How to Be a Leader: An Ancient Guide to Wise Leadership

410 Pages·2019·0.621 MB·English

by  Plutarch, Jeffrey Beneker

HOW TO BE A LEADER
Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers
How to Be a Leader: An Ancient Guide to Wise Leadership
by Plutarch
How to Think about God: An Ancient Guide for Believers
and Nonbelievers by Marcus Tullius Cicero
How to Keep Your Cool: An Ancient Guide
to Anger Management by Seneca
How to Think about War: An Ancient Guide to Foreign Policy
by Thucydides
How to Be Free: An Ancient Guide to the Stoic Life
by Epictetus
How to Be a Friend: An Ancient Guide to True Friendship
by Marcus Tullius Cicero
How to Die: An Ancient Guide to the End of Life by Seneca
How to Win an Argument: An Ancient Guide to the
Art of Persuasion by Marcus Tullius Cicero
How to Grow Old: Ancient Wisdom for the Second Half
of Life by Marcus Tullius Cicero
How to Run a Country: An Ancient Guide for Modern Leaders
by Marcus Tullius Cicero
How to Win an Election: An Ancient Guide
for Modern Politicians by Quintus Tullius Cicero
HOW TO BE A
LEADER
An Ancient Guide to Wise Leadership
Plutarch
Selected, translated, and introduced
by Jeffrey Beneker
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON AND OXFORD
Copyright © 2019 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Plutarch, author. | Beneker, Jeffrey, editor, translator, writer
of introduction. | Plutarch. Moralia. Selections. | Plutarch. Moralia.
Selections. English.
Title: How to be a leader : an ancient guide to wise leadership / Plutarch ;
edited, translated, and introduced by Jeffrey Beneker.
Description: Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2019] | Series:
Ancient wisdom for modern readers | In Ancient Greek with parallel
English translations on facing pages.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019019549 | ISBN 9780691192116 (hardcover)
Subjects: LCSH: Plutarch—Translations into English. | Leadership—
Early works to 1800.
Classification: LCC PA4368 .A23 2019 | DDC 873/.01—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019019549
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
Editorial: Rob Tempio and Matt Rohal
Production Editorial: Ali Parrington
Text and Jacket Design: Pamela L. Schnitter
Production: Merli Guerra and Brigid Ackerman
Publicity: Jodi Price, Amy Stewart, and Alyssa Sanford
Jacket/Cover Credit: The Athena Giustiniani, or Giustiniani Minerva.
Parian marble. Antonine Roman copy, 2nd century. Detail. Prisma
Archivo / Alamy Stock Photo
This book has been composed in Stemple Garamond LT,
Futura and Brill
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
For Helen and Luis

CONTENTS
Introduction ix
Notes on the Translation
and Greek Text xxi
To an Uneducated Leader 1
How to Be a Good Leader 41
Should an Old Man Engage
in Politics? 191
Important Persons and Terms 341
Notes 365

INTRODUCTION
If you were a builder or stonecutter in the
year 100 CE and happened to live near
Chaeronea, a small city in central Greece,
you might have been hired by Plutarch for a
public works project. He would have been
in his mid- fifties, too old to perform any
heavy lifting himself, but eager to represent
the people of Chaeronea and to supervise
your work. And if you asked him why
he— a learned and prolific writer who had
studied in Athens, lectured in Rome, and
made connections among the highest ranks
of imperial society— bothered with such
mundane local matters, like the installation
of roofing tiles and the pouring of cement,
ix
INTRODUCTION
he would have said, “I’m not building these
things for myself, but for my native city.”
“City before self,” in fact, might have been
a motto that you heard him repeat quite
often. It was certainly the basic principle
of his political thought, especially as that
thought is expressed in the three essays in-
cluded in this collection: To an Uneducated
Leader, How to Be a Good Leader, and
Should an Old Man Engage in Politics?
For centuries leading up to Plutarch’s
time, the city had been the fundamental
political unit of the Greek world. Often re-
ferred to as city- states, Greek cities before
the advent of the Roman Empire were in-
dependent entities, with their own armies,
foreign policy, trade, and political systems.
Under Roman control, and so in Plutarch’s
day, they remained semi- independent, no
longer involved directly in wars or foreign
x