Plutarch's Lives · Ages 0–14

Pyrrhus & Marius

A friend once asked Pyrrhus what he would do after conquering Rome, Italy, Sicily and Africa, and when the king said he would rest, asked why he did not rest now. Pyrrhus knew his friend was right, and went to war anyway.

Choose a bookWhy we love it
Cover of Pyrrhus & Marius: A Plutarch Toddler Book, for ages 0–4Ages 0–4Cover of Pyrrhus & Marius: A Plutarch Picture Book, for ages 3–7Ages 3–7Cover of Pyrrhus & Marius: A Plutarch Chapter Book, for ages 6–10Ages 6–10Cover of Pyrrhus & Marius: A Plutarch Prep Book, for ages 10–14Ages 10–14
Pyrrhus in a horned, crested helmet rides a big gray elephant forward as Roman horsemen gallop away, in soft crayon

A page from Pyrrhus & Marius: A Plutarch Picture Book

Why we love it

His own pack.

Marius ate the same plain bread as his soldiers and dug in the same ditches, and Roman soldiers loved him for it more than for any reward. In our toddler book he marches beside his men with his own load on his back.

Toddler book, ages 0–4 ↓

Bark across the river.

When Pyrrhus was a hunted baby, his rescuers reached a river too wild to cross, so they wrote a message on a piece of bark and threw it over the water. Strangers on the far bank read it and came to help. Plutarch adds that the bark was wrapped around a stone to give it weight.

Picture book, ages 3–7 ↓

Fabricius.

Pyrrhus offered this poor Roman a heap of gold, then tried to scare him with an elephant hidden behind a curtain, and Fabricius turned both down without flinching. Later he warned Pyrrhus that the king's own doctor had offered to poison him.

Chapter book, ages 6–10 ↓

A fine arena.

Sailing away from Sicily, Pyrrhus looked back and said what a fine arena he was leaving for Rome and Carthage to fight over, and those two powers did go to war over the island. Our prep book calls it the saddest thing about him: he could see everyone clearly except himself.

Prep book, ages 10–14 ↓

Which book for your child?

Cover of Pyrrhus & Marius: A Plutarch Toddler Book, for ages 0–4

Ages 0–4 · Toddler book · Read to them

Pyrrhus & Marius: A Plutarch Toddler Book

A king who led giant elephants as tall as houses, and a barefoot farm boy who was up and working before the sun. This is the youngest way to meet Pyrrhus and Marius: one big, true picture from each life, in a few words a toddler can hold. Pyrrhus wears two tall goat horns and rides at the very front of his army. Marius grows up in patched clothes and bare feet and leads soldiers so tough that everyone calls them his mules. A cut-paper collage picture on every page.

24 pages · about 335 words · cut-paper collage

Good to know
Elephants come BOOM, BOOM, BOOM down a dusty road while the townspeople stare, and there are no battles. The king and his elephants come first, then Marius on the farm and on the march, and the book ends with the two men side by side.
Also inside
Pronunciations for both names, PEER-uhs and MAR-ee-us, are built into the text.
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Three elephants, one big, one middle-sized and one small, walk out of a billowing cloud of dust, the biggest with its trunk raised, in cut-paper collage
Closer and closer it came. And then out stepped enormous elephants!
A barefoot boy in a patched tunic carries a bundle of wheat past a barn as the sun comes up behind him and a goat looks on, in cut-paper collage
But that boy could work! He was up before the sun, every single day.
Three smiling soldiers, one gray-bearded, carry packs on poles over their shoulders, with round shields at their sides, in cut-paper collage
They were so tough and strong that everyone called them Marius's mules!
Cover of Pyrrhus & Marius: A Plutarch Picture Book, for ages 3–7

Ages 3–7 · Picture book · Read together

Pyrrhus & Marius: A Plutarch Picture Book

Two boys, born a world apart, who both grow up able to win almost any fight, and who could not be more different in what they do with it. Pyrrhus is a prince who sails from war to war and cannot rest even after he has won. Marius is a poor farm boy who climbs to the very top of Rome and still cannot stop wanting more. Underneath runs a question even a four-year-old can feel: why can neither of them ever stop? Soft crayon-and-colored-pencil pictures on every page.

