Study of the literary technique, goals, and methods of plutarch's life of nicias

Appointed against his will to spearhead the Athenians' ill-fated invasion of Sicily in 415 bc, Nicias became entangled in a disaster that ultimately led his city to military defeat and humiliation. Historians have deliberated ever since over the role that Nicias, and especially his character and behaviour, played in this catastrophe. Five centuries later, Plutarch of Chaeronea, the author of moral essays and a series of twinned biographies known collectively as The Parallel Lives, entered this debate with his Life of Nicias.

Drawing not only from historical sources like Thucydides but also from the works of philosophers, lyric poets, tragedians, comic playwrights, and many others, some of which writings are now lost, Plutarch wove a rich tapestry from the data available to him about Nicias' career and times and created a new vision of the doomed general's life-story. Titchener's commentary analyses Plutarch's use of these sources in the Life of Nicias, along with his literary technique, goals, and methods, and in the process sheds new light on the author and subject alike.