Plutarch's Lives · Ages 0–14

Demosthenes & Cicero

Demosthenes started out with a stammer and barely enough breath to finish a sentence; Cicero started out a hill-town boy with no famous family behind him. Both practiced for years, and both ended up speaking for their cities against a man with an army.

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Why we love it

Practice at the mirror.

Plutarch says Demosthenes kept a large mirror at home and stood in front of it to practice, watching himself as he spoke.

Toddler book, ages 0–4 ↓

A friend's question.

Cicero came home from a year's post in Sicily sure that all Rome was talking about him, and the first friend he met asked where he had been. Our picture book has him smile and get back to work.

Picture book, ages 3–7 ↓

Gold in bronze hands.

Years after Demosthenes died, a soldier hid a little bag of gold in the folded hands of his bronze statue and came back to find every coin safe under the fallen plane-tree leaves.

Chapter book, ages 6–10 ↓

One oath.

On his last day as consul, Cicero was barred from giving the usual farewell speech and told to swear only the plain oath. He swore instead that he alone had saved his country, and the crowd shouted the oath back to him. Our prep book calls it the strangest example of Cicero talking about himself.

Prep book, ages 10–14 ↓

Which book for your child?

Ages 0–4 · Toddler book · Read to them

Demosthenes & Cicero: A Plutarch Toddler Book

In Greece, a boy named Demosthenes has a voice so small and tangled that no one will listen, so he goes down to the shore and shouts back at the waves, day after day, until it grows strong. Far across the sea in Rome, a boy named Cicero loves words so much that grown men crowd the doorway just to watch him read. Two true stories, told as simply as a lap and a bedtime allow: one boy who never stops trying, and one who cannot get enough of words. A cut-paper collage picture on every page.

24 pages · about 360 words · cut-paper collage

Good to know: Demosthenes's voice comes out so small that people lean in and still can't hear him, so he goes off to practice until it grows strong. Both names come spelled out for saying aloud.

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Demosthenes, in a blue sash, leans into a huge curling wave and shouts at it, in cut-paper collage — He filled his chest with air and tried to out-shout the crashing waves.

A small boy holds up a scroll while a crowd of grown men fills the doorway to watch him, in cut-paper collage — Soon the doorway was full of grown-ups, all coming to see one small boy read.

Young Cicero stands on a stage between two actors, one holding a smiling mask and one a frowning mask, in cut-paper collage — One made people laugh. One made people cry. Cicero copied them both.

Ages 3–7 · Picture book · Read together

Demosthenes & Cicero: A Plutarch Picture Book

Two boys, in two cities across the sea, who each have a voice no one will listen to, and who each grow up to be the one voice his whole city listens to. Demosthenes trains his weak voice the way a runner trains his legs, shouting up hills until his breath grows strong. Cicero, teased for a name that means chickpea, decides to make it famous, and grows up to face down a plot to burn Rome, standing in a room full of senators and naming the dangerous man out loud. Underneath runs a question even a four-year-old can feel: what makes a voice worth listening to? Soft wax-crayon pictures on every page.

36 pages · about 700 words · soft crayon

Good to know: The grown-ups who raised Demosthenes steal his money, and Catiline gathers angry men to burn Rome, but the plot falls apart without a fight. It closes by asking what made their words worth keeping.
Parents will spot: The old actor who taught Demosthenes that delivery matters, Fulvia's warning at Cicero's door, and the word philippic.

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Demosthenes runs up a steep grassy hillside above the sea, his cloak flying out behind him, in soft crayon — So he trained his voice the way an athlete trains his body. He ran up hills reciting speeches until his breath grew strong.

Cicero stands and speaks in the senate while Catiline sits alone on an empty curved bench, in soft crayon — In the senate, Cicero spoke against Catiline to his face. One by one, the senators moved away, until Catiline sat all alone.

Cicero walks down a street at night while people in the doorways hold up lamps, in soft crayon — Cicero walked home in the dark. At every door, people lit lamps and torches to light his way.

