Teaching Ancient Biography
by Dr. Margaret Cotter-Lynch, Southeastern Oklahoma State University
Original text © 2005. Margaret Cotter-Lynch.
Discussion Section: Two "Lives" of Julius Caesar
I begin this discussion by asking students what their impressions were of Caesar after reading each of the two texts. Did you like him better after one or the other? Did Suetonius make you think about Caesar differently than you did after reading Plutarch? Which biography did you like better? Why? This should lead to a discussion of the differing styles of the two writers, and also usually makes clear that different readers (and different students in the classroom) have different tastes: some like Plutarch better, some Suetonius.
I then turn to looking more specifically at the differences between the two texts, by making a chart on the board and asking students to contribute to identifying things that Plutarch talks about but not Suetonius, things that Suetonius tells us but not Plutarch, and things that are talked about by both. I then focus on exploring in more detail those events or ideas that are talked about by both authors. Depending upon time, and the size of the course, I may divide the class into groups and assign each group an event to compare and contrast between the two authors, or I may work through one or two examples from our list as a whole class.
My goal in this section is to get students to look beyond the obvious differences between the two authors, and to be able to carefully explain both similarities and differences not only in terms of “he didn’t talk about that,” but in terms of presentation and style.
