How Plutarch's Lives drew on History of the Peloponnesian War
A documented line of influence: Plutarch demonstrably engaged Thucydides’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
History of the Peloponnesian War
Thucydides · c. 411 BCE
Ancient GreeceThe influenced
Plutarch's Lives
Plutarch · c. 110
Ancient GreeceRelevance
8/10
On Plutarch's Lives’s page
- For the Athenian war years, Plutarch is reading Thucydides over your shoulder — he names him, quotes him, and bows to him on Nicias ("I shall not vainly rival Thucydides")
- The History is the bedrock fact; the Lives is the portrait built on top — read Thucydides first and you'll see exactly where Plutarch turns chronicle into biography
- Pericles and Nicias come to Plutarch fully formed from the History; he adds the man, not the events
On History of the Peloponnesian War’s page
- When Plutarch reaches the Athenian generals, he doesn't compete with Thucydides — he defers to him
- On Nicias, Plutarch says outright he won't "vainly rival Thucydides," and across the Greek Lives he cites the History by name as the authority
- Thucydides supplies the hard chronicle of the war; Plutarch lifts his Pericles and Nicias straight off the page and turns them into character studies