On March 25 – 27, Hillsdale College students gathered for a seminar at the Kirk Center on the topic: “If You Have Writ Your Annals True: Plutarchan Lives and Shakespearian Tragedies.” Students read aloud selections from the plays Coriolanus and Julius Caesar, as well as attended lectures and participated in discussions.

Indeed, Plutarch’s influence extended even beyond Shakespeare’s time to eighteenth-century America. As Russell Kirk noted, “Through his Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, Plutarch came to influence Americans’ thought more (with the possible exception of Cicero) than did any other classical writer.” Seminars such as this one convey through imaginative literature, drama, and history a deeper understanding of our common cultural heritage.