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Plutarch · c. AD 46-after 119

Life of Numa

Νομᾶς
Ancient Sources / Plutarch / Life of Numa

Plutarch's Life of Numa tells of Numa Pompilius, the Sabine whom Romans and Sabines choose as king after the disappearance of Romulus. It covers his reluctant acceptance of the throne, his supposed meetings with the goddess Egeria and the Muses, and his religious foundations, including the Pontifices, the Vestals, the Fetiales and the Salii, as well as his calendar and the shut gates of war, down to his death and the fate of his books. It is paired with the Life of Lycurgus, and the Comparison of Lycurgus and Numa closes the pair.

Read from the start
Text
Greek original with English translation, 12 passages, about 13300 words in English.
Translator
Bernadotte Perrin (1914)
Edition
Bernadotte Perrin (ed. and trans.), Plutarch's Lives, vol. 1, Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, 1914 (Greek text as digitised by Perseus)
Cite as
Plutarch, Life of Numa 1.1 (by chapter, section; Comparison: comp, chapter, section)

Contents · 12 passages

  1. 1.1–2.7When did Numa live? The interregnum after Romulus disappears904 words
  2. 3.1–4.8Numa Pompilius and the nymph Egeria1152 words
  3. 5.1–7.5Numa refuses the throne, then accepts and is confirmed by augury1298 words
  4. 8.1–10Numa tames Rome through religion; Pythagoras and the Muse Tacita836 words
  5. 9.1–11.2The Pontifices, the Vestal virgins and the temple of Vesta1409 words
  6. 12.1–13.7Burial rites, the Fetiales, and the Salii with the shield that fell from heaven1211 words
  7. 14.1–15.6Numa's rites, Pythagorean precepts, and catching Picus and Faunus1100 words
  8. 16.1–17.4Numa's temples to Faith and Terminus, farmland and the trade guilds669 words
  9. 18.1–19.6Numa's calendar and the origin of the Roman months850 words
  10. 20.1–21.4The gates of war kept shut for forty-three years; Numa's family861 words
  11. 22.1–7The death of Numa, his buried books and the kings who followed611 words
  12. comp.1.1–comp.4.8Comparison of Lycurgus and Numa2372 words

More by Plutarch

English translation by Bernadotte Perrin (1914). Original text: Bernadotte Perrin (ed. and trans.), Plutarch's Lives, vol. 1, Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, 1914 (Greek text as digitised by Perseus).

Greek text and translation from the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Perseus Digital Library); translation public domain. Introductions, summaries and notes © GreekMythology.com.