Plutarch pairs Greek and Roman figures to compare their virtues and circumstances, beginning with Theseus and Romulus. This deck covers his account of their origins, deeds, and the comparisons he draws between the two founders.
1 / 438
Chapter 1 · Question
Why does Plutarch begin by comparing himself to a geographer?
WakeCards · wakecards.com · Big ideas. Quick review.
Chapter 1 · Answer
Plutarch says geographers crowd the edges of their maps with notes that beyond lies only deserts, wild beasts, bogs, ice, or a frozen sea. Likewise, past the periods real history can reach, he says there is nothing but prodigies and fictions inhabited by poets and inventors of fables, with no credit or certainty. He asks candid readers to indulge stories of antiquity that resist reduction to probable fact.
WakeCards · wakecards.com · Big ideas. Quick review.
Arrow keys move between cards. Space or Enter flips.
All questions and answers
Every card in the deck, in reading order. Click a chapter to expand. The reviewer above uses the same content.
Section 14 cards
Why does Plutarch begin by comparing himself to a geographer?
Plutarch says geographers crowd the edges of their maps with notes that beyond lies only deserts, wild beasts, bogs, ice, or a frozen sea. Likewise, past the periods real history can reach, he says there is nothing but prodigies and fictions inhabited by poets and inventors of fables, with no credit or certainty. He asks candid readers to indulge stories of antiquity that resist reduction to probable fact.
Chapter 1
How does Plutarch justify pairing Theseus with Romulus?
Plutarch says Theseus seemed to resemble Romulus in many particulars: both were born out of wedlock of uncertain parentage and had the repute of being sprung from gods; both were warriors uniting bodily strength with equal vigor of mind; of the two most famous cities, one built Rome and the other made Athens inhabited. Both are charged with rape of women and domestic misfortune, and both incurred great odium late in life.
Chapter 1
Why did Theseus refuse to travel to Athens by sea?
Although the sea route was safer and his mother and grandfather begged him to take it, Theseus refused. He had long been fired by the glory of Hercules, dreaming of his deeds at night and emulating him by day, and thought it dishonorable that Hercules purged land and sea of wicked men while he fled adventures in his way. He wished to prove his birth by noble actions, not just the tokens.
Chapter 1
How did Theseus acquire the club he carried afterward?
Near Epidaurus, Theseus fought Periphetes in a set combat and slew him. Periphetes used a club as his weapon and was called Corynetes, or the club-bearer; he had seized Theseus and forbidden him to go forward. Pleased with the club, Theseus took it as his own weapon, using it as Hercules did the lion's skin, to show how huge a beast he had killed.
Chapter 1
Section 22 cards
What was the Ship of Theseus puzzle and who preserved the ship?
The thirty-oared ship in which Theseus and the Athenian youth returned was preserved by the Athenians down to the time of Demetrius Phalereus. They replaced decayed planks with new timber, so the ship became a standing example among philosophers for the logical question of things that grow: one side held it remained the same, the other that it was not the same.
Chapter 2
How did Theseus unite Attica, and what three ranks did he create?
After Aegeus's death, Theseus gathered the dispersed inhabitants of Attica into one city, persuading the powerful with a promise of democracy while he retained command in war and protection of the laws. He dissolved local state-houses and magistracies, built one common council hall, named the state Athens, and instituted the Panathenaea. He divided the commonwealth into noblemen, husbandmen, and artificers.
Chapter 2
Section 34 cards
According to the most believed account, why did Amulius force Numitor's daughter to become a Vestal?
Amulius took the kingdom from his brother Numitor and, fearing that Numitor's daughter might bear children who could threaten him, made her a Vestal, bound forever to live a single and maiden life. This account is attributed to Diocles of Peparethus, whom Fabius Pictor follows in most points.
Chapter 3
What explanation does Plutarch offer for the fable of the she-wolf nursing Romulus and Remus?
Plutarch reports that some think the fable arose from the nurse's name, since the Latins called not only wolves lupae but also women of loose life. The wife of Faustulus, Acca Larentia, who nurtured the children, was such a woman. The Romans honor her with sacrifices, and the priest of Mars makes libations in April at the Larentian Feast.
Chapter 3
In the Tarchetius version told by Promathion, how were the twin boys saved after being ordered destroyed?
Tarchetius gave the infants to Teratius with orders to destroy them, but he laid them by the river. A wolf suckled them while various birds brought morsels of food and put them in their mouths. A cow-herd, first surprised and then venturing nearer, took the children up in his arms. They were thus saved and later overcame Tarchetius.
Chapter 3
How does Plutarch describe the characters and pursuits of Romulus and Remus as they grew up?
Plutarch says both proved brave and manly, attempting hazardous enterprises with undaunted courage. But Romulus seemed rather to act by counsel and showed the sagacity of a statesman, giving the idea of being born to rule rather than obey. They despised the king's overseers, and pursued hunting, running, repelling robbers, and delivering the oppressed from injury.
Chapter 3
Section 44 cards
How did Tatius reward Tarpeia for betraying the citadel to the Sabines?
Tatius agreed to give her what the Sabines wore on their left arms, meaning their gold bracelets and shields. He threw his own bracelet and buckler at her first, and the rest followed, so she was buried and crushed to death under the weight of the gold and shields. Tarpeius, her father and captain of the guard, was later tried by Romulus and found guilty of treason.
Chapter 4
What did the Sabine women do to stop the second battle, and what terms followed?
The stolen Sabine women ran between the armies with their babies, lamenting and pleading with both fathers and husbands, asking not to be made twice captives. Both sides were moved to compassion and a truce was made. Terms: women who wished could stay, exempt from drudgery but spinning; Romans and Sabines would inhabit Rome together; the city was called Rome from Romulus, the people Quirites from Tatius's country; and both governed in common.
Chapter 4
How did Romulus rally the fleeing Romans against the Sabines?
After Romulus was struck on the head by a stone and the Romans fled toward the Palatium, he recovered and called them to stand and fight, but was overborne by numbers. He then stretched out his hands to heaven and prayed to Jupiter to stop the army and maintain the Roman cause. Shame and respect for their king checked many, and their fear turned to confidence at the place where the temple of Jupiter Stator later stood.
Chapter 4
What changes did Romulus and Tatius make after uniting Romans and Sabines?
The city doubled in number: one hundred Sabines were elected senators, and the legions increased to six thousand foot and six hundred horse. The people were divided into three tribes — Ramnenses from Romulus, Tatienses from Tatius, and Luceres from the grove of the Asylum — each containing ten curiae. Honors were given to the women, such as yielding the way and not speaking ill in their presence. The Sabines adopted Roman months; Romulus adopted Sabine long shields.
Chapter 4
Section 54 cards
According to Plutarch, what fault did Theseus and Romulus each fall into as rulers?
Plutarch says both were by nature meant for governors, yet neither lived up to the true character of a king. Theseus fell into popularity and Romulus into tyranny, both reaching the same fault from different passions. Plutarch argues a ruler's first end is to maintain his office by avoiding what is unfit as well as observing what is suitable; too remiss a ruler becomes a demagogue, too strict a despot.
Chapter 5
How does Plutarch compare the anger of Theseus and Romulus toward their kin?
Plutarch asks who can acquit Theseus of rash anger against his son or Romulus against his brother. He says Romulus disagreed with his brother deliberately over public matters, while Theseus was seduced by love, jealousy, and his wife's complaints. Romulus's anger had unfortunate consequences, whereas Theseus's ended in words and an old man's curse, with the youth's disasters seeming to proceed from fortune.
Chapter 5
What arguments does Plutarch give in favor of Romulus over Theseus?
Plutarch says Romulus began from small beginnings, being thought a servant and son of swineherds, yet gave liberty to almost all the Latins and won titles as destroyer of enemies, preserver of friends, prince of the people, and founder of cities. He founded a new city rather than demolishing existing ones, benefiting those who wanted homes, and subdued nations and overthrew cities rather than slaying robbers.
Chapter 5
How does Plutarch defend Romulus's seizure of the Sabine women against Theseus's rapes?
Plutarch says the faults in Theseus's rapes admit no plausible excuse, because of the repetition of the crime and because the women were not worthier than Athenian women, so it is suspected to be wantonness and lust. Romulus took near eight hundred women but chose only Hersilia for himself, dividing the rest among the chief citizens, and Plutarch argues the respect and justice shown afterward made it a politic exploit that united two nations.
Chapter 5
Section 64 cards
Why did Lycurgus forbid putting his laws in writing?
The author says Lycurgus believed the most important points, imprinted on the hearts of the young by good discipline, would remain more securely than any written compulsion. Lesser matters, like pecuniary contracts, should change with circumstances and sound judgment. A Rhetra expressly forbade writing the laws; education was meant to effect every end of law.
Chapter 6
What did the Rhetra against luxury require for Spartan house construction?
It ordained that ceilings be wrought only by the axe and gates and doors smoothed only by the saw. The author argues luxury and such a house could not be companions, since plain rooms ill suit silver-footed couches and purple coverlets. He reports Leotychides, entertained at Corinth in a carved room, asked whether trees grew so in his country.
Chapter 6
Why did a Rhetra forbid frequent or long war with the same enemy?
The ordinance held that constant warfare would train and instruct the enemy in war by habituating them to defend themselves. The author notes Agesilaus was much blamed for his continual incursions into Boeotia, thought to have made the Thebans a match for the Lacedaemonians; Antalcidas told the wounded Agesilaus he was well paid for making Thebans good soldiers.
Chapter 6
How did Lycurgus regulate marriage and childbirth, according to the chapter?
The author says Lycurgus ordered maidens to wrestle, run, throw the quoit, and cast the dart so their offspring might take firmer root and they bear childbirth better; they went naked in processions and dances. Husbands carried off brides by a sort of force, visited them secretly, and men could give wives to approved men for good children, since children belonged to the commonwealth.
Chapter 6
Section 74 cards
What burial customs did Lycurgus establish to reduce superstition?
Lycurgus allowed the dead to be buried within the city and around temples so the young would grow used to seeing corpses and not fear defilement from touching a body or grave. He permitted nothing in the ground except, if desired, a few olive leaves and the scarlet cloth wrapping. Names could be inscribed only for men fallen in war or women who died in a sacred office. Mourning lasted eleven days, ending with sacrifice to Ceres on the twelfth.
Chapter 7
Why did Lycurgus forbid Spartans to travel and expel uninvited strangers?
The author says Lycurgus forbade foreign travel and banished strangers who could not give a good reason for coming, not from fear they would learn his government (as Thucydides says) but lest they introduce customs contrary to good manners. Strange people bring strange words, which produce novel thoughts, then discordant feelings that destroy the state's harmony. Plutarch compares this to preventing a pestilence from entering the city.
Chapter 7
What was the Cryptia, and did Plutarch attribute it to Lycurgus?
The Cryptia was an ordinance in which magistrates secretly sent able young men into the country with daggers and little provisions; by day they hid, by night they killed Helots they met, sometimes striking them at work in the fields. Aristotle says it was Lycurgus's, and that ephors declared war on Helots at taking office so killing was no religious breach. Plutarch argues these cruelties began later, after the great earthquake and Helot revolt, and refuses to ascribe them to Lycurgus.
Chapter 7
How did Lycurgus make his laws permanent, and how long did they last?
Lycurgus had the two kings, senate, and commons swear to maintain the established polity until his return, then went to Delphi. The oracle said the laws were excellent and the people would live in high renown while observing them. He sent the oracle home in writing and, after a second sacrifice, ended his life by total abstinence from food so the Spartans could not be released from their oath. Plutarch says Lacedaemon kept the laws unchanged for five hundred years, through fourteen kings, until Agis.
Chapter 7
Section 84 cards
According to Plutarch, what was the office and authority of the Pontifex Maximus?
The Pontifex Maximus declared and interpreted divine law and presided over sacred rites. He prescribed rules for public ceremony and regulated private sacrifices, forbidding variation from established custom, and told each person what was needed for worship or supplication. He was also guardian of the vestal virgins, whose institution and perpetual fire Plutarch attributes to Numa.
Chapter 8
What vow and term of service did Numa's statutes prescribe for the vestals?
They took a vow of virginity for thirty years: the first ten spent learning their duties, the second ten performing them, and the remaining ten teaching others. After the full term it was lawful to marry and leave the sacred order, but Plutarch says few did so, and those who changed were said to live afterward in regret and melancholy.
Chapter 8
How was a vestal who broke her vow of virginity punished?
She was buried alive near the Collina gate in a cell under a mound, with a bed, a lamp, and a small quantity of bread, water, milk, and oil, so she would not be said to die of famine. The high-priest prayed, placed her on the steps, and turned away; the stairs were drawn up and earth heaped over the entrance.
Chapter 8
What was the role of the Fecials, and how did their neglect supposedly bring disaster?
The Fecials were guardians of peace who sought satisfaction by conference before war; arms could not be taken up until they declared accommodation hopeless, and they called the gods to witness. Plutarch says the Gallic sack was a judgment for Fabius Ambustus fighting before war was declared, while the senate debated handing him over.
Chapter 8
Section 94 cards
According to Valerius Antias, what happened to the books found in the stone chest?
Valerius Antias writes the chests held twelve volumes of holy writ and twelve of Greek philosophy. About four hundred years later, heavy rains washed the chests loose; one was empty of any body, the other held the books. The praetor Petilius read them, swore in the senate they should not be made public, and the volumes were carried to the Comitium and burnt there.
Chapter 9
How does Plutarch say the fates of the kings after Numa set off his reputation?
Plutarch says the fortunes of the succeeding kings served as foils to set off Numa's reputation. Of the five kings after him, the last ended his old age in banishment, deposed from his crown, and three of the other four were assassinated by treason. Tullus Hostilius, his immediate successor, derided Numa's virtues, especially his devotion to religious worship, as cowardly and mean-spirited.
Chapter 9
In the comparison, how do Plutarch's accounts of Numa and Lycurgus on acquiring kingship differ?
Plutarch says Numa accepted a kingdom and Lycurgus resigned one: Numa received it without desiring it, raised from a private person and stranger by others, while Lycurgus had it and gave it up, descending voluntarily from prince to privacy. Plutarch argues it was glorious to acquire a throne by justice, yet more glorious to prefer justice before a throne.
Chapter 9
What does Plutarch say about Numa's and Lycurgus's approaches to education and the permanence of their laws?
Plutarch argues Numa left children's education to parents' wishes or necessities, letting a son become husbandman, carpenter, coppersmith, or musician, while Lycurgus drew up rules for superintendence of children, companies, discipline, meals, exercises, and sports. Plutarch says Lycurgus's laws lasted above five hundred years because education infused them into children's characters, whereas Numa's design of peace vanished with him.
Chapter 9
Section 104 cards
Why did both rich and poor Athenians accept Solon as archon and lawgiver?
Plutarch says the rich consented because Solon was wealthy, and the poor because he was honest. He had avoided joining the rich in their exactions and was not caught up in the poor's necessities, so he was seen as the one man not implicated in the troubles. He was chosen archon after Philombrotus and empowered to arbitrate and make laws.
Chapter 10
What did Solon's Seisacthea do, and how do accounts of it differ?
Most agree Seisacthea meant canceling debts, and Solon forbade future debt bondage of a person's body. But Androtion claims debts were not canceled, only interest reduced, along with enlarging measures and raising money's value: a pound that passed for seventy-three drachmas was made to go for a hundred. Plutarch notes Solon called debt cancellation by the euphemistic name Seisacthea, a relief or disencumbrance.
Chapter 10
How did Solon's friends exploit his debt plan, and how did he respond?
Solon told Conon, Clinias, and Hipponicus that he would not touch the land but would free people from debts. They borrowed large sums and bought farms, then kept the land and refused to repay once the law passed, making Solon suspected of complicity. He stopped the suspicion by releasing his own debtors of five talents under the law; others say fifteen. His friends were thereafter called Chreocopidae, repudiators.
Chapter 10
What was Draco's legal code like, and what did Solon do with it?
Plutarch says Draco appointed death for almost all offenses, including idleness and stealing a cabbage or apple, so Demades said Draco's laws were written not with ink but blood. Draco himself reportedly said small offenses deserve death and he had no higher penalty for greater crimes. Solon repealed all Draco's laws except those concerning homicide, because they were too severe.
Chapter 10
Section 114 cards
What did Solon do with his arms when no one would side with him against Pisistratus?
Solon laid his arms in the porch before his door, declaring, "I have done my part to maintain my country and my laws," and then busied himself no more. He refused his friends' advice to flee, and instead wrote poems reproaching the Athenians for having put the strongholds into Pisistratus's hands.
Chapter 11
According to the chapter, why did Solon abandon his verse history of the Atlantic Island?
The chapter says Solon abandoned it not, as Plato claims, from want of time, but because of his age and discouragement at the greatness of the task. It notes he had leisure enough, citing his own verses about growing older and learning something new each day.
Chapter 11
How did the slave Vindicius come to overhear the conspiracy, and whom did he tell?
Vindicius had concealed himself in the dark house of the Aquillii by chance, not by design, and hid behind a chest to observe the conspirators' oath and letters to Tarquin. Unable to keep silent, he went to Valerius, whose open gates and kindness to the needy made him approachable, and made a full discovery.
Chapter 11
What did Brutus do when his two sons made no defense against the indictment?
Brutus asked each son three times whether they could answer the charge; when neither replied, he told the lictors, "What remains is your duty." They stripped, bound, and scourged the youths. The chapter says Brutus did not turn his face aside or allow pity to soften his look.
Chapter 11
Section 124 cards
On what conditions did Porsenna make peace with Rome?
Porsenna made peace on the conditions that the Romans resign land taken from the Tuscans, restore all prisoners, and receive back their deserters. To confirm the peace, the Romans gave as hostages ten sons of patrician parents and as many daughters, among them Valeria, daughter of Poplicola. The author notes Porsenna was moved partly by his son Aruns, who favored the Roman interest.
Chapter 12
How did Poplicola respond when the hostage girls returned to Rome?
Poplicola neither praised nor approved their return. He feared appearing less faithful than Porsenna and that the maidens' boldness would suggest treachery in the Romans. So he had them apprehended and sent back to Porsenna. Tarquin's men ambushed the escorts, but Aruns, Porsenna's son, rescued the Romans and put the enemy to flight.
Chapter 12
How did Appius Clausus come to Rome and what did he receive?
Clausus, a wealthy and eloquent Sabine who opposed war with Rome, faced envy and feared trial, so he stirred up a tumult. Poplicola sent emissaries inviting him to Rome with promises of honor. Clausus came bringing five thousand families, and Poplicola admitted them to the franchise, allotting two acres each by the Anio, twenty-five acres to Clausus, and a senate seat.
Chapter 12
What honors did the Romans grant Poplicola at his death?
The people decreed him a public interment, each contributing a quadrans toward the cost, and the women by private consent mourned a whole year. He was buried within the city at Velia, where his posterity had burial privilege. Later, when no family member is interred there, the body is set down, a burning torch placed under it and immediately removed as attestation of the privilege.
Chapter 12
Section 134 cards
Why did the Greeks refuse to meet the Persians in Boeotia?
The Greeks ignored Athenian pleas to face the Persians in Boeotia, being wholly intent on the Peloponnesus. They resolved to gather all forces within the Isthmus and build a wall from sea to sea across that narrow neck of land. The Athenians were enraged, seeing themselves betrayed, and dejected at their own destitution.
Chapter 13
How did Themistocles persuade the Athenians to abandon their city?
Unable to persuade them by human reason, Themistocles used prodigies and oracles. The serpent of Minerva disappeared, and priests declared the goddess had left for the sea. He urged the oracle bidding them trust 'walls of wood,' arguing this meant ships, and that Salamis was called divine. His opinion prevailed, and a decree committed the city to Minerva.
Chapter 13
What stratagem did Themistocles use to keep the Greeks from fleeing?
Themistocles sent his Persian captive Sicinnus to Xerxes, claiming the Greeks were about to escape and advising the king to attack them while confused and apart from their land army. Xerxes joyfully sent two hundred galleys to enclose the straits. Aristides first perceived this and informed Themistocles, then helped persuade the Greeks to stay and fight.
Chapter 13
Why did Themistocles delay battle until later in the day?
Themistocles chose the best time of fighting, refusing to begin until the hour when a fresh breeze blows in from the open sea and brings a strong swell into the channel. This did little harm to the low-built Greek ships but hurt the Persians' high-sterned, lofty-decked vessels, presenting them broadside to the Greeks' quick charges.
Chapter 13
Section 144 cards
What did Artabanus tell Themistocles was required to see the Persian king?
Artabanus explained that Persian custom required anyone granted an audience to fall down before the king and worship him as the image of the great preserver of the universe. He noted that while Greeks honor liberty and equality, Persians consider honoring the king their most excellent law, and that the king would not give audience to anyone who did not prostrate himself.
Chapter 14
How did Themistocles respond to the king's demand that he speak about Greece?
Themistocles compared a man's discourse to a rich Persian carpet, whose beautiful figures can only be shown when spread out, but are obscured and lost when folded up. Pleased with the comparison, the king let him take what time he wished, and Themistocles asked for a year, during which he learned Persian well enough to speak without an interpreter.
Chapter 14
What did Themistocles say to his children about his prosperity?
