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Plutarch's Numa Pompilus: A True Ruler

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Of all the rulers in Plutarch’s Lives, Numa Pompilus was the one king who expressed characteristics of a true ruler. Numa displayed morality known by all the people in Rome. He was a peacemaker, which brought about a prosperous and joyful kingdom. Numa not only built on top of Romulus’s work to start a strong and powerful kingdom. Above all the rulers in Plutarch’s Lives, Numa Pompilus showed morality, good judgment, and self-sacrifice. Numa became king, not for his own benefit, but for that of the people and the gods. When the elders of Rome came to request Numa to accept the throne, he rejected their petition. They soon realized that he would require more vigorous persuasion than they originally intended. Still, when Numa would not affirmatively respond, his father pulled him aside, and said, “Though you neither desire riches, being content with what you have, nor court the fame of authority, as having …show more content…

After Numa came into rule, they both shared something in common: their love for their wise king and their faith. Numa destroyed the separation of the two nations so they would cease to fight over who was Roman and who was a Sabine. He accomplished this by making trades, so instead of being labeled as Roman or a Sabine they were called blacksmith, cobbler, shoe polisher, and so on. This was so his people would be busy with a guild and not with war. Romulas on the other hand, had decided to steal women from the nearby Sabine kingdom to profit his kingdom and disrupt the peace with his foolish plan. Instead of encouraging peace he started another heated war. Before Numa ruled Rome, the people where held together by war. They only stuck together so they could conquer other nations. However, Numa held them together by faith. Because of this peaceful society Numa held the Romans together in peace for 43 years. Numa unified them by giving them faith and busying their hands with productive

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