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Valerius Publius, aka Publicola, topples the tyrant Tarquin with Brutus and founds the Republic on better justice than the Roman kings had exercised. Like his parallel Solon, his obsession with justice makes him seek the happiness of his own people all the way to his death. Remembering Solon's examples of happiness, does Publicola die a happy man?

Parallel - Solon

Important People

• Tarquinius Superbus - The seventh, and last, king of Rome. Thrown out because of his refusal to punish his nephew who had raped a Roman noblewoman named Lucretia. This is important to the backstory and Plutarch only briefly summarizes it. 
• Lucius Junius Brutus - The citizen who stood up to Tarquinius and drove him into exile. Also elected first consul. 
• Mucius Scaevola - Roman soldier famous for breaking into the enemy camp, killing the wrong man, and then sticking his hand in fire to prove Roman toughness. 
• Lars Porsena - described by Plutarch as "the most powerful king in Italy" he attacks Rome but later becomes a strong ally. Read on to find out how. 
• Cloelia and Valeria - Two Roman maidens given to the enemy in a hostage exchange. 
• Horatius Cocles - A one-eyed Roman veteran who single-handedly defends the last bridge into the city of Rome while his two friends destroy the bridge behind him. While taking several more wounds, he leaps into the river in full armor and swims across to safety and eternal glory. 
• Appius Claudius - A Sabine who breaks off from the Sabines out of respect for the Romans and, along with 5000 other families, is inducted into the citizen rolls.

Important Places

• Temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline
• Clusium - Lars Porsena's town, far north up a tributary of the Tiber (called the Clanis)
• Anio River - The land given to the defecting Sabines are along this tributary of the Tiber
• Fidenae - Another rival polis 

C. 1 - Lineage and Establishment of the Republic

C. 2 - Tarquin trying to infiltrate

C. 3 - The Plot against Brutus

C. 4 - Vindicius discovers the plots

C. 5 - Publicola brings the plot to public attention

C. 6 - Brutus brings justice to conspirators

C. 7 - Collatinus falls; Valerius (Publicola) rises

C. 8 - Ridding the Remains of the Tarquins from Rome

C. 9 - The Romans Win By One

C. 10 - Publicola Earns his Nickname

C. 11 - Consular Elections and Reform Laws

C. 12 - Tyranny and the Treasury

C. 13 - 15 - Jupiter Capitoline: The Chariot on Top

C. 16 - Porsena v. Publicola

C. 17 - Porsena v. Mucius Scaevola

C. 18 - Porsena: From Adversary to Ally

C. 19 - Hostages Escape, sent back, ambushed! 

C. 20 - Triumphant Brother, with Publicola's help

C. 21 - Fourth Consulship; Sabine Enemies (Appius Claudius)

C. 22 - Sabines outwitted in a three-front counter-attack

C. 23 - Dies in Triumph

Helpful External Links

• Publicola's Stories in Art
• Free Online English Translation
• Anne White's Study Guide on Ambleside Online
• Horatius at the Bridge by Thomas Babbington Macaulay - An almost 600-line poem immortalizing Horatius's bravery in English verse! (a favorite poem of Winston Churchill's)

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Plutarch, Life of Numa 22

Parallel - Lycurgus

Important People

• Pythagoras - the Greek philosopher and mystic mathematician who lived on the southern Italian peninsula and started a school of philosophy obsessed with simple living, observation of the created universe, piety to the gods, and justice to all men. 
• Egeria - the second (and supernatural) wife of Numa, a nymph who taught him much about the simple life and seeking justice
• Romulus – First king of the Romans, rules before Numa
• Tullus Hostilius – Third king of the Romans, warlike, he lives up to his name (Hostilius = hostile)

Important Places

• Rome
  • Capitoline Hill
  • Temple of Vesta - hearth of Rome; secret-keepers
  • Temple of Janus - doors closed in times of peace

