Damn with Faint Praise. A Historical Commentary on Plutarch’s On The Fortune or Virtue of Alexander The Great

381 Pages·2009·3.31 MB·English

by  Dawn L. Gilley

DAMN WITH FAINT PRAISE:
A HISTORICAL COMMENTARY ON PLUTARCH’S
ON THE FORTUNE OR VIRTUE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT 1

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A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School
University of Missouri

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In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy

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By
DAWN L. GILLEY

Dr. Ian Worthington, Dissertation Supervisor

May, 2009
The undersigned, appointed by the Dean of the Graduate School, have examined the
dissertation entitled

DAMN WITH FAINT PRAISE
A HISTORICAL COMMENTARY ON PLUTARCH’S ON THE FORTUNE OR
VIRTUE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT

Presented by Dawn L. Gilley
A candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
And hereby certify that in their opinion it is worthy of acceptance.

____________________________________________________
Professor Ian Worthington

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Professor Lawrence Okamura

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Professor Lois Huneycutt

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Professor A. Mark Smith

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Professor Barbara Wallach
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I owe my gratitude to many people. First, this dissertation could not have been
written without the support and advice of my advisor Ian Worthington whose demands
have helped me to be a better scholar. I would also like to acknowledge my other
committee members, Professor Lois Huneycutt, Professor Lawrence Okamura, Professor
Mark Smith, and Professor Barbara Wallach for putting up with the never-ending stream
of emails I sent their way. I have greatly appreciated the comments and thoughts of
Professor Christopher Pelling, Professor Tim Whitmarsh, and Professor Sulochana
Asirvatham who read previous drafts despite having busy schedules. A special note of
thanks goes to my fellow graduate students in the basement of Read Hall for listening to
me pontificate on Plutarch for the last three years and for providing endless hours of
napkin toasts. A special thank you to Kris Maulden for Caddyshack and Buffalo Wild
Wing Tuesdays. Nothing quite says “study break” like gophers and forty cent wings. As
always, I am eternally grateful to my family for their endless support and love.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

SPECIAL NOTES………………………………………………………………………...v
ABBREVIATIONS………………………………………………………………...…....vi
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………...ix
INTRODUCTION
I. LIFE AND WORKS………………………………………………….……...…….……2
II. THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT…………………..………………….16
III. THE SOURCES AND ALEXANDER...……...…………………..………...……….30
Primary Sources
Secondary Sources
The DFAM as a Source for Alexander’s Life and Reign
Alexander’s Wounds
Alexander’s Cities
Alexander and the “Unity of Mankind” Theory
Alexander’s Orientalism
Alexander’s Divinity
IV. PARADOXICAL ENCOMIA…………………………..……………………...……54
On the Fortune of the Romans
On the Glory of the Athenians
On the Fortune or Virtue of Alexander 1
On the Fortune or Virtue of Alexander 2
Rhetoric
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Paradoxical Rhetoric
The Nature of Encomia
The logos-ergon antithesis
Plutarch versus the Philosophical Schools?
The Purpose of the DFAM
Plutarch’s View of Alexander
V. THE RELATIONSHIP OF DFAM 1 TO DFAM 2…………..………………….……88
VI. PLUTARCH’S STYLE…………………………………..………...……………...106
VII. DATE………………………………………………………...……..……………..123
VIII. TEXT AND TRANSMISSION…………………………………………………..131
COMMENTARY……………………………………………………………………….136
BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………….……………...346
VITA……………………………………………………………………………………370

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SPECIAL NOTES
On the Fortune or Virtue of Alexander the Great
The Greek title of this work is Πεπὶ τῆρ Ἀλεξάνδπος Τύσηρ ἥ Ἀπετηρ, but it is commonly
called by its Latin version, De Alexandri Magni Fortuna aut Virtute, and this is the title I
use. The work consists of two speeches; this dissertation is a detailed study of only the
first speech.
Text
The text I use of the De Alexandri Magni Fortuna aut Virtute is F.C. Babbitt’s Plutarch’s
Moralia 4 (Cambridge, 2005) in the Loeb Classical Library. Any translations of the
Greek text are my own unless otherwise noted.
Transliteration
Greek names and titles of works are anglicized, but some terms are transliterated, and
these will be obvious when they appear.
Dates
All dates are BC except where indicated.

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ABBREVIATIONS

Ancient sources follow the abbreviations of the Oxford Classical Dictionary.
Abbreviations of journals follow the conventions of L’Année philologique.
For the sake of convenience and common usage, the two speeches commonly referred to
by the single title De Alexandri Magni Fortuna aut Virtute (“On the Fortune or Virtue of
Alexander the Great”) will be referred to as DFAM 1 and DFAM 2. The speech De
Fortuna Romanorum (“On the Fortune of the Romans”) will be referred to as DFR and
De Gloria Atheniensium (“On the Glory of the Athenians”) as DGA.
The following frequently cited modern works are abbreviated as follows:
Critical Editions of the De Alexandri Magni Fortuna aut Virtute

Babbitt, Plutarch Babbitt, F.C., Plutarch’s Moralia 4, LCL
(Cambridge, 2005).