Seeing himself splendidly served at his table while in great prosperity and courted by many, Themistocles turned to his children and said, 'Children, we had been undone if we had not been undone.' The remark ties his present Persian honors to the earlier banishment and defeat that drove him from Greece.
Chapter 14
How did Themistocles die, and how did the king react?
Most writers say Themistocles drank bull's blood; others state it was a poison producing instant death. He died in Magnesia at sixty-five, having sacrificed and entertained his friends. Plutarch suggests he acted partly from shame at sullying his former glory rather than hatred of Athens. The king, learning of his death, admired him more than ever and continued kindness to his friends and relations.
Chapter 14
Section 152 cards
What did Camillus pray at the city gate as he went into exile?
Stopping and turning at the gate, he stretched out his hands to the Capitol and prayed that if he was driven out without fault of his own, merely through the malice and violence of the people, the Romans might quickly repent, and all mankind might witness their need for his return.
Chapter 15
How did the Romans respond to the Fabii's conduct at Clusium?
The fecial priests urged the senate to lay the guilt on the one who committed the act, and the matter was referred to the people. But the multitude scorned the priests' authority and chose Fabius and his brothers military tribunes. The Gauls, hearing this, threw aside delay and hastened to Rome.
Chapter 15
Section 164 cards
Why did Camillus claim Rome's gold agreement with the Gauls was invalid?
Camillus argued the agreement had no legal force because he had been declared dictator, leaving no other lawful magistrate; the men who made the deal therefore lacked power to bind Rome. He then told Brennus he had full legal authority to pardon those who asked or punish the guilty who did not repent.
Chapter 16
How long did the barbarians occupy Rome, and when did they enter and leave?
According to Plutarch, Rome was in the possession of the barbarians for seven whole months. They entered a little after the Ides of July and were driven out about the Ides of February following. Plutarch calls Rome strangely taken and more strangely recovered.
Chapter 16
What chance event persuaded the Romans to rebuild Rome rather than move to Veii?
During the debate, as Lucius Lucretius was about to speak first, a centurion outside called to his ensign-bearer to halt and fix the standard, saying this was the best place to stay. The Romans took this as divine direction; Lucretius and all who followed voted to rebuild.
Chapter 16
What was found in the ruins of the chapel of Mars, and what did it signify?
While clearing the burnt chapel of Mars on the Palatium, workers found Romulus's augural staff, the crooked lituus used in divination from birds, buried under ashes. Since everything else was consumed but the staff escaped the flames, the Romans took happier hopes and augured Rome's everlasting safety.
Chapter 16
Section 174 cards
Why does Plutarch write about the lives of famous persons?
The author argues that virtue, unlike artistic skill or fortune's goods, inspires imitation when its actions are merely stated: we admire the deed and desire to do likewise. Statues of Phidias or poems of Anacreon may please without making us want to be their creators, but moral good is a practical stimulus that creates a moral purpose in the hearer.
Chapter 17
How did Anaxagoras influence Pericles, according to Plutarch?
Pericles greatly esteemed Anaxagoras, called Nous (mind), and filled himself with his lofty thought, gaining elevation of purpose and dignity of language above mob-eloquence, plus composure of countenance, serenity, an even tone of voice, and freedom from superstition—replacing wild fear of celestial appearances with assurance of an intelligent piety.
Chapter 17
How does Plutarch reconcile the natural philosopher and the diviner over the ram's horn?
Lampon read the one-horned ram as portending that the faction whose land produced it would win control of the city; Anaxagoras opened the skull and showed the brain had not filled its place, so the horn grew from that point. Plutarch says both were right: one explained the cause, the other the purpose, as with fire-beacons and sundial shadows.
Chapter 17
Why did Pericles avoid suppers and public appearances?
Pericles entered a new course of life: he walked only to the marketplace and council-hall, avoided friends' invitations to supper, and left his kinsman's wedding right after the drink-offering. Plutarch explains that familiar meetings quickly defeat assumed superiority, so Pericles appeared at intervals only, reserving himself like the Salaminian galley for great occasions.
Chapter 17
Section 183 cards
What challenge did Pericles make when accused of squandering public money?
When orators accused Pericles of wasting public funds, he asked the assembly whether they thought he had spent too much. They said yes, greatly. He then offered to have the cost charged to himself rather than the public, with the buildings inscribed in his own name. The people, moved by his spirit or emulous of the glory, told him to spend freely from the public purse until all was finished.
Chapter 18
What was the source of Pericles' predominance over the people, according to Thucydides?
Plutarch says the source was not merely his power of language but, as Thucydides assures us, the reputation of his life and the confidence felt in his character: his manifest freedom from corruption and superiority to money. Though he made Athens great and rich and held power exceeding many kings, he did not increase his father's estate by one drachma.
Chapter 18
What did Pericles propose regarding a general assembly of all Greeks?
To elevate the people's spirit, Pericles proposed a decree summoning all Greeks in Europe and Asia, every city great and small, to send deputies to Athens to consult on the temples the barbarians had burnt, the sacrifices owed for Greece's safety, and secure navigation of the sea. Twenty men over fifty were sent to various regions, but nothing was effected; the Lacedaemonians reportedly crossed the design, and the cities did not meet.
Chapter 18
Section 194 cards
According to Plutarch, what was the 'worst motive' given for Pericles refusing to annul the decree?
Plutarch reports that the worst motive, confirmed by most witnesses, was that Pericles, fearing impeachment after his troubles over Phidias and the attacks on Aspasia and Anaxagoras, kindled the war to scatter the complaints and charges against him. Plutarch notes the city usually relied on his sole conduct in great public dangers. He adds that the truth of these reasons is uncertain.
Chapter 19
How did Phidias arrange the gold on the statue of Minerva, and what happened at his trial?
By Pericles' advice, Phidias had so wrapped the gold about the statue that it could all be taken off and weighed. When Menon accused him, no theft or cheating was proved, and Pericles told the accusers to weigh the gold. But envy of his works' reputation persisted, partly because he put his own likeness and Pericles' on the shield. Phidias was carried to prison and died there of disease, or, some say, of poison.
Chapter 19
How did Pericles respond to the Spartan demand that Athens expel the 'Pollution'?
The Lacedaemonians, believing that removing Pericles would let them deal with Athens as they pleased, demanded the Athenians expel the 'Pollution' tainting Pericles on his mother's side, as Thucydides tells us. The result was contrary to their expectation: instead of bringing him under suspicion, it raised him to greater credit and esteem as a man whom the enemy most hated and feared.
Chapter 19
What did Pericles tell the Athenians about his estate before Archidamus invaded Attica?
Before Archidamus led the Peloponnesian invasion, Pericles told the Athenians beforehand that if Archidamus spared his estate, whether out of friendship, hospitality, or to give his enemies occasion to traduce him, he then freely bestowed all his land and buildings upon the state for public use. The invaders duly wasted the country and camped at Acharnae, expecting the Athenians to come out and fight.
Chapter 19
Section 204 cards
How did Hannibal escape Fabius's trap at Casilinum?
Hannibal tied torches to the horns of two thousand oxen and drove them toward the heights at night. The Romans on guard, seeing the flames, believed an army was advancing and abandoned the pass. Hannibal's light-armed men then seized the heights, and his whole army with baggage marched safely through. Fabius discovered the trick before night ended but feared an ambush and kept his men in camp.
Chapter 20
What mistake led Hannibal's army to Casilinum instead of Casinum?
Hannibal ordered his guides to lead him to the district of Casinum to find pasture. The guides mistook his bad pronunciation and led the army to Casilinum on the Campanian frontier instead. The surrounding country was enclosed by mountains with a valley opening to the sea. Hannibal, realizing the error and danger, immediately crucified the guides.
Chapter 20
Why did the senate reproach Fabius over the prisoner exchange?
Fabius had contracted with Hannibal that after man-for-man exchange, remaining prisoners would be ransomed at two hundred and fifty drachmas each. Two hundred and forty Romans remained unexchanged. The senate refused to fund the ransoms and reproached Fabius for contracting contrary to the commonwealth's honor, redeeming men whose cowardice had put them in enemy hands. Fabius sold land to pay and declined repayment.
Chapter 20
How did Hannibal trap Minucius after he and Fabius divided the army?
Hannibal hid men in ditches and hollows near an eminence, then sent a small detachment to occupy the high ground as bait. Minucius sent light troops, then horse, then his whole army. When the Romans were within the trap, Hannibal signaled his hidden men, who rushed out and attacked Minucius in the rear. The surprise and slaughter were great, and the Numidian horsemen cut down the fugitives.
Chapter 20
Section 214 cards
How did Fabius take Tarentum according to the common tradition?
A young Tarentine in the Roman army learned that a Bruttian commander of the garrison loved his sister. He deserted in show to Tarentum, encouraged the match, and persuaded the love-struck mercenary to betray the town to Fabius for promised rewards. Fabius also sent troops against the Bruttian country and Caulonia to draw Hannibal away, then entered Tarentum on the sixth day of the siege.
Chapter 21
What did Fabius do to the Bruttians after taking Tarentum, and why?
The author says ambition overcame Fabius here: to make it seem he had taken Tarentum by force rather than treachery, he ordered his men to kill the Bruttians before all others. The author argues this failed, earning him a reputation for perfidy and cruelty instead. Many Tarentines were killed, thirty thousand sold as slaves, and three thousand talents brought into the treasury.
Chapter 21
How did Fabius oppose Scipio's plan to invade Africa?
Fabius argued the plan was a hot young man's temerity, warned of leaving Italy defenseless, and persuaded the senate to his side, though the people suspected envy. He urged Scipio's colleague Crassus to take the command, blocked money for the war so Scipio raised it from Etrurian cities, and impeded the levies. Scipio received only the legions in Sicily and three hundred trusted men.
Chapter 21
What did Hannibal say when he learned Tarentum was taken?
Hannibal, said to be within five miles of Tarentum, remarked openly that Rome had also got a Hannibal, and that as they had won Tarentum so had they lost it. In private with confidants he said for the first time that he had always thought it difficult, but now held it impossible with his forces to master Italy.
Chapter 21
Section 224 cards
Why did Alcibiades cut off his dog's tail?
Alcibiades owned a large, handsome dog that cost seventy minas. He cut off its tail, its principal ornament, and when friends complained that all Athens was upset, he laughed and said he wanted the Athenians to talk about this so they might not say something worse of him.
Chapter 22
According to Theophrastus, what was Alcibiades's peculiar weakness as an orator?
Theophrastus, described as the most curious inquirer and greatest lover of history, held that Alcibiades had the highest capacity for inventing and discerning the right thing to say. But because he aimed not only at saying what was required but at saying it well, when apt words did not come readily he would often pause mid-discourse, silent, until he recollected himself.
Chapter 22
How did Alcibiades turn the ostracism against Hyperbolus?
The people, persuaded by Hyperbolus, were ready to use ostracism, a ten years' banishment meant to humiliate citizens who outdid others in credit and power. It was certain to fall on Alcibiades, Nicias, or Phaeax. Alcibiades formed a coalition, consulting either Nicias or Phaeax depending on the account, and turned the sentence upon Hyperbolus, though no mean or obscure person had ever suffered it before.
Chapter 22
How did Alcibiades deceive the Spartan ambassadors and what resulted?
Fearing the ambassadors' full powers would let Nicias make peace, Alcibiades secretly advised them not to avow plenipotentiary status, swearing to assist them. When they told the assembly they were not plenipotentiaries, he denounced them as dishonest prevaricators. The council was incensed, the people enraged, Nicias confused and ashamed, the ambassadors rejected, and Alcibiades declared general.
Chapter 22
Section 234 cards
What policy did Alcibiades advise Tisaphernes to follow toward the Greeks?
Alcibiades advised Tisaphernes to furnish the Spartans only sparingly with money and wear them out, letting the Greeks consume each other's strength. Once both sides had wasted themselves fighting one another, they would both become ready to submit to the Persian king. Tisaphernes readily followed this counsel, which also raised Alcibiades in the estimation of Greeks of both parties.
Chapter 23
Why did Phrynichus oppose Alcibiades's proposal to the Athenian leaders at Samos?
Phrynichus alone rejected the proposal, suspecting—correctly, as the text says—that Alcibiades did not care whether the people or the better citizens governed. He believed Alcibiades only sought by any means to make way for his return to his native country, and to that end inveighed against the people to gain the others and insinuate himself into their good opinion.
Chapter 23
How did Alcibiades prevent the Athenian fleet at Samos from sailing against the Four Hundred?
When the soldiers at Samos heard of the oligarchy and the killings, they were eager to sail at once to the Piraeus and declared Alcibiades general. He opposed their precipitate rage, showing the danger to the whole army and entreating some and constraining others, assisted by Thrasybulus of Stiria. Plutarch says he thereby saved the commonwealth, since sailing would have exposed Ionia, the islands, and the Hellespont to the enemy.
Chapter 23
What did the Spartans' intercepted letter to the ephors report after Cyzicus?
After the Athenian victory at Cyzicus, where Mindarus was slain and Pharnabazus fled, the Athenians intercepted letters written to the ephors reporting the disaster in the Spartans' short laconic manner: 'Our hopes are at an end. Mindarus is slain. The men starve. We know not what to do.' The victory secured the Hellespont and drove the Lacedaemonians from the rest of the sea.
Chapter 23
Section 254 cards
What three charges did the tribunes bring against Marcius at his trial?
The tribunes first agreed to prosecute Marcius only for tyranny, but at the assembly they dropped that charge and instead accused him of speaking in the senate against lowering the price of corn and for overthrowing the tribunician power. They added a new charge: that he had divided spoil taken from the Antiates among his followers instead of bringing it into the public treasury.
Chapter 25
How was the vote conducted at Marcius's trial, and what was the verdict?
Contrary to former practice, the tribunes extorted that votes be taken not by centuries but by tribes, which Plutarch says favored the indigent and factious rabble over the rich and well known. A majority of three tribes condemned him, and the penalty was perpetual banishment. The people left in triumph; the senate was in grief and dejection.
Chapter 25
Why did the tribunes set a later trial date instead of executing Marcius at once?
When the Aediles seized Marcius, many plebeians found the act horrible and the patricians rushed to rescue him. The tribunes' friends, seeing he could not be carried off without much bloodshed among the nobility, persuaded them to avoid sudden violence and refer the cause to the people's vote. Sicinnius then appointed the third market-day for Marcius to appear and defend himself.
Chapter 25
What did Marcius resolve to do after his banishment, and whom did he approach first?
Plutarch says Marcius, possessed by deep-seated fury, proposed no honorable or useful end but only how to satisfy his revenge on the Romans. He resolved to raise a heavy war against them from their nearest neighbors, deciding first to test the Volscians, whom he judged still vigorous in men and treasure. He particularly considered Tullus Aufidius of Antium, a Volscian leader with personal hostility toward him.
Chapter 25
Section 264 cards
How does Plutarch defend Homer against charges of denying human free will?
Plutarch argues Homer ascribes ordinary, probable, habitual conclusions to our own direct agency, while introducing divine agency only for extraordinary acts. He says the divine does not destroy but prompts the human will, offering images that stimulate our own action rather than making it involuntary. The gods actuate the practical and elective element of our nature, not our bodies and limbs.
Chapter 26
Who was Valeria and what did she do during the Roman women's perplexity?
Valeria was sister to the great Poplicola, now deceased, and lived still at Rome in great respect and honor. Seized by the instinct or emotion Plutarch describes, she rose and bade the other women rise, then led them to the house of Volumnia, mother of Marcius. There she spoke for them all, urging Volumnia and Vergilia to go supplicate Marcius.
Chapter 26
What argument does Volumnia use to persuade Marcius to spare Rome?
Volumnia says her dress and person show their forlorn condition, and that prayer itself adds to their distress since they cannot wish for Rome's victory and Marcius's safety at once. She threatens that he cannot reach his country unless he tramples on her corpse. She also argues it is base to destitute fellow-citizens and unjust to betray those who trust him, but peace would be honorable for the Volscians.
Chapter 26
What did the Roman women request from the senate, and what did the senate grant?
The senate decreed that whatever the women asked in the way of favor or honor should be allowed by the magistrates. They asked simply that a temple be erected to Female Fortune, offering to defray its expense from their own contributions if the city paid for sacrifices and other divine honors from the common treasury. The senate commended their public spirit, built the temple, and set up a statue at public charge; the women funded a second image themselves.
Chapter 26
Section 274 cards
Why did some Corinthians secretly condemn Timoleon despite publicly rejoicing at the tyrant's death?
Plutarch says the better and more generous Corinthians praised Timoleon for putting love of country above family ties, since his brother had tried to enslave Corinth. But those unused to democracy, who courted men of power, secretly reviled him as impious and abominable, driving him into melancholy. The author argues such shifts show minds are easily shaken by others' praise or blame.
Chapter 27
What did Timoleon resolve to do after his mother shut her doors against him?
Grief over his mother's complaints and imprecations, and her refusal even to look at him, so disordered Timoleon that he determined to end his life by abstaining from all sustenance. Friends pressed him with entreaties until he promised to live, provided it were in solitude away from company. He then withdrew from civil affairs, wandering the fields and desert places.
Chapter 27
What does Plutarch argue is needed for a just action to remain approved by the doer?
Plutarch argues an action must be just and laudable in itself but also proceed from solid motives and a lasting principle, confirmed by reason and philosophy. Otherwise, once the action's pleasing appearance fades, weakness brings repentance, like a diner disgusted by food he greedily seized. Choice founded on knowledge and wise reasoning does not change with disappointment.
Chapter 27
How did Timoleon escape the Carthaginian ships waiting at Rhegium?
Timoleon pretended to accept Hicetes' envoys' proposals but asked that the terms be declared publicly before the people of Rhegium. The Rhegians, favoring Corinth, held a long assembly with successive speakers while his galleys slipped out of the harbor. Timoleon then escaped through the crowd, sailed to join his ships, and reached Tauromenium, where Andromachus received him kindly.
Chapter 27
Section 284 cards
How did Timoleon gain entry to Syracuse after Mago's flight?
Timoleon marched to Syracuse with fewer than four thousand men. Hicetes refused to yield and held well-fortified quarters, so Timoleon split his forces into three divisions: his own against the Anapus river side, Isias against Acradina, and Dinarchus and Demaretus against Epipolae. Attacked from every side at once, Hicetes' soldiers were routed, and the city fell suddenly into Timoleon's hands.
Chapter 28
What did Timoleon do with the citadel, and how did he differ from Dion?
Timoleon, master of the citadel, avoided the error of Dion, who had spared the place for the beauty and sumptuousness of its fabric and incurred suspicion. Timoleon had a public crier summon all willing Syracusans to bring pick-axes and mattocks and help demolish the tyrants' fortifications. The citizens pulled down the castle and adjoining palaces and monuments, and Timoleon then built courts of justice there, founding popular government on the ruin of tyranny.
Chapter 28
Why did Timoleon ask Corinth to send a colony to Syracuse?
Syracuse was destitute of inhabitants: some had died in civil wars and insurrections, others had fled the tyrants. The great marketplace was overgrown with herbage and used as pasture for horses, other towns swarmed with stags and wild boars, and holders of castles refused to return, dreading assemblies and public speaking. Timoleon therefore wrote to Corinth asking them to send a colony from Greece to repeople Syracuse, since the land would otherwise lie unimproved and a greater war from Africa was expected.
Chapter 28
How did the Corinthians respond to Timoleon's request for a colony?
The Corinthians were not tempted by cupidity to seize the city for themselves. They first published at the sacred games and religious assemblies that the Syracusan exiles and other Siceliots were invited to return and inhabit the city with freedom under their own laws, the land divided in just and equal proportions. They then sent messengers into Asia and the islands, offering vessels, commanders, and a safe convoy at their own charges to Syracuse.
Chapter 28
Section 294 cards
How did Timoleon respond to Demaenetus's accusations before the people?
He made no defense, saying only that he was much indebted to the gods for granting his frequent prayer that he might live to see the Syracusans enjoy that liberty of speech they now seemed to possess. Earlier, when Laphystius demanded sureties for an indictment, Timoleon refused to let the citizens block it, saying he had undergone his troubles precisely so anyone might freely resort to law.
Chapter 29
What caused Timoleon's blindness, according to Plutarch?
Plutarch says it was not caused by anything Timoleon did nor by any outrage of fortune, but rather an inbred and hereditary weakness founded in natural causes that revealed itself over time. Several of his kindred were subject to the same gradual decay of sight in declining years. Athanis the historian reports a white speck appeared in his eye during the war against Hippo and Mamercus.
Chapter 29
How did the Syracusans honor Timoleon in his old age and after death?
They visited him in troops and brought traveling strangers to see him; they decreed that in foreign wars they would use only a Corinthian general, and carried him in a litter to advise on difficult matters. At his funeral, Demetrius read a decree to inter him at public expense of two hundred minas and establish annual musical, equestrian, and athletic contests; they built him a tomb in the marketplace called the Timoleonteum.
Chapter 29
Why did Aemilius divorce Papiria, and what does Plutarch suggest?
The reason did not come to Plutarch's knowledge. He compares a Roman who, blamed for divorcing a chaste, fair, and fruitful wife, held out his shoe and asked whether it was new and well made, adding that none could tell where it pinched him. Plutarch suggests great open faults often cause no separation, while petty repeated annoyances from incongruity of character can make living together impossible.
