Ploutarchou Granchoi : Lives of the Gracchi

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CONTENTS

on the life of Tiberatus Gracchatron the Iisse of Gairus Graωhtu . . . . on the consariso=r of A is and Meomenes rei ga

the GraccM . . . . .

iiii lxii lxiii

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INTRODUCTION

Pelopidas and Marcellus, Allcibiades and Coriolanus, Seem ingly on no oster ground ita an that cliey med violent deauis, ine livo foriner by tinneCeSSarily expOSingineir lives in the sield of batile, the two lalter in exile But in matclaing Agis and Κleomenes With the two Gracchi he does so not only ivitii sonae reason, but ivithsound judgment, subile discrimination of CharaCter and a fine insight into the innermost naeaning and purpOSe Oftheir lives. Hence mese Biographies are to be reChonedamong the best of the great series of historical portraiis,

contained the L ives os Demosthenes and Cicero Demosth. c. 33; the tenui those of Perilites and Fabius Μaximus Petilcl. c. et); thet velsi h lliose of Dion and Brutus Dion c. 2). The σύγκρισις is wanting in the Lives os Themistotcles and Camillus, Pyrrhos and Marius, Alexander and Caesar, Pholcion and Cato os Utica.. Trench Lectures ou PDιωαδε, and ed. Macinissan and CO., London, I 87 .

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and to the authorities there si uote 1 add :-Himerius Ecl. 7, 4 ουτός εστιν ex Πλουτάρχου, δι' ου πάντας υμεῖς παιδεύετε quoted by A. Vestermann in lais Presace to Belcher's edition of the Lives p. XVI, vliere he himself says: Parallela Plutarchi non soluma ab eis, qui in an uitate indaganda studium suum coVocant, pro remm memorabilium thesauro copiosi,sineto atque ferenni quasi ueteris historiae fonte habentur, sed etiam iuuenilis animai ad Atintanctarent instituendi instrumentetιm sunt astissinaum, praetereaque cordato cui le animi renaistionem ex laboribus fetenti dulcissimurat oblectantentum; and

propoSed'. Long Decline of the K. R. I p. 289: Plutarch's Lives of ille tivo Gracchi are among the best of his biographies. He has

certainly made Some mistalces and his conception of the resornis ostiae t vo hirothers may have been sonte vliat vagiae. Biat he has tollus amany things whicli 3ve should other vise not have known, and helias trealed ille matter With great inapartiality and Ju Ignient, and ina latrer spirit than any of the extant Roman writers, excepi SalluSt, ullo sayS that they di 1 not conduci theniselves avitii sufficient moderation, though as a man of the popular party he approxed of their meaSureS. Cicero, Iuliose principies or professions varied with circumstances, Spoke in savourabie ternis of the Gracchi soon asterhe ivas elected conSul and when such talli servet his purpose.

Later in lila he spolie and u rote differently It is Cicero to vhom 've trace the opinion, Whicli has generalty prevalled in moderat linies, that the Gracchi ivere merely pestilent demagogues

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esse We should have been totalty ignorant, se v, Ι thinh, uould ahitin that Ρlutarcii at ali planis them in a positionsor understanding that vast revolution effected by the Gracchi, With tiae stili Vaster revolution attempted h)ythem and for ever Connected ivitii uiesr nantes His lack of insight into the trile significance of evenis and his inability to estimate rightly great political siluationsare lautis no doubi, but they must hie Considerect as tiae natural ConsequenCe of the purely ethical aim of his Biographies. His profeSSed purpose, aS lae eXpreSStystates in his Introduction to the Lila of Alexander the

