incorporated...

1:2 Romulus
"Now this, more than anything else, was what gave increase to Rome: she always united and incorporated with herself those whom she conquered."

valor...

Lives 1: Theseus 1234–1204 (myth)
"Valor is superior to all device and practice."

a word for translators...

Bernadotte Perrin. Translator of Loeb's "Lives"

As someone who (regrettably) knows no classical language, I offer a word of gratitude to the translators whose scholarly and artistic work makes a world available...

Plutarchan lustres...

...which is just a highfalutin way of saying, "bits I really like in reading Plutarch."
Long time readers of Boston Unitarian know that I love a good summer reading project. Recent summer intensives have included "The Works of Theodore Parker," the novels of Walter Scott, the Roman Poet Virgil and the like.

I have also long loved Plutarch, most famous for his Parallel Lives, and alternately in and out of favor depending on the tenor of the times. Finally, I have written (also at Boston Unitarian) of my love for the Loeb Classical Library. These small green for Greek and red for Roman volumes have parallel English/original language pages and, though I regrettably know no languages, I think that walking around with a Loeb makes me look smarter than I am. Oh vanity of vanities... they are also handy and I usually quite like the translation.
This blog will, mercifully, feature almost nothing from me and instead will quote what strikes me daily in this summer's reading project which is, as you may have guessed, the works of Plutarch (as well as works about him.)

Ralph Waldo Emerson loved Pluarch and famously read everything for the "lustres," the bits that inspired him. My modest plan is to record some of those lustres for myself. Maybe a word or two will resonate with you as well.

Blessings, BU