Ages 6–10 · Chapter book · They start reading alone

Demosthenes & Cicero: A Plutarch Chapter Book

Two of the most gifted speakers who ever lived each tried to save a free city with nothing but his voice, and their lives rhyme so closely it is almost eerie: both born far from power, both built themselves into the leading voice of their age, both spent years warning their city about one dangerous man, both lost, and both were hunted down for their words. This chapter book tells both lives in full, the hard parts included, then weighs the two men against each other the way Plutarch meant lives to be read, and it is honest with your child about how we know what we know. Seventeen black-and-white vintage line illustrations.

80 pages · about 8,000 words · 17 black-and-white drawings

Good to know: The plotters against Rome are executed before midnight, Cicero's daughter Tullia dies, Demosthenes bites a poisoned pen to escape the men hunting him, and soldiers kill Cicero and hang his head and hands in the forum.
Also inside: An afterword on Plutarch himself and on how much legend creeps into stories this old.

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A bearded actor raises one arm and declaims while young Demosthenes sits on a bench and listens, in black-and-white line art — Then Satyrus spoke the very same lines back to him, the way an actor would, with feeling and force and the right pauses. The words came alive.

Demosthenes looks down at an ornate cup with a single handle, holding it in both hands, in black-and-white line art — Demosthenes had picked up one particular golden cup. He turned it over, weighing it in his hands.

Cicero, one arm raised, speaks from a platform between columns to rows of seated senators, in black-and-white line art — One man's voice, raised against one man's army, for a free city's life.

Ages 10–14 · Prep book · Ready for Plutarch

Demosthenes & Cicero: A Plutarch Prep Book

The two loudest voices for courage in the ancient world were both, in Plutarch’s own verdict, cowards when the war came, and he says so in the first paragraph. This prep book does not retell the two lives scene by scene. It weighs them, question by question, the way Plutarch built the pair to be read: what each man lacked and how he turned it into a weapon, what a warning is really worth, what money does to a man in power, and whether either one ever lived the brave words he handed everyone else. Your child reaches a verdict of their own, then sets it beside Plutarch’s. Seventeen black-and-white woodcut illustrations.

88 pages · about 9,300 words · 17 black-and-white woodcuts

Good to know: It quotes Plutarch's own sentences throughout and sets out the great crown trial from both sides, Aeschines's prosecution first. Along the way come conspirators put to death without trial, a jury that includes families of the men killed at Chaeronea, and competing versions of how Demosthenes died.
Also inside: The last pages point to Plutarch's two Lives, free online at Project Gutenberg and in print, so your child can check every ruling against the source.

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Demosthenes stands with his arms spread wide, a scroll in each hand, in black-and-white woodcut — He wrote a speech for a man named Phormio, and then wrote a contradicting speech for Phormio's own opponent, Apollodorus, in the very same dispute.

Cicero sits reading a sheet of paper beside a lit oil lamp, in black-and-white woodcut — But Cicero also left behind more than nine hundred private letters, written to friends and never meant for our eyes, and in them the armor comes off.

A dropped shield lies on a rough, empty field while a tiny figure runs away in the distance, in black-and-white woodcut — The man who had spent thirty years telling Athens to stand did not stand.

The original

The real Demosthenes & Cicero

Plutarch
Written around AD 100
Two Lives and a Comparison

In his Parallel Lives, Plutarch paired the Athenian Demosthenes (384–322 BC) with the Roman Cicero (106–43 BC) and closed the pair with a short comparison of the two men, which survives. Many of both men's own speeches survive as well.

When you want more

Read free
Plutarch, Life of Demosthenes (LacusCurtius)
The whole Life of Demosthenes in English, free on the University of Chicago's LacusCurtius site.
Read free
Plutarch, Life of Cicero (LacusCurtius)
The Roman half of the pair, from the same free edition.
Listen free
Parallel Lives, Vol. 7 (LibriVox audiobook)
Volume 7 of the LibriVox Plutarch, which holds both of this pair's Lives, free to stream or download.
For you
Plutarch (World History Encyclopedia)
Background for you on the priest and teacher from Chaeronea who wrote the Lives.

From the blog

Why Plutarch Paired Demosthenes with Cicero

Demosthenes and Cicero, the great speakers of Athens and Rome, each used his voice to warn a free city about one man, and Plutarch set the two side by side.