' See my Intr. to Them. g 171L There are severat other paS- sages in ivlaicla this his main design is made to appear, aS Κim. c. 2ύσπερ τοὐς τὰ καλὰ καὶ πολλην ἔχοντα χάριν εἴδη ἰυγραφοῖντας, ἄν προσῆ τι μικρον αυτοῖς δυσχερές, ἀξιουμεν μήτε παράλισεῖν τουτο τελέως μὴτ ἐξακριβουν, -το μἐν γὰρ αἰσχρὰν τι δ' ἀνομοίαν παρέχεται τηνε ιν- ουτως, ἐπει χαλεπόν εστι, μὰλλον δ' ἴσως ἀμήχανον, ἀμεμφη καὶ καθαρον ανυos ἐπιδεῖξαι βίον, εν τοῖς καλοις ἀναπληρωτέον ῶσπερ

ομοιότητα την αληθειαπι τὰς δ' ex πάθους τινος η πολιτικm ἀναγκης ἐπιτρεχούσας ταῖς πράξεσιν αμαρτίας καὶ κηρας ελλείμματα μὰλλον ἀρετης τινος η κακίαῖ πονηρεύματα νομίζοντας οὐ δει πάνυ προθύμως ἐναποσημαίνειν τη ιστορίg καὶ περιττῶς, αλλ' ἄσπερ αἰδουμένους υπὸρτης ανθρωπίνης φυσεως, ει καλιν Ουδὸν ειλικρινὲς ουδ' ἀναμφισβητητονεις αρετην ηθος γεγονος ἀποδίδωσιν i. e. 8aS IVe expect portrait painters, viten pa inting fair and Very gracesul faces, netther to leave out alto-gether any SEglat Uemista there may be nor to repro luce it accurately sor ille one spolis the beatity, the Other the lil reneSS,-eVen So,

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lais- τον πρὰς κατανόησιν γους και τρόπου

παραδίδους ἱστορίαν). But in carrying out his designΡlutarch too osten forgeis that, hoWever interesting cliesinalter incidenis in men's lives may be as traiis of character, it is aster ali froni ineir greatest actions that v e must Judge of great historical Characters, and inata just and fair estimate os inese cannot be formed vithout a stili comprehension os inela relation to the great movenients and political evenis in the midst of

express them reluctantly and not too curiousty in Our historn villi the seeling of shaine and hinnitiation that our common humannature stioliae not be able to produce any beautilat character os perfeci and unquestionatae goodneSS'. Comp. alSO Cat. min. C. 37, Cat. mai. c. 7, Galb. C. et τὰ μὲν ουν καθ' ἔκαστα των γενομένων ἀπαγγέλλειν απιβως της πραγματικης ιστορίας ἐστίν, οσα δὲ ἄξια λόγου τοῖς των Καισάρων ἔργοις καὶ πάθεσι συμπέπτωκεν, Ουδἐ εμοὶ προσηκει παρελθεῖν, Fab. Μax. c. I 6 ἀλλα ταυτα μὲν οι τὰς διεξοδικὰς γράψαντες ιστορίας ἀπηγγέλκασιν, Perita. c. 7, PomP. C. 8, ArtΟXerX. C.

8 την δἐ μάχην ἐκείνην sat Cunaxaὶ πολλῶν μεν απηγγελκότων, Σενοφῶντος δὲ μονονουχὶ δεικνύοντος ο φει καὶ τοῖς πράγμασιν, ias οὐ γεγεννμένοις ἀλλα γινομένοις, ἐφιστάντος ἀεὶ τον ἀκροατρο ἐμπαθη καὶ συγκιν

δυνεύοντα διὰ την ἐνάργειαν, ουκ ἔστι νουν ἔχοντος επεξηγεῖσθαι, πληνοσα τῶν ἀξίων λόγου παρηλθεν ειπεῖν ἐκεινον, Aem. Paul. C. 5, Demetr. c. I, Perihi. C. I 3.