Outline

1. Records unclear, hard to trace Numa’s genealogy
2. Romulus taken away
3. People grow tired of Senators ruling seriatim, want a king
4. Numa moves to the country
5. @ 40 years old, ambassadors come to offer him kingship
6. His father convinces him
7. Numa accepts
8. Religion as a tool to tame the spirit (Pythagorean parallels)
9. Pontifices
10. More on the Vestal Virgins
11. Temple of Vesta
12. Funerals and Burial
13. Salii - Plague and Falling Shields
14. Rest and Quiet as Essential for Worship
15. Romans grow superstitious under Numa
16. Fides and Terminus - Rome's Trust and Limits
17. Dividing the people by trade/craft
18. The Calendar Revised
19. More months!
    • January – Janus (two-faces, brought man from beast to social animal) - transition
    • February – februa (and Lupercalia) – rituals of purification (see Life of Romulus)
    • March - Mars
    • April – from Aphrodite (or aperīre – to open)
    • May – Maïa, mother of Mercury
    • June – Juno
      1. Maiores from May and juniors from June?
    • July – Quintilis – Fifth (re-named under Augustus's reign after Julius Caesar)
    • August – Sextilis – Sixth (re-named after Augustus's death after Augustus)
    • September – Seventh
    • October – Eighth
    • November – Ninth
    • December – Tenth
20. Janus’s temple - Proof that Numa is the philosopher-king
21. Numa’s wives and children
    • Numa dies of old age
22. Numa’s funeral
    • Allies and friends pour into the city
    • The whole city mourns
      1. Senators carry the litter
      2. Priests following in procession
      3. All the people, wailing and mourning
    • The kings after Numa (none of whom get their own biography)
      • Last one dies in exile
      • Three of the other four were assassinated
      • Tullus Hostilius, who reigned right after Numa, was his opposite, loving war and “mocking most of the fine things Numa had done”
        • Struck down by a bolt of lightning (cf. Lycurgus’s tomb hit by lightning)

Helpful External Links

Numa in Paint

English Translation of Numa Online

Pythagoras Podcast in the History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

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• The Agōgē (ἀγωγή) [16-19]
• Those Laconic Spartans [19-21]
• Military  Maneuvers [22-24]
• Education never stops [24-25
  • Blessing of scholē
  • Freedom and restraint

Political Setup

• How someone elected to Gerousia [26]
  • Over 60
  • Group of candidates selected
  • Assembly called, and votes decided by length of shout and volume of shout
• Burying the dead [27]
• NO injustice or inequality in these laws [28]
  • Those who criticize (cough cough: ARISTOTLE + PLATO) for lack of Justice
  • Krypteia! And treatment of Helots
• Lycurgus leaves: Spartans are living the laws, established in their hearts and minds [29]
  • Makes Spartans promise never to deviate
  • Goes to Delphi, sacrifices to Apollo, starves himself to death
  • Leaves the Spartans to 500 years of supremacy and prosperity

The End of Perfection: Why Did Sparta fail?

• Until LYSANDER [30]
  • Money flowed in and corrupted the morals
  • Before then, Sparta relied on for generals
    • By other Greeks
    • By Sicilians
    • By Egyptians
    • By satraps and kings in Asia
• Lycurgus created a state not suited to rule others [31]
  • A state “in love with wisdom”
  • “free, self-reliant, self-regulated” citizens
  • Many philosophers agreed with him, but he was the only one who executed on his great ideas, leaving behind a polis rather than just writings.

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Lycurgus was once asked why Sparta had no defensive wall around its perimeter. He responded, "A city is well-fortified with a wall of men instead of brick."

Parallel - Numa

Important Places

• Sparta  
• Crete 
• Asia Minor 
• Egypt 

Important People

• Homer
• Alcander
• Lysander

Outline

• Uncertain origins: second son of King of Sparta
  • Expected to become king when father and brother dead
  • Chemical Abortion or Infanticide?
  • Charilaus born - joy of the people
  • 8-month reign as regent incites envy

Lycurgus Learns through Travel

• Travels
  • Crete
    • Poetry makes good laws palatable
    • Private hostilities calmed
  • Asia Minor
    • Crete was healthy “simple and severe”
    • Asia diseased “extravagant and permissive”
    • Lycurgus discovers the poems of Homer! 
      • makes Homer famous all over mainland Greece
      • Homer's poetry harmonizes well with the Spartan ideals of military courage as the highest virtue
• Return Home
  • Lycurgus resolves to rewrite the entire Spartan system of government
    • Not a written constitution; this will become particularly clear later on
  • Apollo gives his blessing calling Lycurgus “more god than man”
    • Apollo also prophesies that his reforms will be “by far the strongest and best of all constitutions”
  • He and 30 friends take over the marketplace

