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  • Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans

  • By: Plutarch
  • Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
  • Length: 83 hrs and 11 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (37 ratings)
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Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans

By: Plutarch
Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
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Summary

Plutarch (c. AD 46-AD 120) was born to a prominent family in the small Greek town of Chaeronea, about 20 miles east of Delphi in the region known as Boeotia. His best known work is Parallel Lives, a series of biographies of famous Greeks and Romans, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues and vices. The surviving Lives contain 23 pairs, each with one Greek life and one Roman life as well as four unpaired single lives. Currently only 19 of the parallel lives end with comparisons while possibly all of them did at one time.

Plutarch was not concerned with history so much as the influence of character, good or bad, on the lives and destinies of men. Whereas sometimes he barely touched on epoch-making events, he devoted much space to charming anecdotes and incidental triviality, reasoning that this often revealed far more about his subjects than even their most famous accomplishments. In many ways he must be counted among the earliest moral philosophers.

This volume follows the translation of Arthur Hugh Clough and John Dryden. Please see the accompanying PDF file for duration and starting times of all biographies.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

Public Domain (P)2015 Audio Connoisseur
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans

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must read for history buffs

charlton has some very weird pronunciations, but otherwise excellent. brings historical characters very much to life

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6 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars

Fairly difficult text dreadful performance

Charlton Griffin has an appalling reading style, this already rather dense and abstruse text is made more difficult to listen to by his delivery and idiosyncratic pronunciation which reminds me of the performance I have of the Sherlock Holmes stories which is only bearable because the subject matter is simpler, more exciting and familiar.

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4 people found this helpful

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Greco Roman Ancient History

This is essentially an almost complete degree in classicism up to 0 CE. What is most fascinating is the analysis. This was a brilliant and original idea of its time - to pair similar Greek and Roman characters from history, detail their respective lives and then compare the two in thr context of their times. Plutarch being Roman obviously shows a pro Roman bias.

Many of the Roman lives we rarely hear of which makes this particularly good for Roman history pre imperial times. Similarly there are many Greek lives that have been ignored in history such as despots Sicily and Greeks after Alexander. Hence it is brilliantly educational!

The language is somewhat old fashioned and can take a little extra concentration but this probably reflects the Roman writing of the time.

Great book though!

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Mr Griffin excels, again!

It would be no exaggeration to say that, without Charlton Griffin's wise and warm recitals, I would leave Audible in a trice. These mammoth recordings of our greatest (and lesser-known) masterpieces have been a true education; thank you, Mr Griffin!

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Great value for money

Fantastic audiobook for those who have an interest in ancient history but not the time to sit and read it.

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Brilliant!

excellent book and excellently narrated. the time flew by, couldn't believe it was finished

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