Frazier and Froidefond, Plutarque Frazier, F. and C. Froidefond, Plutarque:
Oeuvres Morales 5, Budé Edition (Paris,
1990).

Nachstadt, Plutarchi Nachstadt, W. and C. Hubert, Plutarchi
Moralia 2, Teubner Edition (Leipzig,
1952).

Wyttenbach, Animadversiones Wyttenbach, D.A., Animadversiones in
Plutarchi in Plutarchi libros: De
Alexandri Magni fortuna aut virtute
(Lipsiae, 1821).

Secondary Literature

Barrow, Plutarch Barrow, R.H., Plutarch and His Times (London,
1967).

Berve, Alexanderreich Berve, H., Das Alexanderreich auf
Prosopographischer Grundlage, 2 vols.
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(Munich, 1926).

BNJ Worthington, I. (Editor-in-Chief), Brill’s New
Jacoby (Leiden, 2005-).

Bosworth, Arrian Bosworth, A.B., A Historical Commentary on
Arrian’s History of Alexander, 2 vols.
(Oxford, 1980-1995).

Bosworth, CE Bosworth, A.B., Conquest and Empire
(Cambridge, 1988).

Briant, Cyrus Briant, P. (trans. P.T. Daniels), From Cyrus to
Alexander (Winona Lake, 2002).

CAH The Cambridge Ancient History (1961-).

CHI The Cambridge History of Iran (1968-1991).

D’Angelo, La Fortuna D’Angelo, A., La Fortuna o La Virtu di
Alessandro Magno: Primo Orazione
(Naples, 1998).

FGrH Jacoby, F., Die Fragmente der griechischen
Historiker (Berlin and Leiden, 1923-).

Fraser, Cities Fraser, P.M., The Cities of Alexander the Great
(Oxford, 1996).

Green, Alexander Green, P., Alexander of Macedon, 356-323 BC
(Berkeley, 1974).

Hall, Hellenicity Hall, J., Hellenicity: Between Ethnicity and
Culture (Chicago, 2002).

Hamilton, Plutarch Hamilton, J.R., Plutarch: Alexander (London,
1999).

Hammond, KCS Hammond, N.G.L., Alexander the Great: King,
Commander, and Statesman2 (Bristol,
1980).

Hammond, Genius Hammond, N.G.L., The Genius of Alexander
the Great (Chapel Hill, 1997).

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Heckel, Who’s Who Heckel, W., Who’s Who in the Age of Alexander
the Great (Oxford, 2006).

IG Inscriptiones Graecae (Berlin, 1873-).

Jones, Plutarch Jones, C.P., Plutarch and Rome (Oxford, 1971).

Lane Fox, Alexander Lane Fox, R., Alexander the Great (New York,
1973).

OCD Hornblower, S. and A. Spawforth (eds.), The
Oxford Classical Dictionary (2003).

Pearson, LHA Pearson, L., The Lost Histories of Alexander the
Great (London, 1960).

RE Pauly, A., G. Wissowa, and W. Kroll, Real-
Encycopädie der klassischen
Altertumswissenschaft (Stuttgart, 1893-).

Russell, Plutarch Russell, D.A., Plutarch (London, 1973).

SIG Dittenberger, W. (ed.) , Sylloge inscriptionum
graecarum (Leipzig, 1915-1924).

Tarn, Alexander Tarn, W.W., Alexander the Great, 2 vols.
(Cambridge, 1948).

TLG Thesaurus Linguae Graecae.

Wardman, “Plutarch and Alexander” Wardman, A., “Plutarch and Alexander,” CQ2 5
(1955), 96-107.

Worthington, Alexander Worthington, I., Alexander the Great: Man and
God (London, 2004).

Worthington, Philip II Worthington, I., Philip II of Macedonia (New
Haven, 2008).

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DAMN WITH FAINT PRAISE:
A HISTORICAL COMMENTARY ON PLUTARCH’S
ON THE FORTUNE OR VIRTUE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT 1
Dawn L. Gilley
Dr. Ian Worthington, Dissertation Supervisor
ABSTRACT

Plutarch’s On the Fortune or Virtue of Alexander the Great is as much a
revelation of Plutarch’s philosophical thought as it is a display of his rhetorical skill.
Writing during the Second Sophistic movement, Plutarch challenged basic conceptions of
philosophy by asking whether it was theory or practice that made a philosopher. He used
the life and reign of Alexander the Great as his general framework for analysis. Also, by
casting Alexander as a philosopher, an artificial paradox, Plutarch took advantage of
events in the king’s life, about which his audience would have been well aware, to play
on common perceptions of the king, thereby causing some modern scholars to suggest
that the work has no historical value. It was through rhetorical exploitation that Plutarch
denigrated the Macedonian king, revealing him to be a megalomaniac who cared little for
his own men or newly conquered subjects, but more for his own glory. Through this
paradox of Alexander as a philosopher, Plutarch concluded that philosophy is both a
theoretical and practical pursuit, and that it should be practically applied to one’s life.
This dissertation not only sheds light on Plutarch’s rhetorical skill and view of
Alexander, but also elevates the work’s standing as a source for the life and reign of the
king.

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