Legals changes 1, 2, 3

• ONE: Gerousia (Senate)
  • γέρων (gerōn) – old man – Council of Elders --> γερουσία (Gerousia)
  • senex – old man – Council of Elders --> Senate (see Life of Romulus)
  • Rhetrai [sections 6 and 13]
    • Verbal contracts with sacred force
    • The name for most utterances of the gods to men
    • Not to be ignored or trampled over lightly
    • “named in the belief that they came from the gods as oracles”
  • The GREAT RHETRA (from Apollo)
    • Mixed Constitution
      • 2 Kings
      • Gerousia
      • 5 Ephors – balance the power of the oligarchs
• TWO: Redistribution of Land
  • Purpose – “To end jealousy, vice, and luxury”
  • Homoioi – equals
  • Perikoikoi – (not mentioned in this life)
  • Helots – etym. “the seized” a particularly brutal form of slavery, even by an ancient standard [28]
  • Citizens forbidden from
    • Using coins (iron bars instead)
    • Practicing a trade
• THREE: Syssitia (Common Meals)
  • Fixed Menu – black broth the staple!
  • Wealth – blind, lifeless, and still in Sparta
  • The wealthy react poorly
  • Lycurgus loses an eye!
    • Punishment for Alcander
      • Serve Lycurgus
      • Converted to thinking L is best man and himself becomes “Sparta’s most well-mannered and wise citizens”
      • Temple to Athena Optilis
    • The COHORT (15 members)
      • Everyone contributes food
      • King Agis not allowed to dine at home
      • Children learn self-discipline here (GRK: σωφροσύνη)
        • What happens in here, stays in here
        • Take a joke, and give one!
      • Bread-basket ballot
• Three other minor rhetras
  • Don’t write these down! (Training and Ethics more important than Laws)
  • Simple Homes: All tools except ax and saw forbidden
  • Don’t fight consistently against the same enemy
•  Marriage and Childbirth [14-16]
• The Agōgē (ἀγωγή) [16-19] and the Political Setup (for next time)

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Parallel - Theseus

Origin Stories 

• Rome: What's in a name?
• From Aeneas to Alba Longa
• Romulus and Remus: Childhood
  • Left to die by a river
  • Wolf and woodpecker
• Romulus and Remus: Off to Found a City
  • Rome is for runaways! Open the gates and seize the...day?
  • Location, location, location!
  • Vultures? 6/12? First/Second?
  • Walls and Ditches – death of Remus
  • Plows the circumference: pomerium etym.

Rome's Birthday - April 21, 753 BC

Roman Customs: More Etymologies and etiologies

• Legion v. Populus
• Patricians
• Senate < senex – old man
• Patrons and Clients

Sabine Women

• Not the Sobbin' Women...
• Did Romulus need women or want war?
• R. sets up a feast (finds an altar?)
• Conses < consilium
  • On my signal…
  • How many taken?
    • 30, 527, or 683?

Origin of the Roman Triumph

• Acron v. Romulus: 1 v. 1
• R. wins and dedicates his armor to Jupiter

Plutarch's Walking Tour of Rome

• Tarpeian Rock
• Lacus Curtius
• Jupiter Stator
• Etym. Quirites?

Civic Duties

• Three Tribes
• 100 more Senators
• Privileges for Women
• Feasts, old and new
• Vestals, sacred fire (more on this in the Life of Numa)
• Lituus  and Augurs
• Laws
• Divorce
• Murder / Parricide

Romulus' End and Rome's Beginning

• Tatius, co-king, killed
• Haughty King
  • Lictors – etym.
• Numitor dies; Romulus inherits Alba
• Romulus disappears
  • Murdered?
  • Taken up into heaven?
• Romulus' advice to the Romans:
  • "Tell the Romans that if they practice self-restraint, and add to it valor, they will reach the utmost heights of human power."

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Although Theseus never actually existed, Plutarch, in documenting his life, wants to cull important lessons for Greeks and Romans. Just as Theseus wrestles with villains threatening civilization, Plutarch forces his readers to grapple with the role of virtue in politics, or, less abstractly, the role the virtuous man has to play in his polis: i.e. how to be a citizen rather than a subject. This becomes explicit at the end of Theseus's life when he ceases to be a good king and becomes a tyrant, stripping citizenship from the Athenians by returning them to subjugation under a king. 