Chapter 29
Section 304 cards
What did the Cretan deserter reveal to Perseus about Roman plans?
A Cretan deserter who fled to the enemy during the march told Perseus that the Romans intended to encompass him, a design Perseus had not suspected because Aemilius lay still. Startled, Perseus sent ten thousand mercenaries and two thousand Macedonians under Milo to seize the passes. Polybius says the Romans found these men asleep; Nasica claims a sharp conflict in which he slew a Thracian and Milo fled without armor.
Chapter 30
How did Aemilius respond to young officers urging immediate battle?
Aemilius smiled and said that were he their age he would do so, but many victories had taught him how men are defeated, and forbade him to engage soldiers weary with a long march against an army drawn up and prepared. He had the front ranks form as if ready to engage while the rear cast trenches and fortified the camp, so the army encamped without noise or trouble.
Chapter 30
How did the Romans and Macedonians each react to the lunar eclipse?
The moon, at full and high, grew dark and was totally eclipsed. The Romans, by custom, clattered brass pans and lifted firebrands and torches to invoke her return. The Macedonians were seized with terror and amazement, and a rumor spread through their camp that the eclipse portended that of their king. Aemilius understood eclipses as the moon entering the earth's shadow, yet as a devout man he offered eleven heifers when she regained her light.
Chapter 30
How did Aemilius break the Macedonian phalanx?
Unable to breach the close array of long sarissas, Aemilius noticed the uneven ground prevented the phalanx from keeping shields everywhere joined, leaving gaps. He broke his men into cohorts and ordered them to enter the intervals and fight partial battles rather than one general attack. Charging the exposed sides and circling behind, the Romans destroyed the phalanx's strength, which lay in common action and close union.
Chapter 30
Section 314 cards
What did the three days of Aemilius's triumph display, and how did the crowd react?
Day one showed statues, pictures and colossal images on 250 chariots; day two carried Macedonian armor piled artfully so it clashed with an alarming noise, plus 3,000 men bearing silver in 750 vessels. Day three brought gold, Perseus's chariot and diadem, then the captive king's children and Perseus himself in black. The sight of the children moved many Romans to tears, mixing sorrow with pleasure.
Chapter 31
How did Perseus's captivity end, according to the differing accounts Plutarch gives?
Aemilius pitied Perseus and obtained only his removal from the Carcer to a cleaner, more humane place of security. One account says Perseus starved himself to death there. Others say his guards, for some spite, kept him from sleep by contrivances until he was utterly worn out and died. Two of his children died soon after; Alexander became a skilled engraver and Roman clerk.
Chapter 31
What did Aemilius tell the people after both his young sons died around his triumph?
He said he had always dreaded fortune as faithless, expecting reversal after success, and had feared for the city until this misfortune fell on his own house. Now, he said, he was safe from his greatest care, trusting fortune would prove constant to Rome, since it had spent its jealousy on him. He noted Perseus still enjoyed his children while the conqueror was deprived of his.
Chapter 31
What financial and political effects does Plutarch attribute to Aemilius's conquest of Macedonia?
Plutarch says the conquest brought so much money into the public treasury that the Romans paid no taxes until the consulship of Hirtius and Pansa, in the first war between Antony and Caesar. He also notes that Aemilius, though extremely beloved by the people, always sided with the nobles and never courted the multitude, yet was still chosen censor and counted 337,452 men.
Chapter 31
Section 324 cards
How did Archias treat the urgent letter warning of the conspiracy?
A messenger brought Archias a letter from the Hierophant Archias at Athens disclosing every particular of the design and urging it be read at once. Archias, well drunk, smiled and said "Urgent business tomorrow," then put the letter under his pillow and returned to conversation with Phillidas. Plutarch notes these words became a Greek proverb.
Chapter 32
How did the conspirators disguise themselves to enter Archias's party?
Charon and Melon's company wore women's apparel over their breastplates and thick garlands of fir and pine to shade their faces. The guests clapped and cheered, supposing them the women they expected. Once inside, the conspirators marked who was present, drew their swords at Archias and Philip among the tables, and revealed themselves.
Chapter 32
Why did Leontidas fail to defend himself effectively against Pelopidas?
Leontidas guessed the plot from the noise, leaped from bed and drew his dagger, but forgot to put out the lights and so make the attackers fall foul of one another in the dark. Being easily seen by reason of the light, he stabbed Cephisodorus at his chamber door, then fought Pelopidas in the narrow passage until Pelopidas killed him.
Chapter 32
What did Pelopidas and Gorgidas contrive to bring Athens into war with Sparta?
They privately sent a merchant friend with money and advice to Sphodrias, the Spartan commander at Thespiae, urging him to surprise the Piraeus, since taking Athens would gratify Sparta and the Thebans would not help men they hated as traitors. Sphodrias marched into Attica by night but his soldiers' hearts failed at Eleusis, and he retreated. Athens then zealously sent supplies to Thebes.
Chapter 32
Section 333 cards
What did Pelopidas refuse to grant Alexander of Pherae, and what did he grant instead?
Epaminondas refused to admit Alexander as an ally of the Thebans, but granted him a truce of thirty days; Pelopidas and Ismenias were then delivered up and the Thebans returned home.
Chapter 33
Why did Pelopidas march to Thessaly with only three hundred horse volunteers?
A solar eclipse at noonday startled his men, and Pelopidas did not think it fit to force fearful men or hazard seven thousand citizens. He set out with only three hundred horse volunteers, against the will of the augurs and fellow-citizens, heated against Alexander and eager for the glory of defending the oppressed.
Chapter 33
How was the tyrant Alexander of Pherae killed, according to Plutarch?
His wife Thebe, hating his cruelty and conspiring with her three brothers, hid them by day, muffled the stairs with wool, and removed the tyrant's sword while he slept. When the brothers hesitated, she threatened to wake Alexander and reveal the plot; they then seized him and ran him through.
Chapter 33
Section 344 cards
Why did Marcellus resign the consulate after being elected?
The augurs held that his creation was not legitimate because it happened to thunder, but they dared not declare this openly for fear of the people. Marcellus voluntarily resigned the consulate while retaining his command, and was then created proconsul.
Chapter 34
What tactic did Marcellus use against Hannibal's foragers near Nola?
He declined a set battle, but when Hannibal sent out a plundering party expecting no fight, Marcellus fell on them. He gave his foot soldiers long naval-style lances to throw with force at close range against enemies used to short darts and hand-to-hand fighting. About five thousand Carthaginians fell, four elephants were killed and two taken, and three hundred Spanish and Numidian horsemen deserted to him three days later.
Chapter 34
What did the senate decree about the survivors of Cannae who begged Marcellus?
The senate replied that the commonwealth did not require the service of cowardly soldiers; if Marcellus thought otherwise, he might use them, provided none was ever honored with a crown or military gift as a reward for virtue or courage. Marcellus was stung by this decree and later upbraided the senate for denying him leave to relieve so many citizens in calamity.
Chapter 34
How did Archimedes' engines defeat Marcellus's assault on Syracuse?
Archimedes shot missiles and huge stones at the land forces, used poles and an iron crane-like beak to sink or lift ships and dash them on rocks, and destroyed the Sambuca bridge with ten-talent rocks. When the Romans attacked at night to get under the shot, he used short-range engines through openings in the walls. The terrified Romans fled at the sight of any rope or wood on the wall, and Marcellus turned to a long siege.
Chapter 34
Section 354 cards
How did Flavius the tribune stop Hannibal's charging elephants?
Flavius, a tribune of soldiers, snatched up an ensign and wounded the first elephant with the spike at the bottom of the staff, putting it to flight. The beast turned on the next elephant and drove back both it and the rest. Marcellus then poured his horse upon the elephants and the disordered enemy, and the wounded elephants, running upon their own party, caused considerable slaughter.
Chapter 35
Why did the diviners distrust the second, more favorable sacrifice before Marcellus viewed the hill?
The first victim's liver lacked a head; the second showed an unusually large head and other promising signs. The diviners said entrails too fair and promising, appearing after others maimed and monstrous, render the change doubtful and suspicious, so they were all the more terrified. Marcellus nonetheless went to view the hill with Crispinus, his son, and about 220 horse.
Chapter 35
What happened to Marcellus at the hill between the camps?
Hannibal, though first to arrive, left the hill unoccupied because it suited an ambush better than a camp, hiding archers and spearmen in the wood. Marcellus went with a small escort to view it; the ambushers surrounded him and attacked. The Etruscans fled, but the forty Fregellans defended the consuls until Marcellus was run through with a lance.
Chapter 35
How did Hannibal treat Marcellus's body, and how do the sources differ on the urn?
Hannibal viewed the body without showing pride or gladness, took only the ring, and ordered it properly adorned and honorably burned; the relics were placed in a silver urn with a gold crown to send to Marcellus's son. Cornelius Nepos and Valerius Maximus say Numidians seized and scattered the bones, while Livy and Augustus Caesar affirm the urn reached his son and was honored with a magnificent funeral.
Chapter 35
Section 364 cards
Why did Aristides oppose Themistocles' plan to sail to the Hellespont and cut the bridge?
Aristides warned that destroying the bridge would trap the vast Persian army in Greece with no means of escape, forcing it by necessity to fight its way out with overwhelming numbers. He urged instead that they deliberate on how to remove the Mede from Greece as quickly as possible. Themistocles then secretly sent word to Xerxes that the Greeks had abandoned the plan to sail for the bridges.
Chapter 36
How did the Athenians respond to Mardonius' offer to rebuild their city and make them lords of Greece?
On Aristides' motion, they replied that they forgave enemies who thought all things purchasable by wealth, but were offended that the Lacedaemonians looked only at their present poverty, forgetting their valor. Aristides told the ambassadors all treasure on or under the earth was worth less to Athens than the liberty of Greece, and proposed a decree anathematizing anyone who sent a herald to the Medes or deserted the Greek alliance.
Chapter 36
How did the oracle's demand that the Athenians fight in their own territory get resolved?
The oracle said the Athenians would win if they sacrificed to specified gods and heroes and fought in their own territory in the plain of Ceres Eleusinia. Aristides was perplexed, since this seemed to transfer the war to Attica. Arimnestus dreamed that Jupiter corrected him: the places were within Plataea's bounds. A temple of Ceres Eleusinia and Proserpine was found near Hysiae, and the Plataeans removed their frontier toward Attica, giving that land to Athens.
Chapter 36
How did Aristides handle the conspiracy in the camp at Plataea?
Certain wealthy men whose influence had vanished with their fortunes conspired to dissolve the democracy or, failing that, betray the cause to the barbarians. Aristides, not knowing how many the accusation might reach and wishing to bound his justice for the public good, seized only eight of the many involved; two escaped, and he dismissed the rest, letting the concealed take courage and repent, noting the war offered a great tribunal to prove their good intentions.
Chapter 36
Section 374 cards
Who assessed the Greek tribute, and what amount did he set?
Aristides of Athens was empowered to survey the country and revenue and assess each city according to ability. He set the assessment at four hundred and sixty talents, and the confederates called his taxation the happy time of Greece. Pericles later added nearly a third more, and after his death demagogues raised it to thirteen hundred talents.
Chapter 37
What did Aristides reply to Themistocles about a general's highest virtue?
Themistocles said the highest virtue of a general was to understand and foreknow the enemy's measures. Aristides replied that this was simply necessary, but the excellent thing in a general is to keep his hands from taking money. Themistocles had derided Aristides's levy as the commendation of a money-bag.
Chapter 37
What did Aristides say about moving the Delian treasure to Athens?
In a debate on the Samians' motion to move the treasure from Delos to Athens contrary to the league, Aristides said the thing indeed was not just, but was expedient. Theophrastus says Aristides was rigorously just in private affairs but in public matters often acted according to his country's policy, which sometimes demanded injustice.
Chapter 37
How did Aristides treat Themistocles when Themistocles was accused?
Though Themistocles had been his adversary in all his undertakings and caused his banishment, Aristides bore him no malice when a similar opportunity for revenge arose. While Alcmaeon, Cimon, and many others prosecuted Themistocles, Aristides alone neither did nor said ill against him, and no more triumphed over his enemy in adversity than he had envied his prosperity.
Chapter 37
Section 384 cards
Why did Cato address the Athenians through an interpreter?
Plutarch reports that Cato spoke to the Athenians by an interpreter even though he could have spoken Greek himself. He wished to observe the usage of his own country and laughed at those who admired nothing but what was in Greek. Plutarch calls the story of a Greek oration by Cato a fiction, though the Athenians admired the brevity and vehemence of his speech.
Chapter 38
How did Cato's night flanking move at Thermopylae unfold?
Cato, recalling the Persians' earlier circuit at Thermopylae, set out at night with part of the army. A prisoner-guide lost the way among precipices, so Cato halted the troops and scouted ahead with Lucius Manlius, marking peaks on Callidromon. The Firmans then rushed the guard, and a captured man revealed six hundred Aetolians held the heights, whom Cato attacked.
Chapter 38
What powers did the Roman censorship hold, and why did nobles oppose Cato?
Plutarch says the censors, one patrician and one plebeian, watched, corrected, and punished excess and departures from ancestral custom, could take away a horse or expel a senator, and registered property and birth. Nobles opposed Cato from jealousy of a man of no original honor rising so high, while others feared his severity. Seven rivals promised mild government; Cato promised a thorough purgation.
Chapter 38
Why did Cato expel Lucius Quintius from the senate?
Lucius Quintius, consul seven years before and brother of Titus Flamininus, kept a young companion whom he honored greatly. At a feast in his province, the youth said he had hurried to Lucius though he had never seen a gladiator show and longed to see a man killed. Lucius ordered a condemned man brought with the headsman and axe. Plutarch gives this as Cato's reason for expulsion.
Chapter 38
Section 394 cards
Why did Cato urge Rome to destroy Carthage after his visit?
Sent to arbitrate between Carthage and Masinissa, Cato found Carthage not weak as the Romans thought, but well manned, rich, and well armed, and carrying itself proudly. He concluded Rome's ancient enemy had grown experienced rather than weaker, and that the peace was merely a suspension of war. He therefore warned the senate and thereafter ended every opinion with "Carthage ought utterly to be destroyed."
Chapter 39
What was Scipio Nasica's argument for letting Carthage stand?
Nasica always declared the contrary opinion, that Carthage should still stand. Seeing Romans grown wanton and the people disobedient to the senate, he wanted fear of Carthage to serve as a bit holding in the multitude. He judged the Carthaginians too weak to overcome Rome yet too great to be despised, so the rival city acted as a check on Roman excess.
Chapter 39
How does Plutarch compare Aristides' and Cato's political circumstances?
Plutarch argues Aristides rose when Athens was moderate, with property classes of five hundred, three hundred, and two hundred medimns, and rivals like Themistocles of mean extraction. Cato rose from a country village into a Rome dominated by great families and wealth, contesting Scipio Africanus, Servius Galba, and Flamininus with only a free tongue. Aristides was one of ten commanders; Cato was consul with one colleague and censor over seven noble pretenders.
Chapter 39
What does Plutarch say about Cato's household management versus Aristides' poverty?
Plutarch argues household economy is no small part of political virtue, since a city is a collection of households. Cato increased his estate and wrote useful observations on husbandry; his family produced senators and generals to the fourth generation. Aristides, by contrast, left no portion for his daughters or funeral charges, which Plutarch says made justice seem odious. Yet he adds poverty is dishonorable only when it proves laziness or vice, not in the temperate and just.
Chapter 39
Section 403 cards
At the Nemean games, what did Philopoemen first show the Greeks?
While general for the second time and at leisure during the Nemean solemnity, Philopoemen first showed the Greeks his army drawn up in full array as if for battle, then executed all the maneuvers of a battle with wonderful order, strength, and celerity. He then entered the theater followed by his young soldiers in military cloaks and scarlet frocks, alike in age and vigor, showing respect to their general.
Chapter 40
Why did Philopoemen go to Crete, and how was this criticized?
At the Gortynians' request he went to Crete to command for them while his own country was distressed by Nabis, exposing himself to charges of cowardice or unseasonable ambition among foreigners. The Megalopolitans were besieged and sowing their streets, and some said he took the offer because the Achaeans chose other generals and left him a private man. The author notes he could not endure to sit still.
Chapter 40
How did Philopoemen recover after his failed sea fight against Nabis?
Venturing to fight by sea, Philopoemen met a result contrary to expectation and his reputation; lacking skill, he was worsted, and an old ship he rigged foundered, endangering his citizens. But finding the enemy, in contempt, had besieged Gythium, he sailed again, took them unexpectedly and careless after victory, landed at night, burnt their camp, and killed a great number.
Chapter 40
Section 414 cards
How did Titus gain entry into Thebes despite Theban reluctance?
The Theban nobility came out to meet Titus, devoted to the Macedonian alliance through Brachylles but wishing to honor him too. Titus received them courteously, questioning them and telling stories while his weary soldiers recovered, then passed into the city with them—not much to their satisfaction, but they could not well deny him entrance since a good number of his men attended him.
Chapter 41
Why did Titus want the senate to keep him in command or let him conclude peace?
Titus had a great passion for distinction. He feared that if another general were commissioned to carry on the war, the honor even of what had already passed would be lost to him. His friends lobbied the senate so well that Philip's embassy failed and the management of the war was confirmed in Titus's hands.
Chapter 41
Why was the Macedonian phalanx vulnerable once broken at Cynos Cephalae?
Plutarch compares the phalanx to a single powerful animal, irresistible while embodied in one order with shield touching shield. Once broken, the joint force is lost, and individual soldiers lose their own strength because of the nature of their armor—each is strong as part of the whole rather than in himself. Rough, uneven ground prevented the Macedonians from keeping ranks entire or deep.
Chapter 41
What terms did Titus impose on Philip after accepting his submission?
Titus reinstated Philip in his kingdom of Macedon but required him to quit Greece and pay one thousand talents. He took all Philip's shipping except ten vessels and sent Demetrius, one of Philip's sons, as hostage to Rome. Plutarch says Titus improved his opportunity wisely, since Hannibal was already urging Antiochus to attack Rome while it was still at war with Philip.
Chapter 41
Section 424 cards
Why did some senators blame Titus for Hannibal's death?
They blamed Titus for officiousness and cruelty, saying that with nothing to urge it, out of mere appetite for distinction, he sought credit for causing Hannibal's death, sending an old and harmless man to his grave—like a bird that in old age has lost its feathers and cannot fly.
Chapter 42
How does Plutarch contrast Scipio's treatment of Hannibal with Titus's?
Scipio, after defeating the previously invincible Hannibal in Africa, neither banished him nor demanded his countrymen surrender him; at a parley he gave Hannibal his hand, and in the peace imposed no hard terms. Plutarch says this clemency and magnanimity were admired, while Titus's conduct toward the dead was faulted.
Chapter 42
What did Hannibal say when Scipio asked what he would have said without the defeat?
Hannibal had ranked Alexander first, Pyrrhus second, and himself third. When Scipio smiled and asked what he would have said if Scipio had not defeated him, Hannibal replied he would not then have made himself third, but the first commander.
Chapter 42
How does Plutarch's comparison award superiority between Philopoemen and Titus?
Plutarch concludes it is not easy to establish the true difference of their merits, and proposes an award: let the Greek, Philopoemen, bear the crown for military conduct and warlike skill, and the Roman, Titus, for justice and clemency. He notes Titus fought for Greece as a stranger, while Philopoemen fought Greeks against Greeks.
Chapter 42
Section 434 cards
Why did the Tarentines send for Pyrrhus as their general?
The Tarentines were at war with Rome and could neither continue the war nor, because of their reckless popular speakers, make peace. So they proposed to make Pyrrhus their general, choosing him as the neighboring king most at leisure and most skilled in command. The more sober citizens opposed this, but were overborne by the multitude's noise and violence.
Chapter 43
How did Meton try to warn the Tarentines about Pyrrhus?
On the day the decree was to be ratified, Meton, a very sober man, came dancing into the assembly like a drunk, with a withered garland, a small lamp, and a flute-girl. He told them to enjoy their freedom while they could, for they must change their way of life when Pyrrhus came. Many were moved, but some, fearing to be sacrificed by a peace, had him thrust out.
Chapter 43
What argument did Cineas make to Pyrrhus about his conquests?
Cineas asked Pyrrhus what he would do after each conquest—Italy, then Sicily, then Libya and Carthage, then Macedon and Greece. When Pyrrhus said they would finally live at ease, drink all day, and converse pleasantly, Cineas asked what hindered them from doing that now, since those necessities were already at hand without labor or danger. The reasoning troubled Pyrrhus but did not change his purpose.
Chapter 43
What happened to Pyrrhus's fleet on the crossing to Italy?
A violent north wind contrary to the season drove him off course. He made land with great labor, but the rest of the fleet was scattered: some ships were driven into the Libyan and Sicilian Sea, others were wrecked on a rocky shore near Cape Japygium. The royal galley was in danger of breaking up, so Pyrrhus threw himself overboard and barely got ashore at dawn.
Chapter 43
Section 444 cards
How did Antigonus compare Pyrrhus's use of his successes?
Antigonus compared Pyrrhus to a dice player who had excellent throws but did not know how to use them. Plutarch says Pyrrhus lost through vain hopes what he gained by great actions, and by desiring what he did not have, kept nothing of what he had.
