Parallel Lives
by Plutarch, John Dryden · first published 2015
46% recommend54% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Paired biographies of Greek and Roman statesmen and generals, such as Alexander and Caesar, set side by side for comparison. Valued for vivid character portraits and lessons on virtue and public life.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…a badder bad cop than Diomedes or a smoother talking good cop than Odysseus? Hell to the fuck yeah, when you get to Plato, you have to want it. I still haven't made it through the Republic. Plutarch Parallel Lives has a lot of really good biographies. Pick any. Hell, pick Life of Antony. Herodotus is fun but junk. Thucydides is tough but meaty. Switching to the Romans, Tacitus Agricola is awesome. Read Gorgias…
on “Howard University’s removal of classics is a spiritual catastrophe” ↗Meditations by Marcus Aurelius Enchiridion of Epictetus Parallel Lives by Plutarch ( Favorites are Cato the Younger and Julius Caesar)
on “Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2014?” ↗Absolutely. Anybody who's read Plutarch's Parallel Lives would be hard pressed to not have some degree of fascination with Sparta.
…from all walks of life who will give you immediate feedback if you display bad character, and it will get you moving around and make you humble. If you enjoy history and literature, maybe Plutarch's parallel lives of Alcibiades and Coriolanus; or Christopher Lasch's "Culture of Narcissism" could provide some perspective. And as someone said below, Dale Carnegie's book on winning friends and influencing people,…
on “Ask HN: How did you fix your narcissism?” ↗As the quotes come via Plutarch, I'd like to recommend Plutarch's Parallel Lives - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_Lives He gives a biography of one famous Roman and one famous Greek and compares them.
on “Sayings of Spartan women” ↗…James Howard-Johnston's recent drop on the great final war of classical antiquity in the 7th Century, in a similar vein: both are out, just haven't gotten the chance to digest them yet. Also, Plutarch's Parallel Lives. They aren't "history" in the sense that we know it, but they do teach you that, yes, the lives of famous ancient figures do have lessons that can and should apply to you.
on “Ask HN: What are the most eye-opening textbooks you have ever read?” ↗I think you can only answer this at a point in time - the book you loved at 20 may not carry the same weight at 50. For now, though, I really enjoyed Plutarch's Parallel Lives. He compares the life of an ancient Greek and Roman - EG Alexander vs Caesar.
on “Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?” ↗Plutarch's Parallel Lives is a great read though.
on “The Time Julius Caesar Was Captured by Pirates” ↗Plutarch wrote 'Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans' (also called Parallel Lives or Plutarch's Lives) somewhere around the second century AD and Shakespeare wrote 'Antony and Cleopatra' in 1606. Shakespeare took 'some' inspiration from Plutarch. Plutarch wrote in Greek, Shakespeare…
on “Shakespeare's language not as original as dictionaries think” ↗…the Ship Around David Marquet In literature? Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad In Philosophy? The Republic Plato In Religion? The Confessions St. Augustine In Mathematics? The Elements Euclid In History? Parallel lives Plutarch In Physics? Principia Isaac Newton
on “Ask HN: What's the book that people in your field pretend to have read?” ↗…Ship Around David Marquet In literature? Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad In Philosophy? The Republic Plato In Religion? The Confessions St. Augustine In Mathematics? The Elements Euclid In History? Parallel lives Plutarch In Physics? Principia Isaac Newton
on “Ask HN: What's the book that people in your field pretend to have read?” ↗…you make baseless claims about them not caring about the natural world or philosophy. Bother to read actual Roman and Greek sources of the time and you will find yourself contradicted soon (Plutarch's Parallel Lives might be of use, then Cicero, etc). Seems clear to me that this opinion is not your own.
on “A closer look at the Tabula Peutingeriana” ↗…described Rome’s founder Romulus as born to a divinely impregnated vestal virgin. The later is true but it's strange to use Plutarch as an example considering that at best he would have been writing Parallel Lives at the same time the Gospels were being written. > Those attributed to Jesus—described in language nearly identical to accounts of the Greek mystic and holy man Apollonius of Tyana, say—are neither…
on “We're Still Not Done with Jesus” ↗Boring parts are the reason I do audio books (which in my mind I still call books on tape). I listen primarily to massive ancient works like The Illiad, Parallel Lives, and Herodotus' Histories that are impenetrable to me in text because they have enormous sections devoted to lists of ancient names or inaccurate dimensions of Egypt that I can just zone out to during…
on “Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing” ↗…contemporary sources for this exist. It then claimed that Plutarch wrote that Julius Caesar made his troops draw lots, which certainly suggests he ordered a decimation, but I checked two English translations of Parallel Lives and neither of them contain any mention of this. I also asked the not to translate the original Greek, and that also doesn't mention it. The chatbot thinking it happened suggests that somebody has written…
on “Stoicism's appeal to the rich and powerful (2019)” ↗