Historical Context - Emergence from the Dark Ages

• Bronze-Age to Iron Age transition:
  • Dark Ages:
    • What were they?
  • Bronze Age civilizations:
    • Egypt
    • Hittites
    • Sumer/Akkad/Babylonians
    • Minoans and Myceneans (Aegean)
  • Middle Period:
    • As most major civilizations in decline, the smaller civilizations seem to rise and fill in the gaps:
      • Phoenicians
      • Hebrews
      • Arameans
      • Philistines
    • For the Greeks, though, they lose writing and reading and see a mass exodus from the old urban centers of Mycenean Greece.
  • Iron Age civilizations:
    • Neo-Assyrians
    • Neo-Babylonians
    • Persians
    • Greeks
    • Romans
    • Etc…

Outline

• Parentage
• Comes of age
  • Delphi
  • Theseus’s haircut
• Sword and Sandals under a rock
  • Sea = safe
  • Land = dangerous
• Theseus personally cleans up the land around the Saronic Gulf
  • @ Epidaurus (wins his club)
  • On the isthmus of Corinth
  • Crommyonian Sow
  • Wrestles near Eleusis
  • Procrustes
    • Cf. Hercules and how he killed his monsters and fiends
• Theseus receives first real hospitality at the Cephisus River, just outside of Athens
• Arrival in Athens
  • Medea!? Poison!?
  • Recognition and Inheritance
  • Revolt!
  • First battle in Athens (neighborhoods named)
• Bull of Marathon
• Theseus and the Minotaur
  • Plague and Expiation
  • The most “likely” (common?) story
  • Was Minos good/bad?
    • Why does Plutarch have to defend Minos?
  • Alternative stories
    • Vary by geographic region
  • Return: the sail!
  • Philosophical Problems: The Ship of Theseus
• Theseus unites Athens and Attica
  • Centralizes authority
  • Institutes common feasts
    • Oscophoria
    • Panathenaic Festival
  • Establishes three classes of citizen:
    • Nobles
    • Craftsmen
    • Farmers
  • Gives nobles most power over law and religion
  • Opens Athens as a “commonwealth of all nations” (cf. Romulus welcoming refugees)
• The many other adventures of Theseus
  • The Amazons
    • Source for Shakespeare’s Hippolyta and Theseus in Midsummer Night’s Dream?
    • Second battle in Athens, more neighborhoods named
  • False marriages
  • False adventures
    • Theseus did NOT participate in
      • Jason and the Argonauts
      • Meleager and the Boar (cf. Iliad Book 9; Ovid Metamorphoses Bk. 7/8)
      • Seven Against Thebes
  • His friendship with Perithous
    • Did involve him in the battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs
  • Seizure of Helen
    • Ends up in prison to the King of Molossus
    • Heracles frees him
• Theseus returns to Athens
  • Castor and Pollux
    • brothers of Helen and mythical Spartans
    • causing trouble in Athens
• Theseus curses the Athenians, giving them what they want (deserve?)
  • Flees to the island of Scyros
  • Dies there (unclear if killed or falls)

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Parallel - Demosthenes

Cicero lived and died as a political failure. In what ways, then, is his failure worth studying. In what ways did he succeed? In many ways, he and Vergil become the teachers of Western Europe all the way down to the present day. Can we declare Cicero a victor in the long-run, or should we study only his failures as a warning?

Outline

• Cicero's Early Political Rise
  • Military tribune under Sulla in Italy
  • Pro Rosciō – defends a political enemy of Sulla’s
  • Flees to Greece
    • Delphic advice
    • Fluent in Greek, studying Greek philosophy
  • Quaestor in Sicily
    • Fights corruption
    • Breadbasket of Italy (before the Romans conquered Egypt)
  • Praetor in Rome
• Consulship – height of Cicero's powers
  • Conspiracy of Catiline
    • Catiline not elected consul
    • Turns to force and fire to overthrow the Senate and the city of Rome
  • Trial before the Senate?
  • Death Penalty?
    • Caesar’s speech - clementia
    • Cato’s speech – treason deserves death, always has.
  • Vixerunt – they have lived! (i.e. they’re dead)
  • Cato declares Cicero pater patriae “father of the fatherland”
  • Cicero later reminisces about the event as “arma togae cedunt” (De Officiis I.77)
    • Arms yield to the toga (On duties I.77)
• Bona Dea Scandal and Exile
  • Publius Clodius Pulcher changes from friend to enemy
  • Cicero flees, then Clodius officially banishes him
    • Depressed in Greece (cf. Demosthenes depressed in Troezen)
• Return from Exile and First Round of Civil War
  • Returns like a hero
  • Forgiven by Caesar (cf. Demosthenes forgiven by Alexander)
  • Not included in Brutus and Cassius’ conspiracy
    • see Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar Act II, scene i
    • Brutus says “He will never follow any thing / That other men begin”
• Second Round of Civil War
  • The Philippics – consciously comparing the tyranny of Philip with the tyranny of Antony
    • Attacks Mark Antony explicitly
    • Antony retaliates with proscription (etym.)
  • Octavian not strong enough to save Cicero
    • Act IV, scene I of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”
• History written by the victors?
  • Augustus later sees his nephew reading a book of Cicero… how does he react?
  • Octavian eventually removes statues and honors of Mark Antony, but Cicero’s writing is preserved.
    • One of the best-preserved authors from pagan antiquity
      • Thanks to Tiro and Atticus
    • Influenced:
      • St. Jerome
      • St. Augustine
      • Erasmus
      • Luther
      • Locke
      • Hume
      • Jefferson
      • Adams
    • Strongest influence in bringing together Latin and Greek thought
      • Much like Plutarch
      • Wanted to "teach philosophy to speak Latin" (Tusc. 2.5)
        • philosophia nascatur Latinis quidem litteris ex his temporibus