Chapter 44
What did Pyrrhus do with the spoils taken from the Gauls?
Pyrrhus hung the richest and goodliest spoils of the Gauls in the temple of Minerva Itonis, with an inscription declaring that he, descendant of Molossian kings, brought the shields won from the valiant Gauls when Antigonus and his host fled.
Chapter 44
Why did Pyrrhus delay assaulting Sparta on the night he arrived?
Cleonymus advised an immediate assault, but Pyrrhus feared soldiers entering by night would plunder the city. He said they could do it next morning, since few soldiers were in town and Areus was away in Crete. Plutarch says this delay alone saved Sparta.
Chapter 44
How did Spartan women contribute to the defense against Pyrrhus?
The women refused to be shipped to Crete; Archidamia asked whether the men expected women to survive Sparta's ruin. Women and girls helped dig the trench, and later brought arms, bread, and drink and cared for the wounded. Chilonis waited with a halter, resolving to die rather than fall to Cleonymus.
Chapter 44
Section 453 cards
Why did Marius's enlistment of slaves and poor men draw criticism?
Marius levied soldiers contrary to law and custom, enlisting slaves and poor people. Former commanders had refused such men, giving arms as a mark of distinction only to the properly qualified, since a man's property served as a kind of security for good behavior. Plutarch notes this was among the causes of ill-will against Marius among the nobility.
Chapter 45
What did Marius's men mean by 'Marius's mules'?
Marius trained his army on the march with long marches and running, compelling every man to carry his own baggage and prepare his own victuals. Thenceforward laborious soldiers who worked silently without grumbling were called 'Marius's mules.' Plutarch adds that some think the proverb arose differently, from Scipio's inspection at Numantia praising Marius's well-fed horse and mule.
Chapter 45
Why did the people elect Marius consul again despite the law?
News of the Teutones and Cimbri invasion alarmed Rome, and the city needed a good commander. The law forbade anyone absent, or who had not waited a certain time after his first consulship, from being consul again. But the people rejected all opposers, considering that law had given way to common interest before, as when Scipio was made consul contrary to law.
Chapter 45
Section 464 cards
How did Marius alter the construction of Roman javelins before the battle?
Marius replaced one of the two iron pins fastening the wooden shaft to the iron head with a weak wooden peg. When the javelin struck an enemy's shield, the peg would break, causing the iron to bend so the crooked point held fast and dragged, rather than standing straight out.
Chapter 46
How did Marius and Catulus position their forces, and what did Marius expect?
Catulus commanded 20,300 men in the center, while Marius commanded 32,000 placed on the two wings. According to Sylla, Marius arranged this because he expected the armies to meet on the wings, since centers often fall back on such wide fronts, so he would win the whole victory himself and Catulus would not even be engaged.
Chapter 46
What advantage did heat and sun give the Romans over the Cimbri?
The battle was fought shortly after the summer solstice, and the sun and heat shone in the Cimbri's faces. Bred in cold, shady countries, they were overcome by the heat, sweated heavily, and were short of breath, holding shields before their faces. The dust also hid the enemy's numbers, so the Romans fought hand to hand before fear could set in.
Chapter 46
How did Marius trap Metellus over Saturninus's oath law?
Marius publicly opposed the oath in the senate, saying he would not swear. Metellus then declared he would not swear either. Later, before the people, Marius reversed himself and agreed to swear, adding a proviso as cover. The people applauded; the nobles submitted out of fear, but Metellus refused, bringing lasting odium on himself as Marius intended.
Chapter 46
Section 474 cards
How did Marius's party handle the sacred grove of Marica blocking their route?
The grove of Marica was held sacred, and nothing carried into it could be taken out. Since going around would cause great delay, one of the old men declared no place was so sacred that they might not pass through it for Marius's preservation. He himself carried baggage through the grove, and the rest followed with the same readiness.
Chapter 47
What did Marius tell Sextilius's officer to report after being forbidden to land in Africa?
Sextilius, governor in Africa, forbade Marius to set foot there on pain of being treated as an enemy of the Romans. Marius, after a long stern silence, answered with a deep sigh: "Go tell him that you have seen Caius Marius sitting in exile among the ruins of Carthage," applying that city's fortune to his own changed condition.
Chapter 47
How did young Marius escape from King Hiempsal's detention in Numidia?
Hiempsal treated young Marius honorably but kept delaying their departure with no good design. One of the king's concubines, moved by pity at his hard fortune, fell in love with him. He first declined her solicitations, but seeing no other way of escaping and that her offers were serious, he accepted her kindness, and she conveyed them away to his father.
Chapter 47
Why did Octavius refuse to free the slaves, and what did Plutarch say of him?
When advised to free the slaves, Octavius said he would not give slaves the privilege of the country from which he was then driving Marius away in defense of the laws. Plutarch calls him the most upright and just of Romans, strict as though laws were immutable mathematical truths, yet notes he fell into weaknesses, trusting fortune-tellers over men skilled in civil and military affairs.
Chapter 47
Section 484 cards
How did Lysander trick the Athenians in the days before the final battle?
For four days Lysander kept his ships manned and in order before dawn but refused to sail out, sending word to the foremost ships to stay in order and not offer battle. He let the seamen disembark only after scouts confirmed the Athenians had landed. The Athenians grew extremely confident and disdained their enemies as afraid.
Chapter 48
What advice did Alcibiades give the Athenian captains, and how was it received?
Alcibiades rode over from his castle in the Chersonese and faulted the captains for camping on an exposed, open beach with a bad landing, and for having to fetch supplies from Sestos at a distance. He urged them to move to the town and harbor of Sestos, safer from an enemy under a single general. They refused, and Tydeus angrily said others, not he, held office now.
Chapter 48
How did Lysander signal and execute the attack on the fifth day?
He sent lookout ships with orders to row back at full speed once the Athenians landed, and to lift a brazen shield from the foredeck as the battle sign about halfway across. When the shield rose and the trumpet sounded, his ships rowed up while foot soldiers moved along the shore. The fifteen-furlong gap was quickly crossed, and Conon escaped with eight ships to Cyprus.
Chapter 48
What terms did the Lacedaemonians impose on Athens, and who supported them?
The decree ordered Athens to pull down the Piraeus and the long walls, quit all the towns and keep to its own land, restore its exiles, and accept whatever number of ships was judged necessary; if these were done, there would be peace if Athens wished it. Theramenes, son of Hagnon, supported the terms, and the Athenians accepted them.
Chapter 48
Section 492 cards
What was Lysander's scheme involving Silenus and the Delphic oracles?
Lysander planned to pass off Silenus, reputedly born of Apollo, as Apollo's son so he could claim very old oracles kept by Delphi's priests. Silenus would give a token, be questioned and accepted, then publicly read a prophecy saying Spartans should choose kings from the best citizens. The plot failed when one accomplice lost heart; nothing was discovered while Lysander lived.
Chapter 49
What caused the quarrel between Lysander and the Thebans?
The chapter gives several charges: the Thebans cast away sacrifices at Aulis and, bribed by the king's money, attacked Phocis to entangle Sparta in war. Lysander was also angry they claimed a tenth of the spoils and resented his money sent to Sparta—especially because the Thebans gave the Athenians the first chance to free themselves from the thirty tyrants.
Chapter 49
Section 504 cards
What did Sylla do to Sulpicius's servant after the servant betrayed Sulpicius?
Sylla first made the servant free, then threw him headlong down the Tarpeian rock. Sulpicius himself had been killed after being betrayed by this servant, and Sylla had obtained a death sentence against Marius, Sulpicius, and a few others by convening the senate.
Chapter 50
How did Cinna swear his oath of loyalty to Sylla, and did he keep it?
Cinna ascended the capitol with a stone in his hand and swore that if he were not true to Sylla's friendship he might be cast out of the city as that stone out of his hand, then threw the stone down before many witnesses. Once in office, however, he moved to disturb the settlement and had Virginius prepare an impeachment against Sylla.
Chapter 50
Why did Sylla besiege Athens instead of waiting it out, and what did the siege cost?
Plutarch says Sylla could have taken the Upper City by famine with little hazard, since it was already reduced to extremity, but he was eager to return to Rome and feared political change there, so he pressed the war at great risk and expense. The siege employed ten thousand yoke of mules daily and consumed sacred groves and temple treasures.
Chapter 50
What did Sylla reply when told the Delphi shrine seemed to sound a harp?
Sylla scoffed that it was surprising Caphis did not know music was a sign of joy, not anger, and told him to go on boldly and accept what a gracious and bountiful god offered. Caphis had been reluctant to touch the holy things and had sent word back after the Amphictyons reported hearing the harp.
Chapter 50
Section 514 cards
What terms did Sylla demand Mithridates ratify at Dardanus?
Sylla demanded that Mithridates ratify the treaty previously agreed to by Archelaus. When Mithridates affirmed he would, Sylla embraced and kissed him. Mithridates then handed over seventy ships and five hundred archers and sailed for Pontus. Sylla also introduced the kings Ariobarzanes and Nicomedes and made them friends with Mithridates.
Chapter 51
How did Sylla justify the peace to his dissatisfied soldiers?
The soldiers were angry that Mithridates, who had caused one hundred and fifty thousand Romans to be massacred in one day in Asia, now sailed off with the riches and spoils of Asia after four years of plunder. Sylla argued he could not have withstood Fimbria and Mithridates had they combined against him.
Chapter 51
What taxes and quartering costs did Sylla impose on Asia?
Sylla imposed on Asia in general a tax of twenty thousand talents, and despoiled each family individually through the licentious behavior and long residence of soldiers in private quarters. He ordained that every host allow his guest four tetradrachms each day plus a supper with invited friends, and that a centurion receive fifty drachmas a day with two suits of clothes, one for indoors and one abroad.
Chapter 51
How did Sylla acquire Aristotle's and Theophrastus's works?
At the Piraeus, Sylla seized for his use the library of Apellicon the Teian, which contained most of the works of Theophrastus and Aristotle, then not in general circulation. The collection was later conveyed to Rome, where most passed through Tyrannion the grammarian, and Andronicus the Rhodian made the treatises public and drew up the catalogues now current.
Chapter 51
Section 523 cards
How does Plutarch compare Lysander's and Sylla's attitudes toward wealth?
Plutarch contrasts them: Lysander was temperate and indifferent to riches, even sending home presents made to him for public use, though Plutarch does not commend this, suggesting excessive liberality harmed Sparta more than Sylla's rapine harmed Rome. Sylla, a profuse debauchee, impoverished the city, sold privileges for money, and confiscated great families' estates.
Chapter 52
What does Plutarch identify as the central irony in each man's effect on his city?
The author argues Sylla, a profuse debauchee, tried to restore sober living among citizens, while Lysander, temperate himself, filled Sparta with the luxury he disregarded. Plutarch calls both blameworthy: Sylla raised himself above his own laws, and Lysander caused fellow citizens to fall beneath his example, teaching Sparta to want what he had learned to do without.
Chapter 52
Why does Plutarch rank Sylla above Lysander in feats of arms?
Plutarch says Sylla was beyond compare in battles, victories, and perilous adventures, taking Rome twice and the Piraeus by great battles rather than famine. He also stresses Sylla faced far greater opponents, like Marius and Mithridates, and achieved much while banished and opposed by a faction, whereas Lysander had the State's assistance throughout.
Chapter 52
Section 533 cards
How did Cimon use the spoils from the war for Athens?
The spoils were publicly sold and raised so much money that Athens, besides other expenses, raised the south wall of the citadel and laid the foundation of the long walls, called the Legs, later finished. Because the ground was soft and marshy, great weights of stone and rubble were sunk to secure the foundation, all from money Cimon supplied. He also planted plane trees in the market-place and converted the Academy into a well-watered grove.
Chapter 53
Why was Cimon accused of corruption after Thasos, and how did he defend himself?
After defeating Thasos and gaining its gold mines, Cimon was thought to have neglected a chance to acquire part of Macedon, so he was suspected of being bribed by King Alexander. Accused of being false to his country, he told the judges he had always been a friend of the Lacedaemonians, admiring their plainness and temperance, and was proud to enrich his country with spoils of enemies. He was acquitted.
Chapter 53
How did Cimon persuade Athens to send help to Sparta after the great earthquake?
After the earthquake shattered Sparta, the Helots and Messenians attacked, and Sparta sent Periclidas to ask Athens for succor. Ephialtes opposed helping a rival city, arguing it was best to keep Sparta down. But Cimon, as Critias says, preferred Sparta's safety to his own country's aggrandizement, and persuaded the people, saying they ought not to let Greece be lamed nor their city be deprived of her yoke-fellow.
Chapter 53
Section 544 cards
Why did Lucullus avoid battle and rely on time against Mithridates?
After questioning captured prisoners about their provisions, Lucullus calculated that Mithridates' huge army would run out of food within three or four days. He therefore stored his own camp with plenty and chose to wait out the hungry enemy rather than risk a battle against superior numbers.
Chapter 54
How did Lucullus get soldiers into besieged Cyzicus past Mithridates' blockade?
Lucullus hauled the largest vessel from Lake Dascylitis ashore, carried it overland by wagon to the sea, filled it with soldiers, and sailed it along unseen in the dead of night into the city. This broke through Mithridates' blockade, which had blocked Cyzicus by land with ten camps and by sea with ships.
Chapter 54
What happened to Mithridates' camp, and how did he escape by sea?
Mithridates' officers concealed the food shortage until his soldiers were reduced to eating human flesh. He sent away most of his cavalry and unfit infantry, whom Lucullus slaughtered near the Rhyndacus. Later, caught in a storm that wrecked his fleet, Mithridates abandoned his leaking merchant ship for a pirate vessel and reached Heraclea safely.
Chapter 54
Why did Lucullus let Mithridates grow strong instead of finishing him quickly?
Lucullus argued that delay let Mithridates gather an army large enough to stand and fight rather than flee into the vast wilderness toward Caucasus and Armenia, where Tigranes, Mithridates' son-in-law and ally, ruled a great power. He wanted a decisive battle, not an endless pursuit through unknown country.
Chapter 54
Section 553 cards
Why did Lucullus criticize Tigranes for delaying his aid to Mithridates?
Lucullus wondered why Tigranes, if he truly intended to fight Rome, had not joined Mithridates while the latter was still strong, instead of letting him be defeated and then beginning war when his hopes were cold, throwing himself down with those already irrecoverably fallen.
Chapter 55
How did Lucullus counter Tigranes' heavy-armed cavalry?
Seeing the armored horse drawn up under a hill, Lucullus sent Thracian and Galatian horse to beat down their lances with swords, since lances were their only defense. He then led two cohorts up the hill, cried 'We have overcome!' and ordered his men to strike the riders' shins and thighs, the only unguarded parts.
Chapter 55
What was the size and composition of Tigranes' army before the battle?
According to Lucullus' letter to the senate, Tigranes had twenty thousand archers and slingers, fifty-five thousand horse (seventeen thousand in complete armor), and a hundred and fifty thousand heavy-armed men, plus thirty-five thousand support troops for roads, bridges, water, and wood, who added to the army's strength and made it formidable to behold.
Chapter 55
Section 564 cards
Why did Memmius oppose Lucullus's triumph, and how was it resolved?
After Lucullus returned to Rome, Memmius first accused his brother Marcus over acts done as quaestor by Sylla's orders; Marcus was acquitted. Memmius then turned the people against Lucullus himself, urging them to deny him a triumph for appropriating spoils and prolonging the war. The nobility and chief men mingled personally among the tribes with entreaty and labor, and scarce at length prevailed on them to consent to the triumph.
Chapter 56
What did Lucullus do when Cicero and Pompey asked to dine on his own dinner?
Cicero asked whether it was a good time to request a favor; Lucullus said yes. They asked to dine on the dinner prepared for himself. Surprised, he requested a day's time, which they refused, and would not let him speak to his servants. He was allowed only to tell his servant before them that he would sup in the Apollo, one of his best dining-rooms, thereby outwitting them.
Chapter 56
How does Plutarch describe Lucullus's library and its use?
Plutarch says Lucullus deserves praise for collecting many choice manuscripts; the use made of them was even more magnificent than the purchase. The library was always open, and its walks and reading-rooms were free to all Greeks, who left other occupations and hastened there as to the habitation of the Muses. Lucullus often passed hours there disputing with the learned and advising statesmen, so his house was a kind of Greek prytaneum for visitors to Rome.
Chapter 56
According to Plutarch, why did Lucullus retire from public life, and how do critics judge it?
Plutarch says Lucullus retired either because he saw the state as difficult and diseased, or, as others say, because he was as great as he could well be and inclined to a quiet life after labors that ended far from fortunately. Some commend the change, saying he avoided the rock on which Marius split; Crassus and Pompey instead laughed at him for luxurious living. Plutarch notes he did not wholly retire, but opposed Pompey's settlements.
Chapter 56
Section 574 cards
What did Cleon promise the Athenians about the Spartans at Pylos?
Cleon, goaded by Nicias's resignation of his command and by the Athenians' insistence, took charge and declared that within twenty days of embarking he would either kill the enemy on the spot or bring them alive to Athens. The Athenians were more inclined to laugh at this boast than to believe it, since his extravagant assertions usually amused them.
Chapter 57
How did Nicias's handling of the Pylos command damage his reputation?
Plutarch says Nicias voluntarily gave up his charge out of cowardice, handing his enemy the chance to win a great success. The author argues this was more shameful than throwing away one's shield, since Cleon then fulfilled his promise within the limit and brought the surviving Spartans captive to Athens. Aristophanes mocked Nicias for it in his comedies.
Chapter 57
Why is the peace between Athens and Sparta called the Peace of Nicias?
After Cleon and Brasidas were both slain near Amphipolis, Nicias saw that Spartans wanted peace and Athenians had lost confidence in the war. He encouraged the Lacedaemonians, who trusted his moderation and his kind treatment of the Pylos prisoners, and most people credited the peace to him, as they had credited the war to Pericles.
Chapter 57
How did Nicias and Alcibiades defeat Hyperbolus's scheme?
Hyperbolus, hoping one of the two would be ostracized so he could move against the other, openly inflamed the people against both. Nicias and Alcibiades secretly combined their interests and fixed the ostracism on Hyperbolus instead. Plutarch says this first caused laughter but was later felt as an affront, since ostracism suited men like Thucydides and Aristides, not Hyperbolus.
Chapter 57
Section 583 cards
Why did Nicias oppose retreating to Athens?
Nicias feared not the Syracusans but the Athenians—their impeachments and sentences. He said he would rather die by an enemy's hand than by his fellow-citizens, inverting Leo of Byzantium's wish to perish by his own people rather than with them. Others suspected he relied on assurances from secret correspondents inside the city, so they acquiesced.
Chapter 58
How did the lunar eclipse affect Nicias's plans?
The moon was eclipsed as the army prepared to embark, alarming Nicias and others who lacked natural knowledge or were superstitious. Nicias persuaded them to wait another full course of the moon, though Philochorus notes the prodigy favored men wishing to flee, and Autoclides says such signs were observed no more than three days. The delay let the enemy block their escape.
Chapter 58
What happened to the Athenians in the night assault on Epipolae?
Demosthenes attacked Epipolae by night, routing part of the enemy, but the Boeotians made head against the Athenians and killed many. Panic spread through the whole army; the victorious and fleeing troops collided in the dark, mistaking friends for enemies. The moon behind them hid their numbers while reflecting off enemy shields, and two thousand were slain.
Chapter 58
Section 594 cards
How did Spartacus's men escape Clodius's siege on the mountain?
Trapped on a mountain with only one guarded passage, the gladiators cut wild vine boughs and twisted them into strong ladders reaching the bottom. All but one descended safely; the last stayed to throw down their arms and then escaped. The Romans, unaware, were attacked from the rear and their camp was taken.
Chapter 59
Why did Spartacus march toward the Alps, and why did his plan fail?
Spartacus wisely judged he could not match the empire's force, so he marched toward the Alps intending that after crossing, each man would return home to Thrace or Gaul. But his men, confident in their numbers and puffed up by success, refused obedience and instead ravaged Italy.
Chapter 59
How did Crassus punish the 500 men who fled under Mummius?
Crassus rebuked Mummius, rearmed the soldiers and made them find sureties for their arms. He divided the five hundred flight-starters into fifty tens and had one of each ten die by lot, reviving the ancient Roman punishment of decimation, with ignominy added to death, before the assembled army as spectators.
Chapter 59
How did Spartacus escape the wall Crassus built across the isthmus?
Crassus built a ditch and wall across the neck of land at Rhegium, three hundred furlongs long, fifteen feet broad and deep, to pen Spartacus in. Spartacus first despised it, but when provisions failed, he used a snowy, stormy night to fill part of the ditch with earth and tree boughs, passing a third of his army over.
Chapter 59
Section 604 cards
How did the Parthians neutralize the Roman infantry's close-order formation?
The Parthians placed themselves at a distance and shot arrows from all sides rather than aiming at particular marks, since the dense Roman ranks could not be missed. If the Romans kept ranks they were wounded; if they charged, the Parthians fled while shooting, so the Romans hurt no one and suffered just the same. Camels loaded with arrows kept the supply endless.
Chapter 60
What happened to Publius Crassus and his detachment?
