July 13– From Plutarch’s Lives: "Pericles" translated by Dryden and edited by A. H. Clough

Same guy

July 13– From Plutarch’s Lives: Pericles translated by Dryden and edited by A. H. Clough

Summary: Guy spends taxes on assorted showy things, gets yelled at, and then says he'll spend his own money if he can get the credit. People tell him to spend tax money instead.

Commentary: This was the most interesting "Lives" so far, so that's nice. Beyond that, I guess I mostly want some more context. As Plutarch writes it, Pericles mostly does good things, some people object, but he shit talks them into coming around. It's hard to tell from only a few pages how good these things actually were, how spending there instead of elsewhere affected Athens, etc. Maybe he could've done a matching thing. City buys the library, he buys the books or whatever. I hear that's sometimes an issue with these kind of big charity initiatives. They pay for a part, but not the whole thing, or not the upkeep. Great that someone gets a building or whatever, but they can't use it.

We get this weird pull quote from when one of his advisors goes on a hunger strike for attention:

 "Pericles," said he, "even those who have occasion for a lamp

  supply it with oil."

That's how lamps work. If you used it and didn't fill it, it'd be pointless. It seems like it'd make more sense to say, "even those who don't use their lamps keep them filled" or something.