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Original Title:	The Fall of the Roman Republic: Six Lives
ISBN:	0140449345 (ISBN13: 9780140449341)
Edition Language:	English
Characters:	Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, Gaius Marius, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Marcus Licinius Crassus, Julius Caesar, Marcus Tullius Cicero

The Fall of the Roman Republic

Plutarch

Paperback | Pages: 414 pages

Rating: 4.09 | 3610 Users | 74 Reviews

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Title	:	The Fall of the Roman Republic
Author	:	Plutarch
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Special Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 414 pages
Published	:	April 25th 2006 by Penguin Classics (first published 100)
Categories	:	History. Classics. Nonfiction. Biography. Ancient History

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This Penguin Classic covers six Roman lives - Marius, Sulla, Crassus, Pompey, Caesar, Cicero - written by Platonist philosopher Plutarch (AD 46-Ad 120), the great biographer from the ancient world.

These were chaotic, bloody times when, fueled by treachery and ruthless violence, the Roman republic fell and was replaced by the Roman Empire. To share a taste of Plutarch, I will focus on one of my all-time favorite people from the ancient world, illustrious Roman philosopher/rhetorician/orator, Marcus Tullius Cicero. Here are quotes from the text along with my comments:

"His natural abilities made him altogether remarkable and won him such a name and reputation among the other boys that their fathers used often to go to the schools to see Cicero with their own eyes and to observe the quickness and intelligence which he showed." --------- To be such a virtuoso of language, adults flock to your school to listen to you speak. So telling about the Greco-Roman world: a supreme value on intelligence and verbal acumen. In our modern world, our most immediate association with a youngster having virtuoso talent would be playing a musical instrument, usually violin or piano. The implications of the difference are worth pondering.

"Elocution and delivery were an important element in his powers of persuasion. He used to ridicule those who were given to shouting out their speeches and said that, just as lame men rode on horseback because they could not walk, so these orators shouted because they could not speak." --------- Ha! Think about this the next time you witness a politician or public figure shouting at the top of their lungs. Would the person speak with more subtlety and eloquence if they really had something insightful to say?

"In Rome itself there were most alarming revolutionary tendencies - the result of the unequal distribution of wealth." -------- Ah, the bane of the "civilized" world since we as a human species left hunter-gatherer communities and began agriculture and started accumulating wealth: the haves and the have nots. It was only a matter of time before a thinker like Marx came along.

"Cicero, more than anyone, made the Romans see how great is the charm which eloquence confers on what is good, how invincible justice is if it is well expressed in words, and how the good and efficient statesman should always in his actions prefer what is right to what will win popularity, and in his words should express the public interest in a manner that will please rather than provide offensive." --------- The dream of having a philosopher as a political leader goes back to Plato. Occasionally, as in the case of Cicero, this much heralded combination was actualized.

"The conspirators, however, were unbalanced characters who seldom met together without wine and women, while Cicero was following their schemes with patient care, with sober judgment, and with exceptional intelligence." --------- Plutarch is a philosopher and his chapter on Cicero serves as a shining example of what a wise person in the political sphere can achieve.

"At this time, Cicero was the most powerful man in Rome. However, he made himself obnoxious to a number of people, not because of anything which he did wrong, but because people grew tired of hearing him continually praising himself and magnifying his achievements." -------- Alas, one with great intellect and strength of character can still have shortcomings; for Cicero it was his habit of continually patting himself on the back. Some things never change: people don't want to hear it. (Plutarch includes a couple dozen of such comebacks - one of the prime reasons to read his life of Cicero).

"His ability to put things cleverly would often lead him to forget good manners. . . . Wanting to underscore Cicero's humble family origins, an aristocrat by the name of Nepos asked Cicero repeatedly, "Who is your father?" Cicero replied, "I can scarcely ask you the same question since your mother has made it rather a difficult one to answer." - Nepos's mother being a lady whose reputation for chastity was not high." --------- It's one thing having a Jonathan Winters/Robin Williams-like sharp wit, but if you don't want a gaggle of enemies, you would be well to employ your tongue with discrimination.

"He occupied himself also in writing and translating philosophical dialogues and in rendering into Latin the various terms used in logic and in natural science." --------- Not only was Cicero a leader and hero of his country, dedicating a huge portion of his life as a public figure, but he had the ability to render Greek philosophy into Latin and thereby make the wisdom of the Greeks accessible to his countrymen for generations.

And how, you may ask, did Cicero's life end? Sorry to say, the Romans periodically turned their country into a bloodbath and poor Cicero was caught up in a political crossfire.

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Ratings: 4.09 From 3610 Users | 74 Reviews

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I read the section on Julius Caesar, and it didn't really tempt me to read any further. It isn't really fair to hold Plutarch to the standards of a modern historian, but even if you don't, it's still hard to deny that Plutarch's histories just don't have much value for a modern reader, except as an historical study on Rome. This is very much 'great man' history, focused just as much - if not more - on mythologizing as it is on really documenting an era or a series of events. As such, it's pretty

For a book translated from an ancient text, I surprisingly enjoyed it, mainly for how much Plutarch trash-talks some of the Romans

I mainly disliked this book because this Penguin edition had virtually no footnotes, and the footnotes it had were useless (usually noting the full names of random Romans). The actual biographies were entertaining.Marius and Sulla - avarice, ambition, and violence are the defining characteristics of these two Lives and the war that these two nasty men fought. It's interesting to see how the patriotic and moralistic culture of the early and mid-Roman Republic devolved into the violently crazed

Fall of the Roman Republic tells of one of the most dramatic periods of Roman history marking Romes change from republic to monarchy. This story is told through of the biographies of Marius, Sulla, Crassus, Pompey, Caesar, Cicero, men who headed various factions in the numerous civil wars and revolutions that shook Rome during this period. Plutarch, the Greek author of these works, made no attempt to explain how and why these events took place. Rather he was far more interested in the men

I love Plutarch.

Plutarch's grasp of politics is grand instead of minute. His emphasis on warfare and personality no doubt does not endear him to contemporary historians. Some of his contentions are flat out wrong. Yet he is the master of the fair biography, good at pointing out a man's strengths and weaknesses, and giving it all a dramatic and even tragic touch. Sympathy is given when warranted as is condemnation. In this volume the best lives presented are Sulla and Pompey. Cicero is a bit dull, hurt by

Better than I expected it to be, but one I'll definitely have to read again. I skimmed through the battles, and there were a LOT of battles. But Plutarch tells a good history, and I've been wanting to read more history about the Romans. I probably just need to take it slower, and in pieces.