Plutarch’s Greeks & Romans Podcast

Ancient Greek & Roman History

Welcome to Plutarch’s Greek and Romans, a podcast taking you on a tour through ancient Greek and Roman history, seen through the lives of the most famous and influential people who lived it, with the ancient historian and biographer Plutarch as our guide and companion.

Who was Plutarch

Plutarch (AD 46 – AD 119) was a Greek-Roman Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his Parallel Lives, a series of biographies of illustrious Greeks and Romans, and Moralia, a collection of essays and speeches. Upon becoming a Roman citizen, he was named Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus.

Plutarch’s best-known work is the Parallel Lives and the basis of the podcast, a series of biographies of illustrious Greeks and Romans, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues and vices, thus it being more of an insight into human nature than a historical account. The surviving Lives contain 23 pairs, each with one Greek life and one Roman life, as well as four unpaired single lives.