A person’s values shapes and frames every choice that a person makes. In Plutarch’s Lives: Volume 1, Lycurgus and Pericles are discussed and dissected. Every vital decision that prompted the leaders to make the choices that they did is reviewed and debated in an attempt at understanding them. While the emphasis on the importance of community in “Lycurgus” is prominent, power is prioritized and fame is essential in the story of Pericles. In “Lycurgus,” the man himself found it necessary to bring his city together and form one cohesive community. Lycurgus’ first move toward a unified community was making a new division of the Spartan lands (Plutarch 59.) This reconstruction would allow all members of the community to become equal landowners.
