The Age of Caesar: Five Roman Lives

by Plutarch, James Romm (Editor), Pamela Mensch (Translator), Mary Beard (Foreword by)

Overview

A brilliant new translation of five of history’s greatest lives from Plutarch, the inventor of biography.

Pompey, Caesar, Cicero, Brutus, Antony: the names resonate across thousands of years. Major figures in the civil wars that brutally ended the Roman republic, their lives still haunt us as examples of how the hunger for personal power can overwhelm collective politics, how the exaltation of the military can corrode civilian authority, and how the best intentions can lead to disastrous consequences. Plutarch renders these history-making lives as flesh-and-blood characters, often by deftly marshalling small details such as the care Brutus exercised in his use of money or the disdain Caesar felt for the lofty eloquence of Cicero.

Plutarch was a Greek intellectual who lived roughly one hundred years after the age of Caesar. At home in the world of Roman power, he preferred to live in the past, among the great figures of Greek and Roman history. He intended his biographical profiles to be mirrors of character that readers could use to inspire their own values and behavior—emulating virtues and rejecting flaws. For Plutarch, character was destiny for both the individual and the republic. He was our first master of the biographical form, a major source for Shakespeare and Gibbon.

This edition features a new translation by Pamela Mensch that lends a brilliant clarity to Plutarch’s prose. James Romm’s notes guide readers gracefully through the people, places, and events named in the profiles. And Romm’s preface, along with Mary Beard’s introduction, provide the perfect frame for understanding Plutarch and the momentous history he narrates.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393292824
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	01/31/2017
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 8.70(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

James Romm is the author of Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero and a classicist who teaches at Bard College.

Pamela Mensch is the translator of Herodotus and Arrian, and she lives in New York City.

Mary Beard is the author of the best-selling The Fires of Vesuvius and the National Book Critics Circle Award–nominated Confronting the Classics and SPQR. A popular blogger and television personality, Beard is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books. She lives in England.

Table of Contents

Preface James Romm xi

Introduction Mary Beard xxi

Maps

The Roman Empire in the Time of Julius Caesar xxx

Rome in the Time of Julius Caesar xxxi

Julius Caesar's Campaigns in Gaui xxxii

Movements of Julius Caesar in his Campaigns Against Pompey and the Senatorial Forces xxxiii

Movements Of Octavian and Antony Against Brutus and Cassius (43-42 BCE), and of Octavian Against Antony (31-30 BCE) xxxiv

Plutarch: Five Roman Lives

Pompey 1

Caesar 95

Cicero 169

Brutus 225

Antony 279

Appendix: The Roman Constitution J. E. Lendon 365

Acknowledgments 371

Index 373

Editorial Reviews

"The formidable duo of Romm & Mensch have pulled it off again—accomplishing with ease the tricky feat of making some of the best biographies from the best biographer of the ancient Roman world newly accessible in fresh, accurate, intelligently commented translations to a readership extending well beyond the usual Classicist suspects."

Paul Cartledge

11/15/2016
Greek intellectual Plutarch's (46–120 CE) voluminous writings have provided scholars with important records and insights into the people and events that shaped the classical world. His biographies of influential political leaders of the late Roman republic, including Pompey, Julius Caesar, Cicero, Brutus, and Antony are all compiled into this single volume, a handy source of ancient documentation regarding the rise of Caesar during the first century BCE. Readers will find many critical historical episodes within: Caesar's campaign in Gaul and famous crossing of Italy's Rubicon River ("let the die be cast"), Cicero's pointed rhetoric, Cato's principled suicide, the assassination of Pompey in Egypt, Brutus and Cassius's plot against Caesar, Antony's exploits with Cleopatra, and the rise of Octavian, who would become emperor Augustus. Veteran translator Mensch writes current, readable English prose. Romm's (classics, Bard Coll.; Ghost on the Throne) footnotes give sound context to the many names, places, and cultural rites found within Plutarch's text. VERDICT For those with a serious interest in Roman history. As this is an ancient primary source, it is helpful if readers come at this work with a general understanding of the events and people of the first century BCE Roman world (see Barry Strauss's The Death of Caesar). [See Prepub Alert, 8/1/16.]—Jeffrey Meyer, Mt. Pleasant P.L., IA

Library Journal

2016-11-15
The estimable Greek historian depicts ancient Rome's violent politics.Biographer and philosopher Plutarch (46-120 C.E.) aimed to reveal "the manifestations of a man's soul" in his Parallel Lives, portrayals of major Greek and Roman historical figures. Set beside one another, these biographies, Plutarch hoped, would edify readers who sought moral self-improvement. From that work, classicist Romm (Classics/Bard Coll.; Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero, 2014, etc.) has selected five Roman lives: military general Pompey; lawyer and orator Cicero; Caesar, central to all of these lives; his treacherous adversary Brutus; and his supporter Antony, a vainly handsome man "of princely dignity." These biographies, Romm believes, offer "an immersion in the events of the classical past and an encounter with its greatest personalities." An introduction by noted classical scholar Mary Beard and informative footnotes help to fill in that sense of the past, and a felicitous translation by Mensch makes Plutarch's prose lively and accessible. The biographies are thrillingly dramatic, as Plutarch recounts savage battles, bloody betrayals, and constant political upheaval. Central to that upheaval was the murder of Caesar, after he declared himself "Dictator for Life," by a cadre assembled by Brutus. After arrogantly reproaching petitioners, Caesar found himself surrounded by murderers. "Whichever way he turned he met with blows aimed at his face and eyes, and was driven here and there like a wild beast," Plutarch wrote, "trapped in everyone's hands." Caesar was felled with 23 stab wounds, and some of the assassins themselves were wounded in the melee. Carried out in the name of liberation from Caesar's tyrannical rule, the killing had the opposite effect, making the populace worship Caesar "as a god" and turn against the conspirators. Among other dramatically intense scenes, Cleopatra's inconsolable grief after Antony's death and her suicide by asp bite stand out. If crucifixions and ferocious street fighting no longer characterize contemporary politics, Plutarch's rivalrous, "inglorious" world in discomfiting ways echoes through our own time.

Kirkus Reviews

"A translation full of good choices."

Steve Donoghuen Conservative

"This reader’s edition of Plutarch’s Lives brings to life the captivating personalities and topsy-turvy politics of the late Roman Republic. Fluid and poised, Pamela Mensch’s translation does a fine job conveying the measured power of Plutarch’s prose. The introduction—authored by one of the most distinguished ancient historians of her generation—masterfully sets the scene, and James Romm’s notes will be an invaluable resource for readers."

Daniel Padilla Peralta

"The Age of Caesar is a fine translation of Plutarch’s biographies of five of the most tragic figures in ancient history. This will become the new standard."

Ian Morris

"A translation full of good choices."

American Conservative - Steve Donoghue

A translation full of good choices.

Steve Donoghue - American Conservative