Mark Antony
Many of the parallel lives of which Plutarch writes deliver prefabricated metaphors in the form of an allusion, reference or direct quote from another writer. What separates the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, is knowing the right time and the right place to build others. Or, in some cases, to deconstruct what has come before:
“Therefore Cicero, in his `Philippics,’ wrote that as Helen was the cause of the Trojan war, so Antony was the cause of the civil war.
But this was manifestly false.”
Alexander and Diogenes
Alexander the Great. Just the name alone puts forward information about his place in history. But, as they say, the grass is always greener somewhere else. Even for those who are truly deserving of being called “The Great.” Here’s what Alexander had to say about himself. Keep in mind that this is a metaphorical image which suggest the very high esteem in which Alexander held Diogenes. One might even call it a metaphor for the desire to be something one knows deep inside they can never be:
“If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.”
Quoting Cato
In directly attributing a quote to Cato, Plutarch makes his own subtle commentary on the nature of monarchs by notably not coming down in disagreement with him:
“by nature this same animal of a king, is a kind of maneater”
Rome After the Rubicon
Many metaphors are associated with Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon…including the phrase “crossing the Rubicon.” Then there is also the not so famous origin of the much more famous saying, “The die is cast.” (Plutarch wrote “Let the die be cast.”
Less famous—probably because it is does work as a publicity for Caesar—is Plutarch’s description of Rome in the wake of that famous decision to cross the river:
“The city of Rome was overrun as it were with a deluge, by the conflux of people flying in from all the neighboring places.”
Demosthenes, Cicero and Ion
Plutarch asserts that he has no intention of analyzing the parallel lives of Demosthenes and Cicero by directly comparing their orations for the sake of determining which was superior and which inferior. Instead, he draws upon the wisdom of Ion with a quote indicating that sometimes there is absolutely no basis for making comparisons because:
“We are but like a fish upon dry land”