Publius took 1,300 horse, 500 archers and eight cohorts to charge the Parthians, who feigned flight and lured him far from his father. Surrounded, his men were pinned to shields and ground, and the Gauls were tormented by heat and drought. Wounded in the arm, Publius had his armor-bearer run him through rather than abandon his dying friends.
Chapter 60
How did Crassus respond when shown his son's severed head?
The author says Crassus outdid himself in this calamity: he passed through the ranks and told the soldiers this loss was his own peculiar one, but Rome's fortune and glory were safe while they were safe. He urged them to revenge his son and not be dismayed, citing Lucullus, Scipio and the ancestors' losses as proof Rome rose by perseverance, not fortune.
Chapter 60
What does the author suggest Crassus's downfall illustrates?
After the defeat, Crassus hid himself wrapped in his cloak. The author says he lay there as an example to ordinary minds of the caprice of fortune, but to the wise, of inconsiderateness and ambition: not content to be superior to so many millions, being inferior to two he esteemed himself the lowest of all.
Chapter 60
Section 614 cards
Why does Plutarch say Nicias deserves praise rather than blame compared to Crassus?
Plutarch argues Nicias's experience and sound judgment as a general kept him from being carried away by his fellow-citizens' delusive hopes, and he refused any prospect of conquering Sicily. Crassus, by contrast, mistook a Parthian war for an easy matter, eager to advance east while Caesar subdued the west.
Chapter 61
How does Plutarch compare the deaths of Crassus and Nicias?
Plutarch says Crassus has the advantage in death: he did not surrender himself, submit to bondage, or let himself be taken in by trickery, but fell victim only to his friends' entreaties and his enemies' perfidy. Nicias, by contrast, enhanced the shame of his death by yielding himself up in hope of a disgraceful and inglorious escape.
Chapter 61
What does Plutarch say about divination in the deaths of Nicias and Crassus?
Plutarch notes that one scrupulously observed the arts of divination and the other entirely slighted them, yet both equally perished, making it difficult to see what inference should be drawn. Still, he argues the fault of over-caution, supported by old and general opinion, better deserves forgiveness than self-willed and lawless transgression.
Chapter 61
How did Sertorius trick the Gyrisoenians after their night attack on the Romans?
Sertorius escaped with a few soldiers, rallied the survivors, found the gate the Gyrisoenians had used, and seized the city, slaying all of military age. He then had his men put on the barbarians' armor and clothing and march to the enemy city, whose gates opened to them; most were slain at the gates and the rest sold as slaves.
Chapter 61
Section 624 cards
How did Sertorius respond when his inexperienced troops demanded battle?
He first tried to restrain them with reason and good counsel, but when they remained refractory he let them engage so they might be repulsed without being totally routed, becoming more obedient afterward. As he anticipated, he soon rescued them and brought them safely back to camp.
Chapter 62
What lesson did Sertorius teach with the two horses' tails?
A strong man failed to pull off the weak horse's tail by force, while a weak man plucked the strong horse's tail bare hair by hair. Sertorius concluded that perseverance prevails over violence, that things which resist as a whole yield when taken little by little, and that time favors those who await their occasions.
Chapter 62
How did Sertorius defeat the Characitanians in their cave stronghold?
Unable to reach the hill, he noticed the north wind (Caecias) blew dust toward the caves' north-facing mouths. He had soldiers heap the light powdery earth into a mound, then break and ride through it so the wind carried dust into the caves, blinding and choking the inhabitants, who surrendered on the third day.
Chapter 62
How did Sertorius trap Pompey at Lauron?
Sertorius seized the hill near Lauron first, leaving six thousand soldiers in his former camp. When Pompey moved to relieve the city, he was caught between Sertorius and that hidden force, so he could not give battle without being surrounded. He watched the besieged surrender; Sertorius spared their lives but burned the city to shame Pompey.
Chapter 62
Section 634 cards
How did Eumenes build a cavalry force in Armenia despite insolent Macedonian foot soldiers?
Eumenes raised a body of horse to balance the insolent and self-willed Macedonian foot. He excused from tax and contribution all in the country able to serve on horseback, bought up horses and distributed them among his most trusted men, and stimulated his new soldiers with gifts and honors, inuring their bodies by frequent marching and exercising. In a short time he gathered no fewer than six thousand three hundred horsemen.
Chapter 63
Why did Eumenes conceal from his own Macedonians that Craterus commanded the enemy?
Eumenes feared his Macedonians would defect, since they loved Craterus excessively and would pass over to him at the sight of his hat or sound of his voice. So he gave out that Neoptolemus and Pigres were approaching with Cappadocian and Paphlagonian horse, and would not trust any Macedonian to engage Craterus, sending instead two troops of foreign horse under Pharnabazus and Phoenix.
Chapter 63
What dream did Eumenes have before battling Craterus, and how did he interpret it?
Eumenes dreamed of two Alexanders engaging, each commanding a phalanx, one assisted by Minerva and the other by Ceres. The one with Minerva was beaten, and Ceres gathered ears of corn and wove them into a crown for the victor. Eumenes interpreted this as promising success to himself, who fought for a fruitful corn-covered country, and was emboldened on learning the enemy's pass-word was Minerva and Alexander; he gave out Ceres and Alexander as his.
Chapter 63
How did Eumenes handle his soldiers' pay after promising it within three days?
Eumenes sold his soldiers all the farms and castles in the country, together with the men and beasts in them. Each captain or officer who bought received from Eumenes the use of his engines to storm the place and divided the spoil among his company in proportion to every man's arrears. This made Eumenes popular again, so that when enemy letters offered a hundred talents for his death, the Macedonians were offended and ordered a thousand of their best men to guard him.
Chapter 63
Section 644 cards
How did Antigonus treat Eumenes' body after his death?
Antigonus granted Eumenes' body to his friends, permitted them to burn it, and allowed his ashes to be gathered into a silver urn and sent to his wife and children. Earlier, Antigonus had ordered Eumenes' food withheld, so Eumenes weakened over two or three days of fasting before an executioner was sent to dispatch him when the camp suddenly moved.
Chapter 64
What did Antigonus do to the Argyraspids who betrayed Eumenes?
Antigonus abominated the Argyraspids as wicked and inhuman villains and delivered them up to Sibyrtius, governor of Arachosia, commanding him by all ways and means to destroy and exterminate them, so that not a man of them might ever come to Macedon or within sight of the Greek sea. Plutarch attributes this chastisement to Divine Providence.
Chapter 64
According to Plutarch, how did Sertorius' rise to command differ from Eumenes'?
Plutarch says the chief command was freely yielded to Sertorius by his whole party as the man of greatest merit, whereas many contested the office with Eumenes, who obtained superiority only by his actions. Sertorius, already esteemed for prior service and senate abilities, was advanced to general; Eumenes rose from the despised office of writer or secretary and met greater impediments, including private conspiracies.
Chapter 64
Why did Diopithes object to making Agesilaus king, and how was it answered?
Diopithes, skilled in oracles, alleged it was unlawful to make a lame man king of Lacedaemon, citing an oracle warning Sparta of a halting sovereignty bringing long troubles and deadly warfare. Lysander evaded it, saying the gods cared not about a limping foot but the purity of the Herculean family; Agesilaus added that Leotychides' bastardy was witnessed by Neptune, who threw Agis from his bed by earthquake.
Chapter 64
Section 654 cards
Why did Agesilaus say a thousand Persian archers drove him out of Asia?
The Persian coin was stamped with an archer. Agesilaus meant the money used to bribe demagogues and orators in Thebes and Athens, inciting those states to hostility against Sparta—so Persian gold, not Persian soldiers, forced his withdrawal.
Chapter 65
How did Agesilaus respond to the Trallians' demand for a price to pass?
The Trallians demanded one hundred talents of silver and one hundred women. Agesilaus asked in scorn why they were not ready to receive them, then marched on; finding the Trallians in arms, he fought them and slew great numbers.
Chapter 65
What did Agesilaus do upon hearing false news of the Spartan naval defeat at Cnidos?
Pisander the admiral was beaten and slain at Cnidos by Pharnabazus and Conon. Fearing discouragement before battle, Agesilaus ordered the messengers to give out that the Spartans were conquerors; he put on a garland, sacrificed for the good news, and sent portions to friends.
Chapter 65
How did Agesilaus treat the captured Larissaean envoys Xenocles and Scythes?
The Larissaeans seized and imprisoned them; others urged besieging the town, but Agesilaus said he valued either man more than the whole country of Thessaly. He made terms and received his men back upon composition.
Chapter 65
Section 664 cards
Why did Agesilaus refuse to meet Epaminondas's army in open battle?
Agesilaus would not permit the Spartans to encounter so impetuous a torrent of war. He contented himself with fortifying the chief parts of the city and placing guards in convenient places, enduring the taunts of the Thebans, who reproached him by name as the kindler of the war and author of the country's mischief.
Chapter 66
How did Agesilaus handle the two hundred conspirators who seized the Issorion?
Agesilaus, not knowing how far the sedition might reach, forbade the Spartans to attack. In ordinary dress with one servant, he told the rebels they had mistaken their orders and showed them other places to go. They gladly complied; he then placed his own guard there, apprehended fifteen, and put them to death at night.
Chapter 66
How did Agesilaus deal with the conspiracy of Spartan citizens?
A more dangerous conspiracy was discovered of Spartan citizens who had privately met in each other's houses, plotting a revolution. It was equally dangerous to prosecute them publicly by law and to connive at them. Agesilaus took counsel with the Ephors and put them to death privately without process, a thing never before known in the case of any born Spartan.
Chapter 66
Why did Isadas receive both a garland and a fine from the Ephors?
Isadas, son of Phoebidas, a youth of remarkable beauty in the flower of his age, rushed into battle with no arms and scarcely clothes, having just anointed himself, snatching a spear and sword. He received no wound. The Ephors gave him a garland, then fined him a thousand drachmas for going out to battle unarmed.
Chapter 66
Section 671 cards
What happened to Pompey's marriage to Antistia, and why?
Sylla and his wife Metella persuaded Pompey to divorce Antistia and marry Aemilia, Sylla's step-daughter, who was then married to another man and pregnant by him. Plutarch calls these the tyrannies of marriage; Antistia was dishonored, and Aemilia died in childbed soon after.
Chapter 67
Section 684 cards
Why did the Romans finally decide to send Pompey against the pirates?
The pirates controlled the whole Mediterranean, leaving no place for navigation or commerce. The Romans found their markets extremely straitened and feared that if this continued there would be dearth and famine in the land. This pressure, more than anything else, made them determine at last to send out Pompey to recover the seas from the pirates.
Chapter 68
What powers did Gabinius's law grant Pompey against the pirates?
It made him admiral of the seas and gave him sole, irresponsible sovereignty over all men within the Pillars of Hercules and the adjacent mainland for four hundred furlongs from the sea. He could select fifteen lieutenants from the senate, assign provinces, draw what money he pleased, and press soldiers and seamen for two hundred ships.
Chapter 68
How did Pompey organize his campaign against the pirates?
Pompey divided all the seas and the whole Mediterranean into thirteen parts, allotting a squadron to each under his officers. By dispersing his power into all quarters and encompassing the pirates everywhere, they began to fall into his hands in whole shoals, which he seized and brought into his harbors. He cleared the waters near Rome, Tyrrhenian, African, Sardinian, Corsican, and Sicilian, in forty days.
Chapter 68
Why did Pompey pardon the pirates who surrendered to him?
Pompey had shown mercy to some pirates still roving, ordering only the seizure of their ships and persons without further severity. The rest, hoping for mercy, surrendered with wives and children into his protection. He pardoned all who came in, the rather because through them he might discover those who fled from his justice, conscious that their crimes were beyond indemnity.
Chapter 68
Section 693 cards
Why did Pompey retreat from the Hyrcanian and Caspian Sea?
Pompey was eager to advance toward the Hyrcanian and Caspian Sea, but was forced to retreat when still three days' march from it because of the number of venomous serpents. He then retreated into Armenia the Less. While there, kings of the Elymaeans and Medes sent him ambassadors, and he answered them by letter.
Chapter 69
What did Pompey find in Mithridates's secret writings at Caenum?
At the castle Caenum, Pompey read secret writings of Mithridates that illuminated his character: memoirs showing he had poisoned his son Ariarathes and Alcaeus the Sardian for robbing him of first honors in a horse-race, judgments on dreams, and wanton letters to his concubine Monime. Theophanes claimed an address by Rutilius was also found, though most men judged this a malicious invention.
Chapter 69
How did Mithridates's death reach Pompey, and how did Pompey treat the corpse?
Couriers from Pontus brought laurel-crowned javelins with news that Mithridates had killed himself after his son Pharnaces revolted, and that Pharnaces held everything in right of himself and the Romans. Pompey had the news announced while standing on piled pack-saddles. Later at Amisus he received the corpse but would not look at it, sending it to Sinope to deprecate divine jealousy.
Chapter 69
Section 704 cards
What did Cato tell Lucius Domitius about the consular contest?
Cato persuaded and encouraged Lucius Domitius not to abandon his canvass for the consulship, saying the contest was now not for office but for liberty against tyrants and usurpers. Pompey's party, fearing Cato's inflexible constancy, sent armed men who slew Domitius's torchbearer and put the rest to flight; Cato himself retired with a wound in his right arm while defending Domitius.
Chapter 70
How was Pompey made sole consul, and what did Cato say about it?
During anarchy, Bibulus first proposed Pompey be created consul alone. Cato, expected to oppose, said he would never have authored the advice himself, but since another proposed it he advised following it, since any government is better than none and no man was fitter than Pompey. Pompey was declared sole consul by Sulpicius, with leave to choose a colleague after two months.
Chapter 70
Why did Crassus's death matter for the rivalry between Caesar and Pompey?
The author presents Crassus as a safeguard against civil war: both Caesar and Pompey kept their eyes on him, and awe of him held them within bounds of fair-dealing during his lifetime. Messengers from Parthia reported his death, removing that restraint, and the author says fortune is so inconsiderable in respect of human nature that an empire could not satisfy two men's ambition.
Chapter 70
How did Pompey behave as sole consul regarding bribery courts and favoritism?
Pompey took cognizance of cases of offices obtained by gifts and bribery, set rules for arraignment, and restored order to the courts, attending with a band of soldiers. But he was ill spoken of for sending for the 360 judges to entreat favor for his father-in-law Scipio, and for praising Plancus at trial despite his own law against such speeches; Cato stopped his ears and was set aside as judge, though Plancus was still condemned.
Chapter 70
Section 714 cards
Why did Pompey resolve not to give Caesar battle but to besiege and distress him?
Pompey resolved to follow Caesar closely, cut him short, and wear him down rather than fight. Plutarch adds another reason: a saying current among the Roman cavalry that they ought to beat Caesar quickly and then humble Pompey too. Some report this fear led Pompey to keep Cato from any matter of consequence, leaving him to guard the baggage by sea.
Chapter 71
What did Caesar order the six reserve cohorts to do against Pompey's cavalry?
Caesar posted six cohorts (three thousand men) behind the tenth legion, hidden from view. When the enemy horse charged, they were to come forward through the front ranks and strike upwards into the eyes and faces of the enemy rather than throw javelins at a distance. Caesar said those fine young dancers would not endure steel in their eyes but would fly to save their handsome faces.
Chapter 71
What command did Pompey give his van, and why does Caesar condemn it?
Seeing his own men unsteady and the enemy ranks steady, Pompey feared his lines would break on the first onset, so he ordered the van to stand and receive the charge in close order. Caesar condemns this: it took away the force of blows made with a spring and the impetus that, with shouts and rapid pace, fills soldiers with fury, arresting them in their course and cooling their heat.
Chapter 71
How did the battle of Pharsalia begin for Caesar's centurion Caius Crassianus?
Crassianus, commanding a company of one hundred and twenty men, was first to charge, fulfilling a pledge made to Caesar that morning: stretching out his right hand he said Caesar's was the victory and he would that day be the subject of praise either alive or dead. He charged into the enemy and made great slaughter, but a Pompey soldier ran him through the mouth, the point coming out behind his neck.
Chapter 71
Section 723 cards
How does Plutarch contrast Agesilaus and Pompey on breaking laws?
Plutarch says Agesilaus, facing the dilemma of punishing cowards from Leuctra, decreed the laws should sleep for that day, so the laws were not overthrown yet the citizens were spared. Pompey, by contrast, broke the very laws he himself had made to help a friend. The author argues Agesilaus's expedient was superior civil virtue and obedience.
Chapter 72
Why does Plutarch commend Agesilaus for returning from Asia?
Plutarch commends Agesilaus because, on receiving the scytala, he immediately left the wars in Asia and returned home. Unlike Pompey, who advanced his country's interest through acts that also promoted his own greatness, Agesilaus looked to his country's good and for its sake laid aside as great authority and honor as any man had, except Alexander the Great.
Chapter 72
What does Plutarch say is chiefly the office of a general?
Plutarch states the chief office of a general is to force the enemy into fighting when he is stronger, and to avoid being driven into battle when weaker. He says Agesilaus always displayed this excellence and kept himself invincible, whereas Caesar, the weaker, declined battle and drove Pompey into fighting on land, gaining the treasure, stores, and sea.
Chapter 72
Section 734 cards
What did Diogenes ask of Alexander when Alexander offered him anything?
Diogenes of Sinope, living at Corinth, did not visit Alexander with the other philosophers. Alexander found him lying in the sun in the suburb called Cranium and asked if he wanted anything. Diogenes replied that he would have Alexander stand from between him and the sun. The author says Alexander was struck by the man's greatness and told his laughing followers that if he were not Alexander, he would choose to be Diogenes.
Chapter 73
How did Alexander respond when the Delphic priestess refused to answer on a forbidden day?
Alexander came to Delphi on a forbidden day when answers were deemed improper. When the priestess refused on grounds of law, he went up himself and began drawing her by force into the temple. Overcome by his importunity, she said, "My son, thou art invincible." Alexander seized on these words as the answer he wished for and declared it needless to consult the god further.
Chapter 73
According to Aristobulus, how was the Gordian knot actually undone?
Most authors tell that Alexander, unable to untie the knot whose ends were secretly twisted and folded within, cut it asunder with his sword. But Aristobulus says it was easy to undo by simply pulling the pin out of the pole to which the yoke was tied, and then drawing the yoke off from below. The tradition held that whoever untied it was reserved the empire of the world.
Chapter 73
What happened to Alexander at the Granicus, and how many did each side lose?
Alexander crossed the Granicus with thirteen troops of horse despite Parmenio's advice and the steep, muddy bank. His cuirass was pierced by a javelin, and Spithridates cut off his helmet crest before Clitus killed Spithridates. Alexander refused quarter to the mercenary Greeks, costing many of his own men. The Persians lost twenty thousand foot and two thousand five hundred horse; Aristobulus says Alexander lost no more than thirty-four, nine of them foot.
Chapter 73
Section 743 cards
What did Alexander say when his commanders urged a night attack on Darius?
Alexander refused, declaring "I will not steal a victory." Some thought it a boyish, reckless remark; others saw it as confidence and sound judgment. Plutarch explains he did not want to leave Darius the pretext of blaming the night for his defeat, as he had earlier blamed mountains, narrow passages, and the sea, since Darius still had many men and lands.
Chapter 74
How does Plutarch explain Alexander's claims of divine birth?
Plutarch argues Alexander was not truly vain enough to believe himself a god, but used his claims to divinity to maintain a sense of superiority among other peoples. He was haughty toward barbarians but moderate with Greeks. Wounded by an arrow, he told friends his blood was real, not the ichor of immortal gods.
Chapter 74
Where was the great battle with Darius fought, and what preceded it?
Plutarch says the decisive battle was at Gaugamela, meaning "camel's house," not Arbela as most writers claim. It occurred in Boedromion, near the start of the Athenian Mysteries, after a lunar eclipse. Darius reviewed his troops by torchlight; Alexander sacrificed to the god Fear and then slept unusually soundly before the battle.
Chapter 74
Section 754 cards
What did Alexander do with the helmet of water offered to him during the pursuit of Darius?
Though nearly choked with thirst, Alexander asked who was carrying the water and was told it was for the soldiers' children. Looking around at his men eagerly watching, he returned the helmet with thanks without drinking, saying that if he alone drank, the rest would be out of heart. The soldiers, moved by his temperance, urged him forward, though only about threescore horsemen could keep up.
Chapter 75
How did Darius die, and what did he say to Polystratus?
Darius was found lying in a chariot, wounded all over with darts and near death. He asked for drink, and after a little cold water told Polystratus it was the last extremity of his ill fortune to receive benefits and be unable to return them. He hoped the gods would recompense Alexander for his kindness to his family, gave his right hand in acknowledgment, and died. Alexander covered the body with his own cloak.
Chapter 75
Why did Alexander adopt a dress between Persian and Macedonian styles?
Plutarch offers two explanations: perhaps to make civilizing the barbarians easier, since conformity to local customs wins people over, or as a first trial to see whether the Macedonians could be brought to adore him as Persians did their kings. He avoided the Median fashion entirely, adopting neither trousers, sleeved vest, nor tiara, taking a middle way more pompous than Macedonian but less flaunting than Persian. The Macedonians grieved at this.
Chapter 75
What did Alexander do with the thirty thousand boys he selected, and why?
