Plutarch's Cities

Plutarch's Cities is the first comprehensive attempt to assess the significance of the polis in Plutarch's works from several perspectives, namely the polis as a physical entity, a lived experience, and a source of inspiration, the polis as a historical and sociopolitical unit, the polis as a theoretical construct and paradigm to think with. The book's multifocal and multi-perspectival examination of Plutarch's cities - past and present, real and ideal-yields some remarkable corrections of his conventional image. Plutarch was neither an antiquarian nor a philosopher of the desk. He was not oblivious to his surroundings but had a keen interest in painting, sculpture, monuments, and inscriptions, about which he acquired impressive knowledge in order to help him understand and reconstruct the past. Cult and ritual proved equally fertile for Plutarch's visual imagination. Whereas historiography was the backbone of his reconstruction of the past and evaluation of the present, material culture, cult, and ritual were also sources of inspiration to enliven past and present alike. Plato's descriptions of Athenian houses and the Attic landscape were also a source of inspiration, but Plutarch clearly did his own research, based on autopsy and on oral and written sources. Plutarch, Plato's disciple and Apollo's priest, was on balance a pragmatist. He did not resist the temptation to contemplate the ideal city, but he wrote much more about real cities, as he experienced or imagined them. Cover 1 Plutarch’s Cities 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Preface 8 Contents 12 List of Abbreviations 14 Plutarch, Lives 16 Plutarch, Lives—Comparisons 17 Plutarch, Moralia 17 List of Contributors 20 Introduction 22 Part I: Contemporary Cities: Ttravel, Sojourn, Autopsy, and Inspiration 38 1: Plutarch’s Chaeronea 40 The Impact of Plutarch’s Fame on Posterity 40 Plutarch’s Involvement in the Affairs of Chaeronea 42 The Long History of Chaeronea 43 Chaeronea’s Mythical Past 43 The Persian Wars 44 The Later Fifth Century and the Peloponnesian War 45 The Early Fourth Century 46 The Middle Decades of the Fourth Century 47 Third Century BCE 49 Sulla’s Battles of Chaeronea and Orchomenus 49 After Sulla 52 Rome’s Civil Wars 53 The Religious and Cultural Life of Chaeronea 54 Local Cults 54 Cultural Life in Chaeronea 54 Public Entertainment 61 Conclusions 62 Appendix 63 2: Plutarch and Delphi 68 Plutarch’s Roles at Delphi 68 The Presence of History 72 The Divine Enigmas of Delphi 75 The Influence of Delphi on Plutarch 76 3: Plutarch and the City of Rome in Plutarch’s Own Times 80 Comparing Athens and Rome 81 Plutarch as an Autoptic Researcher of Documents for Roman History 84 The Topography of Ancient Rome 88 Plutarch’s Everyday Life in Rome (and a Conclusion) 90 Appendix 92 4: City and Sanctuary in Plutarch 94 5: Athenian Monumental Architecture, Iconography, and Topography in Plutarch’s De Gloria Atheniensium 102 Euphranor’s Wall Painting of the Battle of Mantinea in the Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios 103 The Wall Painting of the Battle of Marathon in the Stoa Poikile 105 Reminiscing about the Other Great Boeotian, Whom the Athenians Honoured, in the Sanctuary of Ares 108 Plutarch in Athens 116 Part II: Cities of the Past: History, Politics, and Society 124 6: Stereotyping Sparta, Stereotyping Athens: Herodotus, Thucydides, and Plutarch 126 Thucydides 126 Herodotus 129 Plutarch 133 7: ἄγειν πομπάς: Ritual Politics and Space Control in Plutarch’s Alcibiades and Other Athenian Lives 143 Introduction 143 Athens 145 Athenian Lives and Processional Action 148 Failure or Success? 