Rating: 
Summary: WHY THE REPUBLIC FELL?
Review: I feel a bit strange writting a review about any classic. Its a bit like writing a review of the Koran or the Bible. There is a reason why all these books are classics, and the reason is that they give some glimpse at the immutable nature of mankind. Plutarch describes a nation wracked by personal divisions during the Roman Civil War with chapters on some of the major participants in this conflict: a true fall from grace for both the people of Rome and the institution of republicanism. There is a lot here that is exciting, such as the war against the Parthians, Jugurthia and the personal rivalries between Ceasar and Pompey. The writing moves from what I would classify as mildly interesting, usually at the beginning of each chapter as he relates the youth, familiar, and power influences on the personal development of each live, to ripping tales of combat, honour lost and found, and principled peoples meeting usually, bloody fates. Lives of particular note are Pompey and Cicero in this book, but my personal favourite was Crassus, his fight against the slave revolt of Spartacus and his eventual annihilation with his entire army against the Parthians. The other real character that keeps popping up in each chapter is Cato, a political idealist who commited suicide for his repulican ideals when there was every indication that Ceasar respected him and would have spared his life despite Cato's defection to Pompey. There is lots here that is of course raw speculation: I think that it is unlikely that Ceasar really had dictatorship on his mind since his early youth, but Plutarch would have us believe that it was almost forordained that Ceasar wanted personal control of the State. Plutarch is much more interesting to read than Ceasar or Livy. So if you are looking for a good place to enter the classics, this is one good read.
Rating: 
Summary: This book rules.
Review: I loved Plutarch's detailed accounts of the lives of these great Romans. I especially liked his life of Julius Caesar although I don't agree with him that Caesar, from the beginning, sought to overthrow the Republic. It might not be politically correct to admire Caesar but I do. He was a man of careful thought and decisive action. He was a leader of the first order. The other biographies are equally fascinating.
Rating:
Summary: This book rules.
Review: Like the bloke below, I read this book for school, but for the purposes of ancint history. Yes, indeed, Marcus Tullius Cicero is the most outstanding life Plutarch saw fit to write of. For an aspiring lawyer like myself, Cicero embodies desireable traits and wit (although I wouldn't repeat his joke about the Sphinx being in one witness' house!). Penguin's edition features: Marius, the dictator Sulla, Pompey, Crassus, and, of course, Caesar. These men are all fascinating by themselves, but the men of the triumverate stand head and shoulders above the rest. The first such "triarch" was Pompey. The contemporary reader will find some amusement and eyebrow raising pleasure at the lively sex lives of these two men. Pompey bit his lovers, while Crassus lived every single man's dream: in a cave with two slave girls. What Plutarch sets out to accomplish is to display these men as models--how the lust for ultimate and absolute power was the undoing of each man. And I'm not being ironic; all these men were destroyed by the enemies they created, the wars they spawned, or pride they chained themselves to.
Rating:
Summary: More of Cicero!
Review: Like the bloke below, I read this book for school, but for the purposes of ancint history. Yes, indeed, Marcus Tullius Cicero is the most outstanding life Plutarch saw fit to write of. For an aspiring lawyer like myself, Cicero embodies desireable traits and wit (although I wouldn't repeat his joke about the Sphinx being in one witness' house!). Penguin's edition features: Marius, the dictator Sulla, Pompey, Crassus, and, of course, Caesar. These men are all fascinating by themselves, but the men of the triumverate stand head and shoulders above the rest. The first such "triarch" was Pompey. The contemporary reader will find some amusement and eyebrow raising pleasure at the lively sex lives of these two men. Pompey bit his lovers, while Crassus lived every single man's dream: in a cave with two slave girls. What Plutarch sets out to accomplish is to display these men as models--how the lust for ultimate and absolute power was the undoing of each man. And I'm not being ironic; all these men were destroyed by the enemies they created, the wars they spawned, or pride they chained themselves to.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for the closet Romaphile
Review: Plutarch is not a historian often seen in the diluted cirriculum of the modern American High School, but I would argue that his love of the dramatic, moving battle scenes,and relatively easy-to-comprehend style would do much do endear the modern student to ancient Rome. There are (justifiable) arguments, of course, that Plutarch too often put personal bias and a love of "storytelling" above historical fact. While this may be true, is what comes to us of Rome by way of the Pop Culture filter any better? The context in which most people think of Rome is either that of Biblical or Russell Crowe. Can Plutarch's approximations be any worse? Though this edition appears to have been hastily compiled at some points (very little reference/glossary material to speak of), I still reccomend this book to: 1) Casual readers who wish to know more about an exciting period of history that has affected everything from our calendar to our way of government, and 2) History/Humanities teachers tired of purely analytical views of Rome. Let your students know that Rome had IT'S editorialists, too.
