The Lives of Pyrrhos and Marius

Abstract The first of our case studies of the moralism of the Parallel Lives consists of a pair of biographies in which there is a clear and largely unproblematic moral message. The Pyrrhos-Marius poses few problems of overall interpretation. A single moral theme runs through both Lives. Together they form an illustration and warning of the dangers of discontent. Though Plutarch never states this explicitly, Pyrrhos and Marius should most probably be seen as ‘ great natures’ : men with great natural endowments, and indeed of great achievements, but whose characters are perverted through a bad environment or bad education. They thus fulfil the function of negative examples of that rather specific kind to which Plutarch alludes in the prologue to the Demetrios-Antony.