Braniff Salon

Plutarch was one of the most influential writers of the ancient world. With Thucydides and Cicero, among others, his work was a formative part of education through the nineteenth century and hence important for the forming of our own political, civic and social milieux. Shakespeare saw in Plutarch such depth of analysis that he used many of his Lives as sources for his own plays, including his Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, and Antony and Cleopatra.

In his Parallel Lives, Plutarch compares the lives of significant and some not-so-significant Greeks and Romans. Though he did write histories, he did not consider the Parallel Lives to be histories. His interest is in character, in virtue and vice, and so he notes in his “Alexander” that he follows the path of the portrait-painter who is more exact in the lines and features of the face than of the rest of the body, for there character is revealed. As portraits of various virtues and vices, his Parallel Lives illustrate how people with such virtues and vices would or could act in various political and civic situations. One might say his lives breathe life into the account of virtue and vice one finds in Aristotle’s Ethics (though, to be sure, Plutarch is normally classified as a Platonist).

In a curious decision, Plutarch chooses to compare the life of Dion with that of Brutus. The immediate parallels, he suggests, are to be found in the fact that they were both philosophers and that they each had premonitions of their own demise. But the parallel also allows him to investigate issues such as the nature of philosophy, the relationship between philosophy and politics, the character of tyranny and how one ought to respond to it, and the lessons of historical circumstance. All of which, if one reflects upon it, are important for our own day, and, indeed, for every age.

• John Alvis, Ph.D., English
• Richard Dougherty, Ph.D., Politics
• David Sweet, Ph.D., Classics
• Matthew Walz, Ph.D., Philosophy
• Moderator: David Davies, Ph.D., English & Classics

The Braniff Salons have become popular events, bringing alumni, faculty, students and visitors together, usually on a Friday afternoon or evening. Members of our faculty are invited to make remarks and lead a panel discussion on a pre-arranged topic. The occasion is leavened by wine and food, with discussion lasting as long as wine and social energy avail.

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