154 Concluding Remarks 159 8: Alcibiades and the City 162 Stories of Alcibiades 162 Alcibiades and Anytus (4.5–6) 165 Alcibiades and a Metic Lover (5.1–5) 169 ‘The lawlessness of his physical behaviour’ (6.1–5) 172 Three Anecdotes (7.1–3) 173 Alcibiades and Hipponicus (8.1–4) 178 Conclusion 183 9: Athenian Civic Identities in Plutarch’s Portrayals of Phocion and Demetrius of Phalerum: From the polites to the kosmopolites 187 Preliminary Remarks: The Polis and the Making of the Polites 187 Plutarch’s Portrayal of Phocion: Being a Polites in Adverse Circumstances 191 Plutarch’s Portrayal of Demetrius of Phalerum: A Philosophos in Politics 197 Concluding Remarks: From the Polites to the Kosmopolites 202 10: Plutarch and Thebes 204 The Persian Wars 206 The Late-Fifth Century 209 The Liberation of the Cadmea 213 The Theban Hegemony 216 Thebes and Macedon 222 11: Plutarch’s Northern Greek Cities 224 Thrace and Macedonia 227 Between the Hebros and the Nestos Rivers: Byzantium, Perinthos, Samothrace 227 Between the Nestos and the Strymon Rivers: Amphipolis and Galepsos 227 Between the Strymon and the Axios Rivers: Cassandreia, Torone, and Stageira 228 Between the Axios and the Haliacmon Rivers: The Old Macedonian Kingdom 228 Dion, Pydna, Methone, Beroia, Mieza, Edessa, and Pella 228 Thessaly 233 Demetrias, Crannon, Gomphi-Philippopolis, Pharsalus 233 Western and Central Greece 234 Corcyra, Elateia (Phocis), Herakleia, Ambracia (Acarnania) 234 Illyria and Epiros 235 Epidamnos, Apollonia, Buthroton, and Passaron 235 12: Plutarch’s Troy: Three Approaches 240 The Site of Troy 240 Visitors to Troy 243 Picturing Troy 248 Part III: Cities to Think With 254 13: The City and the Self in Plutarch 256 The Polis Between Ethical Calibration and Personification 256 On the Shoulders of Plato 261 Guarding the Inner Space 266 Political History Through the Lens of City/Soul Analogy 271 Conclusion 273 14: The City and the Ship: Reception and the Use of a Metaphor in Plutarch’s Parallel Lives 274 The Uses and Sources of a Metaphor in Plutarch 274 The Physical City as a Ship. Parts of the Ship in the City 278 Nature of the Political Ship: Pilots and Storms 283 Appendix 287 15: The Place of the Polis in Plutarch’s Political Thinking 290 Some Questions on a Common View 290 A Few Core Ideas of Plutarch’s Political Thinking 292 Ideal versus Real Polis 294 Kings in the Polis? 296 Possible Objections 298 Conclusion 301 16: Plutarch’s Civitas Dei 302 Gods as (Mere) Traditional Cult Objects in the City 303 Divine Origin and Guidance of the City: Sparta and Rome 305 Divine Justice in the City 308 17: Plutarch on Superstition, Atheism, and the City 314 Part IV: Afterword 332 18: Plutarch’s Cities: Where To? 334 Autopsy, Emotions, and Composition 334 Ritual and Politics 336 Plutarch and His Sources 337 Civic Art 339 Making Cities with Words: Overt and Covert Perspectives 340 Bibliography 344 Index Locorum 378 Index of Names and Subjects 390 "This volume is the first comprehensive attempt to assess the significance of the polis in Plutarch's works from several perspectives, namely the polis as a physical entity, a lived experience and a source of inspiration, the polis as a historical and sociopolitical unit, the polis as a theoretical construct and paradigm to think with. The book's multifocal and multi-perspectival examination of Plutarch's cities - past and present, real and ideal-yields some remarkable corrections of his conventional image. Plutarch was neither an antiquarian nor a philosopher of the desk. He was not oblivious to his surroundings but had a keen interest in painting, sculpture, monuments and inscriptions, about which he acquired impressive knowledge in order to help him understand and reconstruct the past. Cult and ritual proved equally fertile for Plutarch's visual imagination. Whereas historiography was the backbone of his reconstruction of the past and evaluation of the present, material culture, cult, and ritual were also sources of inspiration to enliven past and present alike. Plato's descriptions of Athenian houses and the Attic landscape were also a source of inspiration, but Plutarch clearly did his own research, based on autopsy and on oral and written sources. Plutarch, Plato's disciple and Apollo's priest, was on balance a pragmatist. He did not resist the temptation to contemplate the ideal city, but he wrote much more about real cities, as he experienced or imagined them"-- Provided by publisher