narratology, genre-theory, aesthetics, cultural studies) with a close reading of Hellenistic texts. Contributions address a wealth of topics in a variety of texts which include not only poems by the major Alexandrians but also prose works, epigrams, epigraphic material and scholia. Perspectives range from linguistic analysis to interdisciplinary studies, whereas post-classical literature is also seen against the background of the cultural and ideological contexts of the era. Besides reviewing preconceptions of Hellenistic scholarship, this volume aims at providing fresh insights into Hellenistic literature and aesthetics.
A groundbreaking and wide-ranging presentation of Plutarch’s ethics based on the cosmological foundation of his ethical thought Plutarch of Chaeronea (c. 45-120 CE) is the most prolific and influential moral philosopher in the Platonic tradition. This book is a fundamental reappraisal of Plutarch’s ethical thought. It shows how Plutarch based his ethics on his particular interpretation of Plato’s cosmology: our quest for the good life should start by considering the good cosmos in which we live. The practical consequences of this cosmological foundation permeate various domains of Greco-Roman life: the musician, the organiser of a drinking party, and the politician should all be guided by cosmology. After exploring these domains, this book offers in-depth interpretations of two works which can only be fully understood by paying attention to cosmological aspects: Dialogue on Love and On Tranquillity of Mind.
Plutarch's Lives were once treasured. Today they are studied by classicists, known vaguely, if at all, by the educated public, and are virtually unknown to students of ancient political thought. The central claim of this book is that Plutarch shows how the political form of the city can satisfy an individual's desire for honor, even under the horizon of empire. Plutarch's argument turns on the difference between Sparta and Rome. Both cities stimulated their citizens' desire for honor, but Sparta remained a city by linking honor to what could be seen first-hand, whereas Rome became an empire by liberating honor from the shackles of the visible. Even under the rule of a distant power, however, allegiances and political actions tied to the visible world of the city remained. By resurrecting statesmen who thrived in autonomous cities, Plutarch hoped to rekindle some sense of the city's enduring appeal.