Plutarch is a fascinating author as a Greek writer living under Roman rule in the first and second centuries AD. He was a Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, and a priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. Plutarch was very prolific, with over 225 works attributed to him of which just over a 100 still survive. Among the extant works are 50 Lives and 78 compositions collected under the title Moralia.  

His biographical Lives, which we still read as set texts at A-level today, such as this summer’s Life of Anthony and last summer’s Life of Alcibiades, are an important exploration of character through action rather than historical narratives on past events. In his Life of Alexander, he writes: 

"For it is not Histories we are writing, but Lives. Nor is it always the most famous actions which reveal a man’s good or bad qualities: a clearer insight into a man’s character is often given by a small matter, a word or a jest, than by engagements where thousands die, or by the greatest of pitched battles, or by the sieges of cities"

To Plutarch, History was an essential guide to the pursuit of virtue: ‘using history like a mirror,’ he writes, ‘and somehow improving and moulding my own life in imitation of their virtues’ (Life of Aemilius Paulus 1.1). 

Aristophanes was a comic playwright who lived between 460-380BC. Although little is known about him, he enjoyed widespread success in antiquity. His comedies, not lacking in witty satire towards specific individuals or categories, were also delightful for their puns and irreverent language. Among his most influential texts are ‘The Clouds’ (a critique of Socrates), ‘The Wasps’ (against the legal system in Athens) and ‘Lysistrata’ (on a sex strike undertaken by Greek women to convince their husbands to cease war).  

Due to the difficulty of his Greek, his plays were soon translated into Latin, first in 1538, six years after the publication of this Greek edition which we have. Aristophanes’ comedies are still widely read and performed today; the comedic portrayal of politicians still resonates, and many have successfully used Aristophanes’ plays to comment on the nature of politics today (see, for example, a production of the Lysistrata in 2016 in Cambridge for the triennial Cambridge Greek Play.) Our students also read Aristophanes’ ‘Frogs’ as part of their Classical Civilisation AS level. 

Martial was a Roman poet of the 1st Century AD. His primary work is a series of Epigrams, short poems usually linked to a physical object. His work has had such a lasting influence that he is seen as the creator of this genre of poetry! They are the work of a writer who is curious about the world he lives in and a deep thinker. His poems bring ancient Rome to life in a way few others do and offer us a glimpse into the real lives of “normal” people in the ancient world. The themes and descriptions of the lively city he lives in are familiar to many of us and still ring true today.