36 pages · about 720 words · soft crayon

Good to know
There are battles, and both men die by the end: an old woman on a rooftop in Argos throws a tile that strikes Pyrrhus, and Marius's tired old heart gives out early in his seventh consulship.
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A smiling bearded king in a robe sits in a chair while a baby hugs his knee, in soft crayon
They carried the baby to a king named Glaucias (GLAW-kee-as). Little Pyrrhus crawled right over and held tight to his robe.
Women and girls dig a long trench at night by lantern light, carrying earth away in baskets, in soft crayon
One day he attacked the city of Sparta. That very night, the women of Sparta began to dig a great trench.
Gray-haired Marius in armor shouts with his fists clenched in a dark bedroom as a soldier runs out the door, a sword left on the floor, in soft crayon
But Marius rose up in the dark and roared like a lion! The soldier dropped his sword, fled, and Marius slipped away.
Cover of Pyrrhus & Marius: A Plutarch Chapter Book, for ages 6–10

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

Pyrrhus & Marius: A Plutarch Chapter Book

Two soldiers who almost never lost a battle, and still lost almost everything the winning was for. Pyrrhus beats mighty Rome with war elephants; Marius rises from a mud farm to save Rome from an invasion that had wiped out army after army sent against it. This chapter book tells both lives in full, the hard parts included. Plutarch's own comparison of this pair is lost, so the book weighs the two men itself, and it is honest with your child about where the old sources disagree. Sixteen black-and-white vintage line illustrations.

72 pages · about 7,300 words · 16 black-and-white drawings

Good to know
Pyrrhus's own elephants panic at Beneventum and trample his men, and Marius has growths cut from his leg in the days before anything could dull the pain.
Also inside
A closing chapter, “On Plutarch,” brings the pair down to a child's size: winning a game so meanly that no one will play with you again is a Pyrrhic victory too.
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Pyrrhus in his horned, crested helmet walks alone across a battlefield strewn with shields and helmets, in black-and-white line art
When one of his soldiers came up to congratulate him on the win, Pyrrhus did not smile. He answered that one other such battle would utterly undo him.
An older man in armor rests his hand on the shoulder of a young man beside him at a dinner table, with other diners behind, in black-and-white line art
Scipio reached over. He tapped the young soldier sitting next to him on the shoulder. And he said, "Here, perhaps."
A bearded man in a cloak sits alone on a broken stone among fallen columns and ruined walls, in black-and-white line art
"Go and tell him you have seen Gaius Marius sitting as an exile among the ruins of Carthage."
Cover of Pyrrhus & Marius: A Plutarch Prep Book, for ages 10–14

Ages 10–14 · Prep book · Ready for Plutarch

Pyrrhus & Marius: A Plutarch Prep Book

Hannibal called Pyrrhus the greatest soldier who ever lived, and Pyrrhus ended with nothing to show for it. Marius rose from a farm to save Rome, then terrorized it. 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: where each man's gift came from, what it could never do, what their victories truly cost, and why neither one could stop. Your reader reaches a verdict of their own, knowing that no verdict from Plutarch survives, so the last word is theirs. Fifteen black-and-white woodcut illustrations.

72 pages · about 8,300 words · 15 black-and-white woodcuts

Good to know
Marius allies with street gangs, pushes an innocent man to his execution, and in his last rage has Roman citizens hunted and murdered, one of them driven to take his own life. After Pyrrhus falls in Argos, an enemy soldier cuts off his head.
Also inside
A note on how we know: why Marius is well recorded, why so many old books about Pyrrhus are lost, and why much of what survives about Marius's feud with Sulla comes through Sulla's own memoir.
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A young king in a cloak stands at a table scattered with dice, his horned helmet resting beside them, in black-and-white woodcut
His throws were brilliant, better than anyone at the table could manage. But he never knew what to do with a good throw once he had it.
A man in a toga stands above a crowd, pouring coins down into their raised hands, in black-and-white woodcut
Plutarch puts it in a single devastating line: Marius never cared to be a good man, so long as he could be a great one.
A robed, bearded man covers his face with one hand beside a shrouded body laid on a stack of wood, with hooded mourners behind him, in black-and-white woodcut
Pyrrhus died small. But the enemy who beat him mourned him as a great soldier lost.

The original

The real Pyrrhus & Marius

  • Plutarch's Parallel Lives
  • Written around AD 100
  • Pyrrhus died 272 BC, Marius 86 BC

Pyrrhus of Epirus fought Rome in Italy from 280 to 275 BC; Gaius Marius, born near Arpinum, was consul seven times between 107 and 86 BC. Plutarch wrote their two Lives as a pair, but the closing comparison he gave most of his pairs does not survive for this one.

When you want more

From the blog

Why Plutarch Paired Pyrrhus with Marius

Pyrrhus of Epirus and Gaius Marius could win almost any battle and never knew when to stop, and no comparison of the two by Plutarch has survived.

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