7 CL Schoniann Pro Pomena to his edition os Agis and Κleomenes Greiss vald 1839) p. XXIX seu tamen Plutarchus soliticae imaus et,

ut PolFbra uerbo utar, fragmaticae rationis in uitis scribendis at quanto, quam uelles, neNwentior, nec satis refutauit, eo=mm, qui in resinica uenati sunt, ne mores quidem et consilia satis ex omni farre intellegi et aestimari fosse, nisi omnibus ciuitatuna, in quibus u erunt, causis ac rationibus uel domesticis uel externis accuratissime perspectis. Bagrue duna narratiunculis lectorem delectat incertae

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ster nigrιe auctor tis et ambigui fretra, illud non satis curat, quod

grauissimum est, ur quae cuiusque consiliorum momencla ac rationes

fuerint, quid in administranda res sica secuti rint, quae causae

rerum ferendarem, quae Subsidia, quae obstacula fuerint, quam eae ad omnem tempor urat condiciorrem conuenienter, quam prudenter, quam recte, qua curar Ssse boni euentus Destae sint, flanum nobis et

arch used his authorities intelligently and honestly; that his standardos ivliat an historian should be was his ii and iliat for the most parthe only seli stiori os inis as every man in this Worid os impersections inust sali stiori of any hisi ideat ivllicli lie seis hiesore hini. Trencla

I. c. p. 82. Cf. Balar Alcibiades praefat. XXXI, Iuliere aster Spealcingof the egrinum scriptoris ingenium atque iudirium, quo ostimo instructus tot Maria infer se apte iungere atque cogulare deque tantare An colluvie ea, quae ad uerram fraxinme accedere uiderentur, eligore regase disponere ualuit, and his innatum uer Datis studium quod multo naaiorema gatam uetulo c= edunt Mena rebus ab illo enarratis

conciliat, he concludes saying that he does not belleve that there vili in future tae any one qui, quae a Plutarc o sunt narrata, iis idem dene re, scriptoremque ipsum, tanto ueri alis studio reli oneque inti rem tantaque lectionis abundantia instriιc tima, maledicentiae

mendac e incusare audeat.

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Long ubi Supra I P. I 77s.

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But in estinia ting the Credibility of Plutarch the potatos capital importance to be considered is the nature of

δὲ λογον ἔνδοξον ουτω καὶ τοσούτους μάρτυρας ἔχοντα καί, ὁ μειIόν ἐστι, πρέποντα τ* Σόλωνος ηθει καὶ της ἐκείνου μεγάλοφροσυν καὶ σοφίας αξιον, Ου μοι δοκῶ προησεσθαι χρον ικοῖ ς τισι λεγομένοις κανόσιν, Οἴς μυρίοι διορθουντες α ι σημερον εἰς οὐδὸν αὐτοις ομολογου- μενον δύνανται καταστησαι τὰς ἀντιλογίας.

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the sotarces hom ivlaicli lae dreup his information. It is obvious stiat there must be a Considerable disserenoe in the historical value of the miserent L ives according to thederaee of credibility to be attached to the writers stomwhoni lie bono ved; those sor instance of Romulus, Numa or Coriolanus are not to be put On the fame Doting and regarded as equalty Certain and authentic vitii the L ives of Fabius MaximuS, Sulla or Cicero.

eviden e is not no v, for the Inost pari, extant in iis original state, yet it served as the mundation of the secondary CompilationS Whicli lime descended to usfrom antiquity, and Ive have no reason to doubi that these Works tame in substance reproduce i it vitia fidelity. Is the original sources of Roman historri sor the last i vocenturies of the Republic, Whicli avere accessile to Dionysius and Livy, to Plutarcia, Diodoriis, Appian and Dio

lost, and to fili up many chasms in the narrative; butilae cardinal facts in the history of the period in question, he main oviline of the wars With Pyralios, the Gavis, the Carthaginians, the Greelcs, the Spaniards and the Libyans, of the Commotions of the Gracchi and the civit Wars of Marius and Sulla, Would remain unChanged: the history in lat have more flesti and Nood; but iis siceleton imuid be the sanie. The Lives of the Gracchi, of Marius and of Sulla, Plutarch are just as