Plutarch says Alexander, wishing to depend on goodwill from intermixture rather than force while far on expedition, chose thirty thousand boys and put them under masters to teach them the Greek tongue and train them in Macedonian arms. This fit his wider policy of accommodating himself to native customs while drawing the conquered nearer to Macedonian ways, aiming at lasting tranquillity.
Chapter 75
Section 764 cards
Why did Alexander believe Sisimithres's fortress could be taken easily?
When his soldiers despaired of taking the seemingly impregnable rock held by Sisimithres, Alexander asked Oxyartes whether Sisimithres was brave. Told he was the greatest coward alive, Alexander concluded the place could easily be taken since its commander was weak, and soon terrified Sisimithres into surrendering without difficulty.
Chapter 76
How did Taxiles first address Alexander, and how did Alexander respond?
Taxiles asked why they should war unless Alexander came to take water or necessary food, the only things wise men must fight for; other riches he offered to share, or to be obliged if Alexander had more. Alexander embraced him, said he would not escape a contest of courtesy, received presents, returned greater ones, and gave him a thousand talents in coined money.
Chapter 76
What does Plutarch report about Alexander's crossing of the Hydaspes?
Alexander's own letters describe the armies separated by the Hydaspes, with Porus's elephants guarding the passage. On a stormy dark night Alexander crossed with part of his foot and best horse to an island, where lightning killed some men, then crossed the swollen river. He advanced about twenty furlongs ahead with his horse, took all sixty chariots, and killed four hundred horse.
Chapter 76
What did Porus answer when Alexander asked how he expected to be treated?
Porus answered, "As a king," and said that expression comprehended everything when asked a second time. Alexander accordingly let him govern his own kingdom as satrap under himself and added territory of various independent tribes, said to contain fifteen nations and five thousand towns. Plutarch notes almost all historians agree Porus was four cubits and a span high.
Chapter 76
Section 774 cards
According to the journals, on what date and in what manner did Alexander die?
The journals record that Alexander died on the twenty-eighth of Daesius in the evening. His fever began after he drank all day at Medius's supper; he bathed, sacrificed, played dice, heard Nearchus's voyage narrative, and grew steadily worse until he became speechless. Plutarch rejects tales of a sudden lance-like pain or the bowl of Hercules as inventions, and notes Aristobulus's differing account of delirium and death on the thirtieth.
Chapter 77
What evidence does Plutarch cite against the poisoning story of Alexander's death?
Plutarch says nobody suspected poisoning at the time; the tale surfaced six years later, when Olympias reportedly put many to death and scattered the ashes of the dead Iolaus. Those claiming Aristotle counseled Antipater cite only Hagnothemis, who supposedly heard Antigonus tell of icy water from a Nonacris rock kept in an ass's hoof. Plutarch notes most consider this made up, since the body stayed clear and fresh during the commanders' dissensions.
Chapter 77
How did Caesar respond to the pirates who captured him near Pharmacusa?
When the pirates demanded twenty talents, Caesar laughed at their ignorance of his value and offered fifty. He sent companions to raise the money and spent thirty-eight days among the Cilicians, ordering them to keep quiet when he slept, joining their games, and reciting verses and speeches to them. He called those who failed to admire his work illiterate barbarians and often threatened to hang them, which they took as boyish playfulness. After his ransom arrived from Miletus, he manned ships, captured most of them, and later crucified them at Pergamus.
Chapter 77
Why did Sylla want Caesar dead, and how did Caesar escape?
Sylla's hostility stemmed from Caesar's relationship to Marius: Marius the elder married Julia, sister of Caesar's father, making young Marius Caesar's first cousin. Sylla wished Caesar to divorce Cornelia, Cinna's daughter, and confiscated her dowry when he refused. Though initially overlooked, Caesar campaigned for a priesthood and was rejected by Sylla's machinations. Warned of Sylla's remark that he saw more than one Marius in the boy, Caesar hid in Sabine country, was captured by soldiers, bribed Cornelius with two talents, and sailed to Bithynia.
Chapter 77
Section 784 cards
How did Caesar respond to his officers' timidity before facing Ariovistus?
Caesar called his timorous officers together, especially the young nobles seeking pleasure or profit, and told them to march off rather than fight against their inclinations. He said he would take only the tenth legion against the barbarians, whom he did not expect to be more formidable than the Cimbri, nor himself a general inferior to Marius. The tenth legion thanked him, the other legions blamed their officers, and all followed him zealously.
Chapter 78
How did Caesar's soldiers show their devotion, according to the examples given?
Acilius, his right hand struck off in a sea-fight before Marseilles, kept his buckler in his left and struck enemies in the face until he took the vessel. Cassius Scaeva, one eye shot out and shoulder and thigh pierced, with one hundred thirty darts on his target, feigned surrender, cut off one enemy's shoulder and drove the other off. A common soldier in Britain rescued officers from a morass, then begged pardon for losing his shield.
Chapter 78
How did Caesar treat his own bodily weaknesses and hardships?
Though spare, soft-skinned, subject to headaches and epilepsy (said to have first seized him at Corduba), Caesar refused to let weakness excuse ease. He used war as physic against his indispositions, enduring indefatigable journeys, coarse diet, field lodging, and continual exercise. He slept in chariots or litters, dictated letters on horseback, and reportedly devised cipher for communicating with friends when business or the city's extent prevented personal conference.
Chapter 78
What did the senate decree after Caesar's victory over the Nervii?
After news of the Nervii defeat, the Roman senate voted sacrifices and festivals to the gods, strictly observed for fifteen days, a longer space than ever observed for any victory before. The danger from the joint outbreak of so many nations was felt to be great, and the people's fondness for Caesar added luster to his successes. Of sixty thousand Nervii, it is stated not above five hundred survived.
Chapter 78
Section 794 cards
What did Caesar say to the frightened boatman during the storm on the Anius?
Caesar, disguised as a slave, revealed himself and told the boatman to go on and fear nothing, saying he carried "Caesar and his fortune" in the boat. The mariners forgot the storm and rowed hard, but the vessel took in water and Caesar reluctantly allowed the master to turn back.
Chapter 79
What did Pompey's edict declare as he left Rome, and who was ordered to follow?
Pompey issued an edict declaring the city in a state of anarchy and left it, ordering the senate to follow him and that no one should stay behind who did not prefer tyranny to their country and liberty. The consuls fled without making the usual sacrifices, and most senators fled too.
Chapter 79
How did Domitius's suicide attempt at Corfinium turn out?
Domitius, despairing of defending Corfinium against Caesar, asked his physician for poison and drank it. When told Caesar showed clemency to prisoners, he lamented his haste; the physician revealed it was a sleeping draught, not poison. He rejoiced, went to Caesar, gave his hand, then later went over to Pompey again.
Chapter 79
What did Caesar tell Metellus about arms and laws at the treasury?
When tribune Metellus tried to stop Caesar taking money from the public treasury, Caesar replied that arms and laws each have their own time, telling him war allows no free talking and to return and speak when Caesar had laid down his arms. He threatened Metellus with death, saying it was more disagreeable to say than to do.
Chapter 79
Section 804 cards
According to Plutarch, why did Caesar write his Anti-Cato?
Plutarch reports that Cicero had written a widely circulated encomium praising Cato, which touched Caesar, who saw a panegyric on his enemy as an invective against himself. Caesar therefore composed his Anti-Cato, collecting whatever could be said to Cato's discredit. Plutarch suggests from Caesar's clemency to Cicero, Brutus and others that the book was written less from animosity than for his own vindication.
Chapter 80
What did Caesar report to the people about the resources of the newly subdued country?
On returning to Rome, Caesar gave a magnificent account of his victory, telling the people he had subdued a country that would supply the public every year with two hundred thousand attic bushels of corn and three million pounds weight of oil. He then led three triumphs, for Egypt, Pontus and Africa, the last celebrated for the victory over king Juba rather than Scipio.
Chapter 80
What did Caesar say after the hard-fought battle near Munda?
At Munda, Caesar saw his men hard pressed and ran through the ranks asking whether they were ashamed to deliver him into the hands of boys. He forced back the enemy with great difficulty, killing thirty thousand while losing one thousand of his best men. Afterward he told his friends he had often fought for victory, but this was the first time he had fought for life.
Chapter 80
Why did Caesar's triumph for the Spanish victory displease the Romans?
Plutarch says the triumph displeased the Romans beyond anything, because Caesar had not defeated foreign generals or barbarian kings but had destroyed the children and family of one of Rome's greatest men, though unfortunate. It seemed wrong to celebrate the calamities of his country. Hitherto he had never sent letters announcing victories over fellow-citizens, seeming rather ashamed of the action than expecting honor from it.
Chapter 80
Section 814 cards
According to Plutarch, how do public bodies often treat good men during affliction?
Plutarch says it is commonly claimed that public bodies insult good men most when puffed up by prosperity, but he argues the opposite often happens: afflictions and calamities sour people's tempers, making them peevish and quick to take offense. Free-spoken advice is then construed as contempt, and counselors are presumed to be insulting them over their misfortunes.
Chapter 81
What image does Plutarch use for how a ruler should move relative to the people's temper?
Plutarch compares the ruler to the sun, whose motion is neither parallel nor directly opposite to the heavens but follows an oblique, gently declining curve. Likewise, rulers who constantly oppose the people's temper are resented as harsh, while too much deference to popular faults is ruinous. Concession should answer willing obedience so the statesman can recall people to the common interest.
Chapter 81
Why does Plutarch say Cato the younger lost the consulship?
Plutarch reports that Cato's manners were little agreeable to the people and he received slender marks of favor, losing the consulship when he sued for it. Cicero says he lost it for acting like a citizen in Plato's commonwealth rather than among Romulus's descendants. Plutarch compares his virtue to fruit ripe before its season: admirable to look at but unsuited to the times.
Chapter 81
How does Plutarch compare Phocion's and Cato's virtues?
Plutarch says Phocion and Cato may be compared not for vague resemblances but because their virtues bear the same color, stamp, and character: lenity mixed with austerity, boldness with caution, solicitude for the public with neglect of themselves, and scrupulous avoidance of anything mean. He says subtle logic would be needed to distinguish them.
Chapter 81
Section 824 cards
Why did Phocion allow his son Phocus to compete in the leaping contest?
Phocion permitted his son to enter the leaping contest at the feast of Minerva not to win, but in the hope that the training and discipline would improve him. The youth was generally a lover of drinking and ill-regulated in his habits. After Phocus succeeded, Phocion declined all banquet invitations but one, and reprimanded him there for letting a friend sully the honor of his victory.
Chapter 82
How did Phocion answer Alexander's demand for galleys?
When Alexander wrote demanding a supply of galleys and the public speakers objected, the council asked Phocion's opinion. He told them freely, "Sirs, I would either have you victorious yourselves, or friends of those who are so." The chapter presents this as his blunt counsel to the assembly rather than a refusal or an agreement to send the ships.
Chapter 82
What did Phocion tell Charicles when asked to defend him in court?
Charicles, Phocion's son-in-law, had handled Harpalus's dealings and was called to account for them. He begged Phocion to appear for him in court. Phocion refused, saying, "I did not choose you for my son-in-law for any but honorable purposes." Earlier, Harpalus had tried to win Phocion with seven hundred talents, which Phocion sharply rejected.
Chapter 82
What terms did Antipater offer Athens, and how did Xenocrates respond?
Antipater required Demosthenes and Hyperides be delivered up, the ancient form of government retained with the franchise determined by a property qualification, a garrison in Munychia, and payment for the war's cost. Xenocrates said that if Antipater considered the Athenians slaves he treated them fairly, but if free, severely. Phocion pleaded only to spare them the garrison.
Chapter 82
Section 834 cards
How did the young Cato react when Pompaedius Silo held him out a window?
Cato remained unmoved and unalarmed throughout the ordeal, refusing to give the answer Silo demanded. After setting him down, Pompaedius remarked to a friend that it was fortunate for Italy Cato was still a child, believing that if he were a man they would not gain a single voice among the people.
Chapter 83
What did the fourteen-year-old Cato ask his tutor Sarpedon at Sylla's house?
Seeing men of distinction brought there in custody and tormented, Cato asked why nobody killed Sylla. When Sarpedon replied that people feared him more than they hated him, Cato asked why he had not been given a sword so he might stab Sylla and free his country from slavery. Sarpedon then watched him closely.
Chapter 83
Why did Cato refuse the rewards Gellius offered him for service in the Spartacus war?
Cato had volunteered to serve for the sake of his brother Caepio, a tribune in the army. Because of the general's poor conduct he found no chance to display zeal or valor, though amid the army's corruption he showed love of discipline, bravery, and wisdom. He refused the rewards, saying he had done nothing to deserve them, which made him seem eccentric.
Chapter 83
How did Cato respond to losing the dice throw for choice of dishes at supper?
When Cato lost the dice throw for choosing dishes and the company offered him his choice anyway, he declined to dispute what he called the decision of Venus. The chapter also notes he at first drank only once after supper before leaving, but later often continued drinking until morning, which his friends explained by his daytime public business and desire to converse with philosophers.
Chapter 83
Section 844 cards
Why did Cato initially refuse to stand for tribune, and what changed his mind?
Cato first thought the tribuneship should be reserved, like the strongest medicines, for occasions of last necessity. He changed course when he met the retinue of Metellus Nepos traveling to Rome to stand for tribune; backed by Pompey, Cato feared Metellus would fall on the state like lightning, so he returned to seek the office himself.
Chapter 84
What does Plutarch say about the nature of the tribune's power?
Plutarch explains that the tribune's power consists more in controlling than in performing business: even if all the other tribunes agreed, a single tribune's denial or intercession could stop the whole matter. This blocking power explains why Cato, who had often refused the office, now sought it to defend liberty and the government.
Chapter 84
How did Caesar's and Cato's speeches on the Catiline conspirators differ?
Silanus first urged the last punishment, and others followed, until Caesar gave a merciful, persuasive speech arguing the conspirators should not die without a fair trial according to law, and moved for imprisonment. Silanus retracted, and the house leaned toward mercy, until Cato attacked Caesar for soft words and popular speeches, and the senate decreed death.
Chapter 84
What happened to the note Cato demanded be read aloud during the debate?
A little note was brought to Caesar while he and Cato were in heated argument. Cato called it suspicious and demanded it be read, so Caesar handed it to him. Cato found it was a love letter from his sister Servilia to Caesar, threw it back, and said, 'Take it, drunkard,' then continued his speech.
Chapter 84
Section 854 cards
How did Cato protect the transported silver from shipwreck?
Cato packed the silver in coffers holding two talents and five hundred drachmas each, fastened a long rope to each coffer with a piece of cork at the other end, so that if the ship foundered the floating cork would reveal where the chests lay underwater. Nearly all the money was safely transported this way.
Chapter 85
Why did Cato object to Cicero's attack on Clodius's tribuneship?
Cato said he did not approve of Clodius's proceedings, but warned that questioning the validity of Clodius's tribuneship would also invalidate Cato's own Cyprus expedition, since it was unlawful if the sender lacked lawful authority. He held Clodius was legally made tribune by adoption into a plebeian family, and that the magistracy's authority should not suffer for the magistrate's faults.
Chapter 85
How did Pompey and Crassus prevent Cato from becoming praetor?
They had the senate order that elected praetors enter office immediately, removing the usual window for prosecution for bribery. They then bribed and watched the voters, but Cato still carried the first tribe. Pompey claimed it thundered and broke up the assembly; next time, with larger bribes and the best men driven from the Field, Vatinius was chosen instead.
Chapter 85
What did Cato do when Trebonius proposed the law allotting provinces to the consuls?
Cato went to the place of speaking before voting began and, after much difficulty, was allowed two hours. When a sergeant pulled him down and later dragged him from the forum, he kept speaking loudly and returned repeatedly. Trebonius finally ordered him imprisoned, but the crowd followed and listened, so he was released; the day's business was staved off.
Chapter 85
Section 863 cards
Why did Cato refuse command when Scipio and Varus offered it?
Cato said he would not break the laws he sought to defend: being only propraetor, he ought not to command in the presence of a proconsul, since Scipio had been created proconsul. He added that people took it as a good omen to see a Scipio command in Africa, and the name inspired the soldiers with hopes of success.
Chapter 86
What counsel did Cato give Scipio about fighting Caesar, and how was it received?
Cato advised Scipio, as he had earlier advised Pompey, not to hazard a battle against a man experienced in war and formidable in the field, but to use delay, since time would gradually abate the crisis. Scipio rejected this out of pride and wrote reproaching Cato with cowardice, later deriding Cato's offer to make a diversion in Italy.
Chapter 86
How did the three hundred respond to Cato's speech, and what did Cato do?
The three hundred, merchants and money-lenders whose substance included slaves, were inflamed while Cato was present but cooled once reasoning among themselves, fearing Caesar. Most favored seizing the senators to appease Caesar. Cato, though he perceived the change, took no notice, but wrote to Juba and Scipio to keep away from Utica because he mistrusted the three hundred.
Chapter 86
Section 873 cards
According to Plutarch, what ruined the Gracchi brothers?
Plutarch says Caius and Tiberius Gracchus were noble men with good educations and laudable intentions, but were ruined not so much by excessive desire for glory as by fear of disgrace. Being greatly loved by the people, they felt it shameful not to repay them, and each new public act brought further honors, until people and leaders inflamed each other and retreat became shameful.
Chapter 87
What law does Plutarch blame for Sparta's corruption, and who proposed it?
Plutarch says Sparta's corruption began with the conquest of Athens and the influx of gold and silver. The decisive blow came from Epitadeus, an ephor of great influence and a willful, violent spirit, who after a quarrel with his son proposed that men could dispose of their land by gift or will. Passed through his revenge and others' covetousness, it concentrated wealth in few hands and ruined the commonwealth.
Chapter 87
Why did Spartan women oppose Agis's reforms?
Plutarch says most of Sparta's money was in the women's hands, so they had an interest in opposing the plan. It would strip them of the superfluous trifles in which, through lack of better knowledge and experience, they placed their chief felicity, and they knew their riches were the main support of their power and credit. Agis's mother and grandmother, however, were won over.
Chapter 87
Section 884 cards
Who was the first Lacedaemonian king put to death by the ephors, and why?
Agis was the first king put to death in Lacedaemon by the ephors, for undertaking a design noble in itself and worthy of his country, at a time of life when men's errors usually meet with easy pardon. Plutarch adds that if Agis committed errors, his enemies had less reason to blame him than his friends had to fault his gentle, compassionate temper, which made him spare Leonidas's life and trust other men's professions.
Chapter 88
How did Leonidas treat Agiatis after Agis's death, and whom did he force her to marry?
Leonidas forced Agiatis, widow of Agis and mother of a young child, from her own house and compelled her to marry his son Cleomenes, though Cleomenes was then too young for a wife. Leonidas acted because he did not want anyone else to have her, since she was heiress to her father Glylippus's great estate, the most youthful and beautiful woman in Greece, and well-conducted in her habits.
Chapter 88
What did Xenares do when Cleomenes kept asking about Agis's reforms?
Xenares first willingly told Cleomenes the whole story of Agis, with all the particular circumstances of his actions. But when he saw Cleomenes extremely affected by the account, more than ordinarily taken with Agis's new model of government, and begging for a repetition, Xenares severely chided him, called him frantic, and finally abandoned all familiarity and intercourse with him, never telling anyone the cause but saying only that Cleomenes knew very well.
Chapter 88
How does Plutarch compare Cleomenes's temperament with Agis's?
Plutarch says Cleomenes had a generous and great soul and was as temperate and moderate in his pleasures as Agis, but not so scrupulous, circumspect, and gentle. Something of heat and passion always goaded him on, with impetuosity and violence in pursuing anything he thought good and just. He believed men obeying of their own free will was the best discipline, but also held that subduing resistance and forcing men to the better course was commendable and brave.
Chapter 88
Section 894 cards
Why did Cleomenes abandon Corinth for Argos?
Cleomenes feared that if the enemy took Argos, they would close the passes, ravage Laconia, and besiege Sparta, which he had left without forces. So he withdrew from Corinth, and Antigonus immediately entered and garrisoned it. Cleomenes then tried a sudden assault on Argos and broke into the Aspis to join the garrison, but retreated when Antigonus's phalanx and cavalry arrived.
Chapter 89
How did Cleomenes respond to the news of his wife's death?
The messengers met him at Tegea in the evening. He was deeply afflicted and grieved as a young man would for a beautiful and excellent wife, but he did not let his passion disgrace him or impair his greatness of mind. He kept his usual voice, countenance, and habit, gave orders to his captains, and secured Tegea. Next morning at Sparta he mourned with his mother and children, then devoted himself to public affairs.
Chapter 89
What did Cratesiclea say when she learned she was to be a hostage?
Told she must go to Ptolemy as a hostage with the children, she laughed aloud and asked why he had feared to speak. She told him to hurry and send this carcass where it might best serve Sparta before age ruined it. At Taenarus she told Cleomenes that weeping and unworthy passion were the only things in their own power; success waits on the deity.
Chapter 89
Why did Cleomenes abandon Megalopolis after capturing it?
Cleomenes offered to restore the city if the Megalopolitans forsook the Achaean league, saying profit should yield to glory. Philopoemen blocked the offer, accusing Cleomenes of wanting the citizens too, and forced the envoys from Messene. Angered, Cleomenes plundered the city's valuables, sent statues and pictures to Sparta, demolished much of it, and marched off fearing Antigonus and the Achaeans, who never stirred.
