The Plutarch Podcast Tom Cox - grammaticus

Full Show Notes - https://plutarch.life/titus-flamininus/Greek Parallel - PhilopoemenImportant PeoplePhilip V - The second-to-last Macedonian king because the Romans play fair in this generation and allow Philip to remain on the throne even after soundly defeating him in battle twice. Philip also has to give up over-lordship of Greece which allows Titus to declare them free. Antiochus III - Antiochus swoops in when he sees an opportunity and tries to market himself as a liberator for the...

Full Show NotesRoman Parallel – Titus FlamininusImportant PeopleEpaminondas – A personal hero of Philopoemen’s; he can imitate him in nearly everything except his calmness (cf. Section 3). Epaminondas sets a high water mark for Theban military and political power which Philopoemen is not able to replicate with Megalopolis.Nabis – Spartan tyrantMachanidas – Spartan tyrant who dies in an epic one-v-one against Philopoemen. Antigonus III Doson of Macedon (263-221 BC) – Second to last Macedo...

Full Show Notes for Plutarch's Life of CleomenesRoman Parallel - Tiberius GracchusImportant PeopleAratus - The same Aratus from the last life, but older and more experienced now. Between Aratus, Cleomenes, and Philopoemen, it becomes clear that the Greeks themselves are the architects of their own undoing. None of these three men cooperates with the other and this dissension makes easy target for Antigonus. Megistonoüs - Cleomenes's father-in-law and right-hand man once he takes the thro...

Important PeopleLycurgus - ancient lawgiver, whose biography Plutarch also wrote, and to whom everyone refers constantly in this life as the original set of laws they are trying to hearken back to.Leonidas - one of two kings of Sparta (along with Agis, the protagonist of this life) who first secretly and then openly resists and thwarts Agis’s reforms at every turn.Lysander - Not the Lysander who was a contemporary of Agesilaus, but a new Lysander, elected as ephor and one of the main allies f...

Pelopidas Show NotesMarcellus Show NotesHow do these two hasty generals compare? Who had the greater victories? Who had the greater flaws? What lessons are there for us over two centuries later?Support the Show.

Marcellus - Rome's Sword Against HannibalParallel - PelopidasImportant PeopleArchimedes (sections 15-17; 19)Important PlacesNola - A small settlement near Naples.Tarentum -The Greek colony that had called Pyrrhus over to help them fight the Romans about eighty years before this Second Punic War. They switch sides several times, but their location on the spur of the calf of Italy makes them strategically important for either side. Naples - Originally a Greek colony, Syracuse - An eve...