Plutarch: Life of Antony

Plutarch’s Life of Antony is a work remarkable for its colourful narrative and vivid characterisation of Antony and Cleopatra. This book presents the Greek text of the Life, accompanied by an extensive introduction and a detailed commentary. Dr Pelling is concerned throughout to discuss the work as literature. The introduction sets the life in its historical and literary context and the commentary pays particular attention to discussing the value of Plutarch’s narrative as a historical source for the period and to explaining points of linguistic difficulty. An especially interesting and friutful approach used by Dr Pelling is to compare the work with Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra (which was almost wholly based to Plutarch’s Life), bringing out how much Shakespeare’s conception of the character and destiny of his protagonists owes to Plutarch, and tracing its transposition into dramatic form. Intended primarily as a textbook for undergraduate students, this edition will nevertheless be of interest to all Greek scholars, to ancient historians, and also the students of English literature since the relevant discussions require no knowledge of Greek.

List of maps; Preface; Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Plutarch and Rome; 2. The Life of Antony; 3. Comparison: Demetrius and Antony; 4. Sources and methods; 5. Plutarch and Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra; 6. The text; Ploutarchou Antonios; Commentary; Indexes.