Important People

• Sulla
• Catiline
• Clodius
• Caesar
• Pompey
• Cato the Younger

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Parallel - Aristides

Sometimes called Cato the Censor or Cato the Elder because he is the great-grandfather of the more famous Cato the Younger who resisted Julius Caesar in the first century civil wars. This Cato (234-149 BC) sets the standard for the old Roman agricultural and military virtues. He may be the best of breed, but he also seems to be the last of them. 

Outline

Roman History in a Nutshell:

Kings: 753-509 BC

The Republic: 509-31 BC 

The Emperors:

• 31 BC – AD476 (in the West)
• 31 BC – AD 1453 (in the East)

Cursus Honorum

• • Military Tribune
  • Quaestor – Accountant
  • Praetor – Judge/governor
  • Consul – commander-in-chief of the army, leader of the Senate
  • Censor – in charge of public morals

 Militiae – on military duty with Cato

• • Second Punic War 
    • military tribune
  • Sicily – quaestor
  • Sardinia – praetor
  • Hither Spain – consul
  • Greece – as legate 
    • Thermopylae 2!

Domī - At Home with Cato

• In Rome 
  • Censor
  • Anti-Greek
  • Anti-Carthaginian
  • Anti-luxury
• At home 
  • Raises his own son
  • Profit and gain
  • Leave behind more than you receive
  • Advice for the treatment of slaves sounds harsh even to Plutarch

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Parallel - Cicero

OUTLINE

• Introduces both Cicero and Demosthenes 
  • Learned Latin Late
  • A good city for research
  • Why stay in a small town?
• Rise to Political Power
• Philip
• Alexander and Exile
• Antipater and the End

Important People

• Philip – 
  • Demosthenes strongly resists Philip's incursion into Greek politics until Chaeronea (338 BC)
  • Demosthenes flees the battle of Chaeronea but is still chosen by the Athenians to give the funeral oration.
• Alexander 
  • As Alexander comes to power, Demosthenes' life is spared because of the eloquence of an enemy, Demades.
• Aeschines –  Political and personal opponent of Demosthenes of whom three speeches still survive (all having to do with Demosthenes) 
  • Aeschines v. Demosthenes several times in court
  • Aeschines finally loses and goes into exile to avoid a fine.
• Demades – Orator none of whose works survive. Considered, during his lifetime, to be better than Demosthenes. Because he doesn’t survive, we can’t compare the two. The power of preparedness. Famously quoted in the Life of Solon as saying "Draco wrote his laws not in ink, but in blood"
• Antipater – Regent in Macedon while Alexander campaigned against Persia, he fights a war against the Greeks who revolt at the news of Alexander’s death.

Important Places

• Athens
• Chaeronea (338 BC) – The battle in which Philip cements his control over all of mainland Greece, except for Sparta.
• Troezen/Aegina– The city and island where Demosthenes spends his time while in exile. He flees here again at the end of his life and likely dies right outside a temple to Poseidon outside of his beloved Athens.

See full show notes at
plutarch.life/demosthenes
grammaticus.co/podcast/demosthenes

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Aristides acts as a great introduction to the wars that made Athens great, the defensive wars against the Persian invaders, occurring between 490 and 479 BC. Plutarch admired Aristides immensely, so he serves as a great introduction to the standards Plutarch holds up for the other leaders he studies.

The outline of his life pretty much follows the important events of the Persian Wars:

• Marathon – 490 BC
• Political Height
  • eponymous archon
  • ostracism (etymology!)
• Salamis – 480 BC
• Plataea Disaster – 479 BC
• Aftermath
  • From defense to offense
  • Rise of the Delian League

I also link the important people to their places:

• Miltiades is general at Marathon
• Themistocles is the mastermind behind Salamis
• Pausanias leads at Plataea

Translation

The most modern translation available, while still being in the public domain.

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