Chapter 89
Section 904 cards
Why did Tiberius Gracchus the elder kill the male serpent?
Soothsayers said killing the male serpent meant Tiberius would die, and killing the female meant Cornelia would die. Tiberius, who loved his wife and reasoned that as an old man he should die before her, who was still young, killed the male and let the female escape. He died soon after, leaving twelve children by Cornelia.
Chapter 90
How did Tiberius and Caius differ in oratory and temper?
Tiberius was gentle, composed, and persuasive, speaking quietly from one spot with pure diction. Caius was vehement and passionate, walking the hustings and pulling his gown off his shoulders. Caius's voice would break with anger, so his servant Licinius stood behind him with a pitch-pipe and sounded a soft note to recall him to temper.
Chapter 90
How did Tiberius save the trapped Roman army under Mancinus?
Mancinus, beaten and unable to escape, sought a truce. The Numantines would trust only Tiberius, partly for his character and partly in memory of his father's fair peace with them. He negotiated terms and thereby saved twenty thousand Roman citizens besides attendants. The Numantines kept the camp spoils, including his account books.
Chapter 90
What did Tiberius do to recover his account books from Numantia?
Anxious to recover his quaestorship records, Tiberius returned to Numantia with three or four friends and asked the officers to return the books, fearing enemies would reproach him for failing to account for public money. The Numantines welcomed him, fed him, returned the books, and offered spoils; he accepted only frankincense for public sacrifices and departed.
Chapter 90
Section 914 cards
What did Flavius Flaccus warn Tiberius the rich senators had decided to do?
Flavius Flaccus, a senator, signaled to Tiberius from a distance and, once Tiberius cleared a path for him, told him that the rich men in a sitting of the senate, unable to persuade the consul to take their side, had resolved to assassinate Tiberius and had armed friends and servants ready to do it.
Chapter 91
How did Tiberius's gesture of touching his head get misread by his adversaries?
Tiberius, unable to be heard at a distance, lifted his hand to his head to signal the danger he feared. His adversaries ran to the senate house and declared that Tiberius was asking the people to crown him, as if touching his head meant that. The report caused general confusion among the senators.
Chapter 91
What did the consul reply when Nasica demanded Tiberius be punished as a tyrant?
The consul replied mildly that he would not be the first to do violence. He would not let a freeman be put to death before lawful sentence, nor allow any measure to take effect if the people had been induced by Tiberius's persuasion or compulsion to pass an unlawful vote. Nasica then called on those who would defend the laws to follow him.
Chapter 91
What happened to Blossius of Cuma when questioned about obeying Tiberius?
Blossius was brought before the consuls and freely confessed he had done whatever Tiberius ordered. Asked by Nasica whether he would have burned the capitol if Tiberius had commanded it, he first said Tiberius never would, then declared that if commanded it would have been right, since Tiberius never would have commanded it except for the people's good. He was pardoned, later joined Aristonicus in Asia, and killed himself when Aristonicus was ruined.
Chapter 91
Section 924 cards
What extraordinary power did the senate grant Opimius against the Gracchan party?
The senators ordered that Opimius, the consul, be invested with extraordinary power to protect the commonwealth and suppress all tyrants. He then commanded senators to arm and Roman knights to be ready with two armed servants each. Plutarch later notes Opimius was the first consul to usurp dictatorial power, condemning three thousand citizens without trial.
Chapter 92
How did Caius Gracchus die, according to the most common account?
Caius fled with only his servant Philocrates, hid in a grove sacred to the Furies, and Philocrates first slew him and then killed himself, falling dead on his master. Plutarch adds that some affirm both were taken alive and Philocrates clung so closely that Caius could not be wounded until the servant was slain.
Chapter 92
How did Septimuleius cheat the reward for Caius's head?
Proclamation had promised the bearer of Caius's or Fulvius's head its weight in gold. Septimuleius fixed Caius's head on a spear and presented it to Opimius; it weighed above seventeen pounds because he had removed the brains and filled the skull with lead. Plutarch calls this as great a sign of knavery as his earlier cruelty.
Chapter 92
How does Plutarch compare the aims of the Gracchi with those of Agis and Cleomenes?
Plutarch says the Gracchi chiefly aimed at settling cities and mending highways; Tiberius's boldest design was recovering public lands, and Caius's greatest reputation came from adding three hundred knights to the senate's judicial number. Agis and Cleomenes, by contrast, attempted a thorough reformation to free the country at once, reversing the change that caused its calamities.
Chapter 92
Section 932 cards
What did Theophrastus say when asked to compare Demosthenes and Demades as orators?
Theophrastus judged Demosthenes 'worthy of the city of Athens,' but called Demades 'above it.' Plutarch notes that everyone considered Demades unsurpassable in natural gifts, excelling all of Demosthenes' study and preparation in extempore speaking. Polyeuctus similarly called Demosthenes the greatest orator but Phocion the ablest, packing the most sense into the fewest words.
Chapter 93
What did Panaetius the philosopher say most of Demosthenes' orations were written to prove?
Panaetius said most of his orations are so written as if to prove one conclusion: that what is honest and virtuous is to be chosen for itself alone. He cites the speech on the Crown, that against Aristocrates, that for the Immunities, and the Philippics, in which Demosthenes urges citizens to prefer what is just and honorable before their own safety.
Chapter 93
Section 944 cards
How did Demosthenes die at the temple of Neptune in Calauria?
Demosthenes took sanctuary at the temple of Neptune in Calauria. Archias, the exile-hunter, tried to persuade him to go to Antipater with promises of kind treatment. Demosthenes withdrew into the temple, put a reed to his mouth as if writing, and bit it, taking poison. When the poison seized his vitals, he uncovered his head, told Archias he might now play Creon and cast out his body unburied, and, asking to be held up, fell near the altar and died with a groan.
Chapter 94
What differing accounts does Plutarch give of how Demosthenes took the poison?
Plutarch reports several versions. Ariston says he took the poison out of a reed. Pappus says a scroll was found with only the words 'Demosthenes to Antipater,' and that Thracian guards reported he took poison from a rag, which they thought was gold. His maid said he had long worn it in a bracelet as an amulet; Eratosthenes says it was kept in a hollow ring worn on his arm. Demochares, his relation, argues he did not die by poison at all but by the gods' favor.
Chapter 94
How did the Athenians honor Demosthenes after his death, and what did Demades suffer?
Soon after his death the Athenians erected a bronze statue of Demosthenes, decreed that the eldest of his family be maintained in the Prytaneum, and engraved an inscription on the statue's base saying that had he been as strong as wise, the Macedonian would not have conquered Greece. Plutarch calls it ridiculous to claim Demosthenes composed those verses himself. Demades, who had moved the death sentence, was later put to death in Macedonia after letters of his encouraging Perdiccas were intercepted.
Chapter 94
What does Plutarch report about the origin of the name Cicero?
Plutarch says the first of the house surnamed Cicero was a person worth remembering, and his successors were fond of the name though it was vulgarly a reproach. The Latins call a vetch 'cicer,' and a nick or dent at the tip of his nose, resembling the opening in a vetch, gave him the surname. Cicero himself, urged by friends to change the name when entering politics, said he would strive to make it more glorious than those of the Scauri and Catuli.
Chapter 94
Section 954 cards
How did Cicero learn of the plot to kill him at his gates?
Fulvia, a noble lady, came by night and warned Cicero to beware of Cethegus and Marcius, who planned to come early to his gates pretending to salute him and then slay him. When they arrived at daybreak and were denied entrance, they made an outcry at the gates, which only increased suspicion against them.
Chapter 95
What punishment did Caesar propose for the conspirators, and what did Cicero do?
Caesar proposed the conspirators not be put to death but that their estates be confiscated and their persons confined in Italian cities Cicero approved, held until Catiline was conquered. Cicero gave no small weight to this moderate sentence, speaking partly for each proposal. Cicero's friends judged Caesar's sentence more expedient for him, but Cato's speech carried the senate to a decree of execution.
Chapter 95
What was Lentulus's plan for the city, and when was it to be carried out?
Lentulus resolved to kill the whole senate and as many other citizens as possible, fire the city, and spare nobody except Pompey's children, whom he meant to keep as pledges for reconciliation with Pompey. The night appointed was one of the Saturnalia. Swords, flax, and sulfur were hidden in Cethegus's house, and one hundred men were assigned to divide the city and kindle fires simultaneously.
Chapter 95
How did the Allobroges ambassadors help expose the conspiracy?
Two ambassadors from the Allobroges, a nation uneasy under Roman rule, were judged useful instruments to seduce Gaul into revolt. Lentulus's party admitted them into the conspiracy and gave them letters to their magistrates and to Catiline, promising liberty and urging Catiline to free slaves. Cicero, through emissaries and secret correspondence, learned of this and intercepted the Crotonian Titus with the letters.
Chapter 95
Section 964 cards
Why did Pompey change his mind and work for Cicero's return?
The author says Pompey reproached himself for cowardice in deserting Cicero after Clodius attacked Pompey's arrangements in conquered countries. Pompey then set himself with his friends to contrive Cicero's return, and the senate voted that no public measure should pass until Cicero was recalled.
Chapter 96
How did Cicero justify defacing the tribunician tables recording Clodius's acts?
Cicero went with a great company to the capitol and tore and defaced the tables. When Clodius called him to account, Cicero answered that Clodius, being of the patrician order, had obtained the tribune's office against law, so nothing he did was valid. Cato opposed this, arguing it was irregular to void so many decrees, including his own acts in Cyprus and Byzantium.
Chapter 96
Why does the author say Cicero's nervousness hurt Milo's defense?
Milo feared Cicero would be disturbed by Pompey's soldiers surrounding the Forum and had him wait in a litter. On quitting it, Cicero saw the arms and was so confounded he could hardly begin for trembling. Milo stayed bold and refused to grow his hair or wear mourning. The author says this seems a principal cause of Milo's condemnation.
Chapter 96
How did Cicero govern Cilicia, according to the chapter?
He was appointed by lot to Cilicia with twelve thousand foot and two thousand six hundred horse, and settled Cappadocia for Ariobarzanes without arms. He soothed the Cilicians back to fidelity by gentle government, accepted no presents from kings, and remitted public entertainments. He never had subordinates beaten with rods or their garments rent, detected a large embezzlement, and defeated banditti on Mount Amanus, being saluted Imperator.
Chapter 96
Section 974 cards
How does Plutarch contrast Demosthenes and Cicero on self-praise?
Plutarch says Demosthenes touched on his own praises only decently and when a weightier end required it, otherwise modestly and sparingly. Cicero, by contrast, boasts immeasurably in his orations, even extolling his published speeches, which the author argues reveals an uncontrollable appetite for distinction and a low, petty disposition in those who pride themselves on eloquence.
Chapter 97
What does Plutarch say about Demosthenes' and Cicero's experience of high office?
Plutarch notes Demosthenes never held any eminent office nor led into the field the armies he raised by eloquence, so he never proved himself under authority and place. Cicero was quaestor in Sicily and proconsul in Cilicia and Cappadocia, and as consul received dictatorial authority against Catiline, giving abundant proofs of contempt for riches and of humanity.
Chapter 97
How does Plutarch compare the exiles of Demosthenes and Cicero?
Plutarch calls Demosthenes' banishment infamous, following conviction for bribery, while Cicero's was honorable, for ridding his country of villains; the senate put on mourning until Cicero's return was decreed. Yet Plutarch says Cicero passed his exile idly in Macedonia, whereas Demosthenes used his exile to serve Greece, driving out Macedonian ambassadors and opposing Antipater.
Chapter 97
Why does Plutarch include the lives of Demetrius and Antonius?
Plutarch argues that studying blameworthy lives makes readers more zealous to imitate the better ones, comparing it to showing students bad flute players. He says Demetrius and Antonius justify Plato's words that great natures produce great vices as well as virtues, both being amorous, intemperate, warlike, munificent, and overbearing, with lives of great successes and disasters.
Chapter 97
Section 984 cards
What title did Antigonus and Demetrius receive after the success in Cyprus?
After Demetrius's success in Cyprus, the people around them gave Antigonus and Demetrius the title of kings for the first time. Antigonus's friends set a diadem on his head, and he sent one to his son with a letter addressed to King Demetrius. Ptolemy's followers then did the same for him, and the other successors of Alexander quickly followed the example.
Chapter 98
How did Antigonus respond to Demetrius's excuses about his debauchery?
Antigonus treated his son's excesses with easy humor. When Demetrius blamed a violent flux for his absence, Antigonus asked whether it was of Thasian or Chian wine. When told Demetrius was ill, he met a young beauty at the door and, taking his son's pulse, said he met the fever going out at the door. Demetrius's great actions made Antigonus treat him thus easily.
Chapter 98
What was remarkable about the great siege engine Demetrius used against Rhodes?
The engine's base was square, twenty-four cubits on each side, rising thirty-three cubits and narrowing toward the top. Inside were chambers to fill with armed men, and each story had windows for discharging missiles. Most wonderful was that despite its size it never tottered, moving forward on its base in perfect equilibrium with a loud noise, astounding minds while charming the eyes of beholders.
Chapter 98
Why did Demetrius spare Protogenes's painting of Ialysus?
Protogenes the Caunian had nearly finished painting the story of Ialysus when Demetrius took the suburb. The Rhodians sent a herald begging him to spare the work. Demetrius answered that he would rather burn the pictures of his father than a piece of art that had cost so much labor. The painting reportedly took Protogenes seven years, and later perished by fire in Rome.
Chapter 98
Section 994 cards
What happened to Demetrius's Spartan campaign after his victories near Mantinea and Sparta?
Demetrius defeated Archidamus near Mantinea, then entered Laconia and beat the Spartans again near Sparta itself, killing two hundred and taking five hundred prisoners. The city seemed almost certain to fall, but news that Lysimachus had seized his Asian cities and Ptolemy had reduced Cyprus, with his mother and children besieged in Salamis, drew him away from Sparta.
Chapter 99
How did Erasistratus diagnose Antiochus's illness and what did Seleucus do about it?
Erasistratus noticed Antiochus showed Sappho's symptoms—faltering voice, flushing, furtive glances, sweat, irregular heartbeat, faintness—only when Stratonice was present. He told Seleucus the love was for his own wife; Seleucus declared he would part with Stratonice and his empire to save his son. He then assembled his people and made Antiochus king and Stratonice queen of Upper Asia.
Chapter 99
How did Demetrius escape Alexander's murder plot at the banquet, and how did he later kill Alexander?
Warned he would be killed during the drinking, Demetrius brought a larger retinue into the room, ordered his officers to arm the soldiers, and left early, claiming ill health. Later at Larissa, Alexander came to Demetrius's quarters; when Demetrius rose and went out, he told the guards, 'Kill him that follows me,' and Alexander was dispatched with his friends.
Chapter 99
Why did the Macedonians proclaim Demetrius king after Alexander's death?
The Macedonians feared Demetrius's forces, but when no violence followed and he asked for an interview, they grew confident. Their hatred of Antipater for murdering his mother Thessalonica, and the lack of anyone better to govern, decided them to proclaim Demetrius king. Those at home also welcomed him, remembering Cassander's crimes and Antipater's plainer rule, and his wife Phila was Antipater's daughter.
Chapter 99
Section 1004 cards
What did Demetrius instruct his son's supporters to do with letters bearing his seal?
Demetrius sent letters to those with his son, and to his captains and friends at Athens and Corinth, telling them to give no credit to any letters written in his name even if sealed with his own signet. They should treat him as already dead and maintain the cities and remaining power for Antigonus as his successor.
Chapter 100
How did Demetrius's habits change during his captivity, and what did he conclude?
At first Demetrius kept up exercise, hunting, and riding as far as he could. Little by little he grew indolent and took to dice and drinking, spending most of his time there. Plutarch says this may have been to drown reflection, or because he decided idleness and repose were the happy life he had long desired and had been seduced from by vain ambition.
Chapter 100
How did Seleucus respond to Lysimachus's offer regarding Demetrius?
Lysimachus sent and offered a large sum of money to Seleucus to take away Demetrius's life. Seleucus, who had always shown aversion to Lysimachus, thought him only the greater barbarian and monster for it. He still protracted the time, reserving the favor, as he professed, for the intercession of Antiochus and Stratonice.
Chapter 100
What was the cause of Antony's grudge against Cicero, according to Plutarch?
Antony's stepfather Cornelius Lentulus, whom his mother Julia married after Antony's father died, was put to death by Cicero for being of Catiline's conspiracy. Plutarch says this was probably the first ground of Antony's mortal grudge against Cicero. Antony also claimed Lentulus's body was denied burial until Julia applied to Cicero's wife, though Plutarch calls this a manifest error.
Chapter 100
Section 1014 cards
How did the triumvirs decide who would be put to death in their proscription?
Each of the three—Caesar, Antony, and Lepidus—wanted to destroy his enemies while saving his friends, but hatred of enemies won out over affection for friends. Caesar sacrificed Cicero to Antony, Antony gave up his uncle Lucius Caesar, and Lepidus allowed his brother Paulus to be killed. Plutarch calls this exchange of blood for blood more savage than anything else, and notes three hundred persons were put to death by proscription.
Chapter 101
How did Antony treat Cicero's severed head and hand, and what does Plutarch say of it?
Antony ordered Cicero's head and right hand—with which he had written his invectives—cut off. When brought before him, Antony regarded them joyfully, laughed repeatedly, and had them hung above the speaker's place in the forum. Plutarch says Antony thought he was insulting the dead, but in fact only exposed his own wanton arrogance and unworthiness to hold the power fortune gave him.
Chapter 101
How did Lucius Caesar escape the murderers, according to Plutarch?
Lucius Caesar, closely pursued, took refuge with his sister. When the murderers broke into her house and pressed toward her chamber, she met them at the door, spread out her hands, and cried several times that they would not kill Lucius Caesar until they first dispatched her, who gave their general his birth. In this manner she got her brother out of the way and saved his life.
Chapter 101
Why did Hybreas's speech to Antony about the tribute move him, and what does Plutarch say of Antony's character?
Hybreas told Antony that if he could take two yearly tributes he could give two summers and double harvests, and that Asia had raised two hundred thousand talents—if unpaid, ask the collectors; if paid and gone, the cities are ruined. Plutarch says this touched Antony because he was simply ignorant of much done in his name, not from indolence but from trusting all about him; he was simple, slow to see faults, repentant when he did, and extravagant in reparation.
Chapter 101
Section 1024 cards
What did Antony leave behind when he marched into Atropatene, and why?
Antony left behind the siege engines, carried in three hundred wagons, including a ram eighty feet long, because he was too impatient to wait and saw them as an impediment to his speed. He placed them under Statianus. The chapter notes such engines could not be replaced, since upper Asia produced no trees long or hard enough for the purpose.
Chapter 102
What happened to Statianus and the siege train left behind?
Phraates, learning the wagons were left behind with the battering engines, sent a strong party of horse that surprised Statianus. Statianus himself and ten thousand of his men were slain, the engines were all broken in pieces, many were taken prisoner, and among the prisoners was king Polemon.
Chapter 102
How did Antony respond to the panic and desertion of the mound?
Antony resolved to punish the men by decimation, dividing the soldiers into tens and putting one of every ten to death by lot. The rest he ordered to receive barley instead of wheat for their rations. The chapter presents this as his response to the men deserting the defense of the mound after a sally by the Medes.
Chapter 102
Why did the Mardian advise Antony to march through the mountains?
The Mardian, experienced with Parthian ways and proven loyal at the battle where the machines were lost, warned that Phraates's fair promises were meant to draw Antony from the siege so he could be cut off in retreat. He advised keeping the mountains on the right rather than exposing heavy-armed men to light horse and archers in open country.
Chapter 102
Section 1034 cards
Why did Cleopatra want to remain with Antony's forces instead of returning to Egypt?
Cleopatra feared a new reconciliation between Antony and Octavia. She bribed Canidius to argue on her behalf that she deserved a share of the war's glory, that offending the Egyptians would be unwise since they were a major part of the naval forces, and that her long experience governing a kingdom made her as prudent as any allied king. Plutarch says these arguments prevailed, as fate had destined all to Caesar.
Chapter 103
What did Antony do at Samos while his forces assembled, and how does Plutarch contrast it with the wider world?
At Samos the assembled forces held high festivities, and it was proclaimed that all stage-players should appear there. Kings and cities competed in magnificent feasts and gifts, and every city sent an ox for sacrifice. Plutarch contrasts this: nearly the whole world was filled with groans and lamentations, yet this one island resounded with piping, harping, and playing choruses for days.
Chapter 103
What was considered one of Antony's greatest oversights, and why did it help Caesar?
Plutarch says Antony failed to press the war promptly. This gave Caesar time to complete preparations and let the commotions over his taxes pass. Caesar had taxed freemen a fourth of their incomes and freed slaves an eighth of their property, causing loud outcries and disturbances across Italy; while people were being asked for money they were mutinous, but once they had paid they held their peace.
Chapter 103
How did Caesar use Antony's will, and why did some consider his action scandalous?
Titius and Plancus, having been ill used by Cleopatra, deserted to Caesar and informed him of Antony's will, which was held by the vestal virgins. They refused to hand it over, telling Caesar to seize it himself, which he did. He read the incriminating passages to the senate. Many were scandalized, thinking it unreasonable and inequitable to call a man to account for what was not to take effect until after his death.
