Free Download Theater and Politics in Plutarch's Parallel Lives (Brill's Plutarch Studies) by Raphaëla Dubreuil
English | November 9, 2023 | ISBN: 9004681736 | True PDF | 301 pages | 63.3 MB
The first major work to uncover Plutarch's deliberate and sophisticated use of theatrical imagery in the Parallel Lives as a means to explore the mechanisms and ethics of politics and civic life across Greco-Roman history.

An orator turns to an actor for advice, citizens expect assemblies to unfold like dramas, and a theater-goer cries at a play thinking of his fallen enemy: no Life escapes the mention of theatrical imagery in Plutarch's paralleled biographies. And yet this is the first book not only to examine Plutarch's consistent and coherent use of this imagery but also to argue that it is systematically employed to describe, explore, and evaluate politics in action. The theater becomes Plutarch's invitation for us to question and uncover key moments of Athenian, Spartan, and Roman history as it unfolds.