Rating: 
Summary: Good history, not-so-great writing...
Review: Plutarch provides a superb history concerning the decline and collapse of the Roman Republic, following the lives of Sulla, Marius, Crassus, Pompey, Caesar and Cicero. The first five were very powerful soldiers aspiring to the position of dictator, and the final was perhaps the greatest Latin orator and a lawyer of unparalleled skill. The history is very thorough and definitely worth reading.
However, Plutarch's writing leaves much to be desired. It is slow and dull for the most part, and he provides few insights into what he is writing...he only recounts facts and does not even bother trying to analyze the situation. This can be good, but it makes for dull reading and you finish the book feeling as if you had just read a textbook.
Recommended for people very interested in this period, or amateur historians, but not for the lay reader.
Rating:
Summary: Good history, not-so-great writing...
Review: Plutarch provides a superb history concerning the decline and collapse of the Roman Republic, following the lives of Sulla, Marius, Crassus, Pompey, Caesar and Cicero. The first five were very powerful soldiers aspiring to the position of dictator, and the final was perhaps the greatest Latin orator and a lawyer of unparalleled skill. The history is very thorough and definitely worth reading.
However, Plutarch's writing leaves much to be desired. It is slow and dull for the most part, and he provides few insights into what he is writing...he only recounts facts and does not even bother trying to analyze the situation. This can be good, but it makes for dull reading and you finish the book feeling as if you had just read a textbook.
Recommended for people very interested in this period, or amateur historians, but not for the lay reader.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but has Lazy Editing Syndrome
Review: Plutarch was a Greek historian who wrote in the 2nd Century AD. This work covers the lives of six key individuals in the twilight of the old Roman Republic from 105-43 BC. Marius and Sulla were soldier-dictators who first sought to gain one-man rule. They were followed by Crassus, Pompey and Caesar. These three lives are the best in the book. The final life is Cicero, the lawyer. There is good military detail on Marius' defeat of the Cimbri, Crassus' defeat at Carrhae and Caesar's triumph at Pharsalus. The Mithraditic Wars in Asia minor are important but difficult to follow due to the lack of any maps. There are no great lessons here, other than the eternal struggle for power. The editor was lazy in this book and should have provided a glossary of key individuals, since there are too many individuals with similar names. There are also no maps - a major flaw.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but has Lazy Editing Syndrome
Review: Plutarch was a Greek historian who wrote in the 2nd Century AD. This work covers the lives of six key individuals in the twilight of the old Roman Republic from 105-43 BC. Marius and Sulla were soldier-dictators who first sought to gain one-man rule. They were followed by Crassus, Pompey and Caesar. These three lives are the best in the book. The final life is Cicero, the lawyer. There is good military detail on Marius' defeat of the Cimbri, Crassus' defeat at Carrhae and Caesar's triumph at Pharsalus. The Mithraditic Wars in Asia minor are important but difficult to follow due to the lack of any maps. There are no great lessons here, other than the eternal struggle for power. The editor was lazy in this book and should have provided a glossary of key individuals, since there are too many individuals with similar names. There are also no maps - a major flaw.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome: Great Writing and Fascinating History
Review: Rex Warner's translation of six fascinating Roman personalities is amazingly clear and vibrant. The biographies of Marius and Sulla at the beginning are a little depressing, but the Life of Crassus begins an amazing collection of biographical sketches that impresses you on every page. I first read Rex Warner for a high school English class (we read Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, so we read Plutarch's biography as a supplement) and I immediately noticed his crisp 1950's-1960's dignified style. I've also heard that Warner was quite a talented novelist and poet. It seems that both Plutarch and Warner promoted concise writing on a small-scale that allowed them many options while writing. Plutarch and Warner were doing things that many were doing at the same time (there were so many Roman historians, there are so many translators in America), but it is no wonder why their collaborative material was chosen as THE ONE VOICE. The biography of the Roman orator Cicero (the Roman version of Clarence Darrow) is probably my favorite. But Julius Caesar's is certainly the most painstaking, as Plutarch really goes all-out to capture the good points and bad points of the greatest Roman general of them all. His description of Caesar's decisive victory in Gaul is particulary harrowing and insightful.
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