Chapter 103
Section 1044 cards
How did Antony's fleet behave when it approached Caesar's ships?
Antony's men saluted Caesar's fleet with their oars; when the other side responded, the whole body of ships formed into a single fleet and rowed directly to the city. Seeing this, Antony's cavalry deserted to Caesar, and his infantry was defeated, so he retired into the city crying that Cleopatra had betrayed him.
Chapter 104
How did Antony die after believing Cleopatra was dead?
Cleopatra, fearing Antony's fury, shut herself in her monument and sent word she was dead. Antony resolved to die; his servant Eros killed himself instead of his master, so Antony ran himself into the belly. The wound was not immediately mortal, and he was carried to Cleopatra's monument, where she and two women drew him up by ropes; he died after advising her to trust Proculeius.
Chapter 104
Why did Caesar want Cleopatra taken alive?
After Antony's death, Caesar sent Proculeius to try to get Cleopatra alive into his power, because he feared losing a great treasure and because she would add no small glory to his triumph. Proculeius entered the monument by scaling-ladders at the window and seized her as she tried to stab herself, taking away her dagger and shaking her dress for hidden poison.
Chapter 104
What did Dolabella secretly tell Cleopatra, and what did she do?
Dolabella, a young man among Caesar's companions with some tenderness for Cleopatra, privately told her that Caesar intended to return through Syria and would send her and her children on within three days. She then asked Caesar's permission to make offerings at Antony's tomb; granted it, she was carried there with her women and delivered a lament over his burial place.
Chapter 104
Section 1054 cards
What did Dion offer Dionysius regarding the feared Carthaginian war?
Dion proposed to avert the imminent danger of war with the Carthaginians: if Dionysius wanted peace, Dion would sail at once to Africa and conclude it on honorable terms; if Dionysius preferred war, Dion would fit out and maintain at his own cost fifty galleys ready for service. Dionysius received the offer with satisfaction, but the courtiers resented his generosity.
Chapter 105
How did the elder Dionysius's fears shape his son's upbringing?
Fearing his son might learn to know himself better and conspire against him, the elder Dionysius kept him shut up at home, where he made little chariots, candlesticks, stools, and tables of wood. The father was so suspicious he would not let a barber trim his hair, had a soldier killed for lending a javelin, and slew Marsyas for dreaming he killed him.
Chapter 105
What did Dion hope Plato's arrival would accomplish for Dionysius?
Dion hoped Plato's instruction would reform Dionysius's character, so he might live after the likeness of the Divine Model, rule by justice and moderation, and be obeyed as a father rather than a master. Dion argued that love, zeal, and affection inspired by clemency and justice, not fear, force, a navy, or ten thousand hired barbarians, are the strongest and most durable ties of government.
Chapter 105
How did Dion's enemies turn his virtues into accusations?
They called his gravity pride, his plain-dealing self-will, and construed his good advice as reprimand, censuring him for declining to share in their misdemeanors. They also spread word that he charmed Dionysius with Plato's sophistry so he might seize power for Aristomache's children. The chapter adds that Dion's own manner was somewhat stately, austere, reserved, and unsociable, which Plato later advised him to avoid.
Chapter 105
Section 1064 cards
How did Dionysius first learn of Dion's arrival in Sicily, and why the delay?
Timocrates sent a courier with letters to Dionysius, but the messenger stopped to rest in a wood near Rhegium; a wolf, scenting a piece of sacrificial flesh attached to the letter-bag, carried off both flesh and bag. Unable to find the letters, the man hid rather than face the king. Dionysius therefore heard of the war from other hands, and only a good while after.
Chapter 106
What omen did the diviners draw from where Dion stood to address the people?
Dion climbed the lofty sundial Dionysius had erected and spoke from atop it, which the diviners counted a most happy omen: the monument of the tyrant was under his feet. But because it was a sundial, they also expressed fears that his great actions might be subject to change and admit some rapid turn and declination of fortune.
Chapter 106
How did Dionysius's offer to negotiate with the Syracusans turn out to be a trick?
Dionysius sent envoys with fair proposals — abatements of tributes and taxes, freedom from military expeditions — which the Syracusans laughed at; Dion replied he must resign the government. Dionysius then seemed to consent and asked deputies to come discuss terms, but this was a mere trick: he put the deputies in custody and at daybreak sent out his mercenaries, after making them drink plentifully of raw wine, in a sudden sally against Dion's works.
Chapter 106
Why did the Syracusans turn against Dion after reading Dionysius's letter?
The letter, outwardly addressed to Dion but in effect to the Syracusans, recalled his former service to the usurping government, threatened his sister, son, and wife, and urged him to seize the sovereignty himself. Instead of admiring his constancy, the Syracusans suspected he was bound to favor Dionysius, began looking for other leaders, and welcomed Heraclides, choosing him admiral over the navy.
Chapter 106
Section 1074 cards
Why did Dion's soldiers struggle most on their march to the enemy?
The chapter says the fire troubled them most: houses were burning on all sides, so they trod on burning ruins, faced falling houses, and labored through clouds of ashes and smoke to keep their ranks. The enemy also held the demolished works, making access narrow, uneven, and hazardous, so only a few could engage at once.
Chapter 107
How did Dion answer friends who urged him not to pardon Heraclides and Theodotes?
Dion said he had long studied in the Academy how to conquer anger rather than be conquered by emulation and envy. He argued that forgiving wrongdoers, not merely being kind to friends, shows true excellence; that success in war is never secure from fortune; and that revenge and injury both spring from the same weakness. He then pardoned and dismissed them.
Chapter 107
What happened when the Syracusans pressed to redistribute lands and houses?
Dion not only opposed the redistribution but repealed all the votes they had formerly made on that account, which vexed them. Heraclides then exploited the grievance, haranguing soldiers and ships' crews at Messene and accusing Dion of aiming at absolute power, while secretly corresponding with Dionysius through Pharax the Spartan.
Chapter 107
How did Dion treat his wife Arete after taking the castle?
Aristomache led Dion's son to meet him and brought Arete, who wept, unsure whether to greet him as uncle or husband after living with another man. Dion wept, embraced his wife affectionately, gave her his son, and asked her to retire to his own house, where he continued to live after handing the castle over to the Syracusans.
Chapter 107
Section 1083 cards
How did Porcia prove herself worthy of Brutus's secrets?
Porcia, daughter of Cato and wife of Brutus, dismissed her attendants, cut her thigh deeply with a small nail knife, and endured heavy bleeding, violent pain, and fever. She then told Brutus she was given to him not as a concubine but to share his fortunes, and showed the wound as proof she could defy pain and be trusted with his secret counsels.
Chapter 108
What did Caesar mean by fearing the pale and lean men?
When told Antony and Dolabella might cause disturbance, Caesar said he did not fear the fat and long-haired men but the pale and lean, meaning Brutus and Cassius. He judged himself secure in Brutus's moral disposition, and grasping his own flesh said Brutus would wait out the time of this little body, implying Brutus was fit to succeed him.
Chapter 108
Why did the conspirators choose the senate meeting for the deed?
A senate meeting was appointed at which Caesar was expected, so they agreed to use that opportunity: they could all appear together without suspicion, and they hoped the noblest men, once assembled, would immediately assert the common liberty after the deed. The portico with Pompey's statue seemed divinely appointed for it.
Chapter 108
Section 1094 cards
How did Brutus treat Caius Antonius after capturing him, and why did he eventually imprison him?
Brutus refused to let his soldiers kill the surrendered enemy, expecting them to join his side, and honored Caius for a long time, even letting him keep the insignia of his office. Later, perceiving that Caius was corrupting officers and trying to raise a mutiny, Brutus put him aboard a ship and kept him in close confinement.
Chapter 109
What charges did Octavian bring against Brutus and Cassius, and what was the outcome?
On entering the consulship, Octavian ordered a judicial process against Brutus and his accomplices for murdering a leading man of the city without hearing or condemnation, appointing Lucius Cornificius to accuse Brutus and Marcus Agrippa to accuse Cassius. None appeared, so the judges were forced to condemn both. The people groaned and Publius Silicius wept, later being proscribed.
Chapter 109
How does Plutarch contrast the characters of Brutus and Cassius?
Cassius was reckoned an expert soldier but harsh and angry, preferring to command by fear rather than love, though he jested among intimates. Brutus was esteemed for virtue, gentle in nature, of great spirit, insensible to anger, pleasure, and covetousness, and inflexible in pursuing what he thought right. His sincerity won him the greatest affection and reputation.
Chapter 109
What happened to the city of Xanthus, and how did Brutus respond?
The Lycians, in a frenzy of despair, set fire to their own city, with men, women, and children leaping into flames or onto swords. Brutus rode round the walls begging them to spare themselves, wept at the report, and proclaimed a reward for any soldier who could save a Xanthian; only about one hundred and fifty were saved against their wills.
Chapter 109
Section 1104 cards
Why did Cassius believe Titinius had been captured by the enemy?
Cassius, weak-sighted, saw a body of horse approaching and thought they were enemies pursuing him. He sent Titinius to learn who they were. When Brutus's horsemen recognized Titinius, they shouted for joy, dismounted, embraced him, and rode around him singing. Cassius took this celebration as proof that Titinius had been taken by the enemy, and despaired.
Chapter 110
How did Cassius die, and what suspicion surrounded Pindarus afterward?
Cassius retired into an empty tent with only Pindarus, his freedman, pulled his mantle over his head, bared his neck, and commanded Pindarus to strike. His severed head was found. No one ever saw Pindarus again, which led some to suspect he had killed his master without being commanded to do so.
Chapter 110
What reward did Brutus promise his soldiers for bravery in the next engagement?
After giving the soldiers the money he had promised and mildly reproving them for attacking without the word of battle, Brutus promised that if they fought bravely in the next engagement he would give them two cities to plunder: Thessalonica and Lacedaemon. Plutarch calls this the one indefensible thing found fault with in Brutus's life.
Chapter 110
Why did Brutus fight the second battle without knowing of his naval victory?
Brutus's fleet defeated the ships bringing reinforcements from Italy on the same day as the land fight, but Brutus did not learn of it for twenty days. Plutarch says the divine power, wishing to remove the one man able to resist the coming monarchy, cut off this good fortune from reaching him. Had he known, he would not have risked a second battle.
Chapter 110
Section 1114 cards
How did Aratus plan to neutralize the gardener's noisy dogs near the wall?
Aratus sent Caphisias ahead with four lightly armed men to reach the gardener's house at nightfall, pretending to be travelers, and to shut up both the gardener and his dogs. This failed in part: the dogs ran away before Caphisias could catch them, though he secured the gardener. Most of the company lost heart, but Aratus urged them on, promising to retreat if the dogs proved too troublesome.
Chapter 111
How did Aratus deceive Nicocles's spies watching him in Argos?
Aratus appeared openly in the marketplace, anointed himself at the exercise ground, and went home with young men who drank with him; servants were then seen buying garlands and flambeaus and speaking to women who sang at banquets. The spies concluded a tyrant need fear nothing from a youth spending his exile in pleasure, and returned home deceived.
Chapter 111
What did Aratus do about the returning exiles and Sicyon's internal disorder?
Eighty exiles expelled by Nicocles and five hundred driven out by earlier tyrants, some banished nearly fifty years, were restored. Most returned poor and impatient to reclaim farms and houses, causing disorder and sedition. Fearing Antigonus coveted the city and internal strife threatened it, Aratus thought best to associate Sicyon with the Achaean community, so the Dorians voluntarily took the name and citizenship of the Achaeans.
Chapter 111
How does Plutarch characterize Aratus's skill and its limitation?
Plutarch says Aratus was a true statesman, high-minded, public-spirited, a hater of tyrants, devoted to concord between cities and unanimity in assemblies. He was backward and diffident in open armed force, but most dexterous at underhand schemes and outwitting potentates unobserved. Plutarch argues this inequality comes from want of philosophy: like eyes strong in darkness but dim in daylight, such skill fails in open day and recovers in secret enterprises.
Chapter 111
Section 1124 cards
What did Aratus do with the free men he captured at Salamis?
Aratus plundered Salamis and sent all the free men he took back to the Athenians without ransom. Plutarch presents this as a kind of first invitation to the Athenians to join the Achaean league, showing Aratus using generosity as a political tool rather than seeking profit from captives.
Chapter 112
How did Aratus get weapons to the conspirators at Argos?
Since the tyrant Aristomachus had banned sword-keeping under heavy penalty, Aratus provided small daggers at Corinth and hid them in the pack-saddles of pack-horses carrying ordinary wares, then sent them to Argos. The plot was betrayed by Charimenes after the conspirators cut him out, and most escaped to Corinth.
Chapter 112
How did the tyrant Aristippus sleep, according to Plutarch?
Though guarded by soldiers and allied with Antigonus, Aristippus turned out his servants after supper, shut the doors, and crept through a trapdoor into a small upper chamber with his mistress. The ladder was removed and locked away by the woman's mother and returned each morning, so he crawled out like a creeping thing.
Chapter 112
Why did Lydiades give up his tyranny at Megalopolis?
Plutarch says Lydiades was generous by nature and driven to tyranny by youthful desire for glory, not by licentiousness or rapacity. Once in power he wearied of its pomp and burden, feared Aratus's policy, and resigned, incorporating his city into the Achaean league. The Achaeans chose him general, but his former tyranny still cast doubt on his change.
Chapter 112
Section 1134 cards
Why did Aratus distrust Antigonus despite seeking his help?
Aratus had no great confidence in Antigonus or the Macedonians, knowing his own greatness had come from losses he caused them, and that his first great public principle had been hostility to the former Antigonus. Yet perceiving necessity and the pressure of the time, he resolved to put all to the venture and went to meet him at Pegae.
Chapter 113
What did the soothsayer predict from the sacrifice, and how did it come true?
Two gall-bags were found enclosed in the same caul of fat, and the soothsayer said the strictest friendship would soon exist between Aratus and his greatest and most mortal enemies. Aratus slighted it then, trusting rational deliberation. Later at Corinth, Antigonus seated him next above himself and shared a coverlet with him, and Aratus recalled the sign.
Chapter 113
How did Aratus treat Mantinea after it was taken?
The Achaeans put to death the chief and most noted men, sold some of the rest, sent others bound to Macedonia, and enslaved wives and children, dividing a third of the money among themselves and two thirds among the Macedonians. Plutarch allows retaliation may excuse the first fury, but argues Aratus cannot be defended for renaming the city Antigonea as its new founder.
Chapter 113
How did Philip's conduct toward Aratus change over time?
At first Philip followed Antigonus's command to heed Aratus, and Aratus managed him well. Later courtiers turned Philip against him, but after Eperatus was scorned Philip reconciled and depended wholly on Aratus. Then prosperity puffed him up: he privately injured the younger Aratus in his wife and stirred sedition at Messene, killing about two hundred.
Chapter 113
Section 1144 cards
According to Dinon, how did Cyrus die?
Dinon affirms that after killing Artagerses, Cyrus attacked Artaxerxes' guard, wounded and dismounted the king's horse, and struck the king down twice. On the third assault the enraged king charged Cyrus, who rushed blindly into the weapons, and the king struck him with a javelin, as did those around him. Others say a Carian's dart killed him; Artaxerxes rewarded that Carian with the right to carry a golden cock on his spear.
Chapter 114
How does Ctesias say Cyrus received his fatal wound?
In Ctesias's account, Cyrus pierced Artaxerxes' breast through his armor, then was carried far off by his wild horse. His tiara fell off, and a young Persian named Mithridates, not knowing who he was, struck a dart into his temple near the eye. Cyrus fell from his horse, and later a poor Caunian camp-follower struck him behind, cutting the vein under his knee; he struck his wounded temple on a stone and died.
Chapter 114
Why does Plutarch accuse Ctesias of lying about the Greek embassy?
Plutarch calls it a flagrant untruth that Ctesias claims he was sent with Phalinus the Zacynthian and others to the Grecians. Xenophon knew Ctesias was resident at court, mentions him, and had evidently met his writings; had Ctesias come as interpreter of such momentous words, Xenophon would not have omitted his name to mention only Phalinus. Plutarch argues Ctesias was vain-glorious and a favorer of the Lacedaemonians and Clearchus.
Chapter 114
How did Artaxerxes punish and reward men after the battle?
Artaxerxes sent gifts to Artagerses' son and honored Ctesias and others; he made the Caunian who gave him water rich and honorable. He ordered Arbaces, who had fled to Cyrus, to carry a harlot on his back a day in the marketplace, and had three needles struck through another man's tongue for falsely claiming to have killed two rebels. He sent gifts to Mithridates but credited him only with finding the horse-trappings.
Chapter 114
Section 1153 cards
What law governed the heir apparent's request, and what did Darius ask for?
Persian rule held that the declared heir should beg a boon and the king must grant whatever was within his power. Darius, proclaimed successor at twenty-five and given the upright hat, requested Aspasia, formerly Cyrus's most prized concubine and then belonging to the king. Artaxerxes objected that she was a free woman.
Chapter 115
How did Artaxerxes punish Darius for taking Aspasia?
He first allowed Darius to take her, since she was a free woman and chose him, being constrained by law. Shortly after, he took her back and consecrated her as priestess to Diana of Ecbatana, called Anaitis, so she would spend her remaining days in strict chastity. Plutarch says he intended a moderate revenge checkered with jest and earnest.
Chapter 115
How did Artaxerxes survive the plot of Darius and Teribazus?
An informer revealed the plan to kill him in his bedchamber at night. He broke down the wall behind his bed, fitted a hidden door covered with tapestry, and waited in bed until he recognized each assailant's face. Then he threw up the hanging, retreated into the inner chamber, bolted the door, and raised a cry. Teribazus was killed; Darius was condemned to death.
Chapter 115
Section 1164 cards
Why did Galba order the execution of Nymphidius's confederates, and how was this received?
After Nymphidius was killed by soldiers in the camp, Galba commanded that all his confederates who had not already killed themselves be dispatched, including Cingonius and Mithridates. Plutarch reports this was regarded as arbitrary and illegal, and though it might be just, it was by no means popular to take off men of rank without a hearing.
Chapter 116
How did Galba respond to the soldiers' expectation of a donative?
The soldiers expected at least as much as Nero had given. When Galba heard they complained, he declared greatly, like a general, that he was used to enlist and not to buy his soldiers. Hearing this, they conceived an implacable hatred against him, feeling he set an ill precedent for his successors.
Chapter 116
Why did Galba adopt a successor, and who did Vinius promote?
Alarmed by mutinies and fearing he might be despised for old age and want of issue, Galba determined to adopt a young man of distinction. Vinius introduced Otho, but only on promise that Otho would marry his daughter if made successor. Galba, preferring public good, did not choose Otho, knowing his extravagance and debt of five thousand myriads.
Chapter 116
How did Otho win popularity with the soldiers before Galba's decision?
Otho assisted petitioners without asking reward, appeared courteous and easy of access, especially to military men, obtaining commands for many. When he entertained Galba, he gave the cohort on duty a piece of gold for every man beyond their pay, on pretense of respect to the emperor, while really undermining him and stealing away his popularity with the soldiers.
Chapter 116
Section 1174 cards
What omens were reported around the time Vespasian's party rose?
Plutarch reports a Victory statue in the capitol whose chariot reins dropped from her hands, and Caius Caesar's statue on the island of Tiber turning from west to east without earthquake or wind, said to occur when Vespasian's party first openly advanced. He also notes the Tiber flooded to an unprecedented height, submerging much of the city and the corn market, causing a dearth for several days.
Chapter 117
Why did Otho's men at Placentia fight so fiercely after Vitellius's taunts?
Vitellius's troops mocked Otho's men as players, dancers, and idle spectators of the games, novices in war who had only triumphed in beheading the unarmed old man Galba. Stung by these reproaches, the soldiers knelt at Spurina's feet, begged for orders, and vowed no toil was too great. They then repulsed the besiegers with great slaughter, saving one of Italy's most flourishing cities.
Chapter 117
What advice did Paulinus and Celsus give Otho before Bedriacum?
Paulinus argued the enemy's whole force was already present with no reserve, while Otho could await reinforcements from Moesia and Pannonia not inferior in number. Deferring battle cost them nothing since they were well supplied, whereas the enemy in hostile country would soon be straitened. Celsus agreed, and the absent Gallus advised by letter to wait for the Moesian legions. Otho did not follow this advice.
Chapter 117
Why did Otho's army fight at Bedriacum despite his generals' caution?
Plutarch says the most apparent reason was that the praetorian guards disliked military discipline and longed for their amusements and unwarlike life among Rome's shows; they would not be commanded and were eager for battle. Otho himself, the author argues, lacked fortitude against uncertainty and, out of effeminacy and impatience, left everything to fortune. Secundus the rhetorician, his secretary, gave this account.
Chapter 117
Source and licence
Text used: Project Gutenberg eBook #674 (Public domain in the United States). Generated from the full text; cards paraphrase the source.
Version: Public domain edition. Retrieved 2026-10-25. Cards reviewed 2026-10-25.
These cards paraphrase the text for study. They are not a substitute for reading the book, and they do not reproduce long passages.
Turn your own notes into cards
Upload a PDF, Word, or text file and get question-and-answer cards for closed-notes practice. Five cards are free, no signup.