Plutarch's Evaluation of Roman Politics and Political Figures

Abstract

Plutarch demonstrated early in his writing career an interest in Roman politics and political figures with his Lives of the Caesars , a work that spanned the lives of the emperors from Augustus to Vitellius, of which only the Galba and Otho are extant. One aspect of Plutarch's understanding of Roman politics that supports his boule–demos paradigm is his conception of the increasing democratisation of the oligarchical/aristocratic government. Plutarch deploys a number of literary strategies to unveil the imbalances arising from the educational deficiency arising from a partial non-assimilation with an open rejection of, Greek paideia that will have definite negative repercussions for leadership, despite whatever early successes his protagonists might have attained. The educational and inspirational value of reading the Lives was widely recognised in the Renaissance and Enlightenment. The entertaining, inspirational and edifying exercise of reading Plutarch's Lives was shared by many great intellectuals of the Renaissance, including Montaigne and Shakespeare.