PLUTARCH (Gr. IIXobrapxos) (c. A.D. Greek biog rapher and miscellaneous writer, was born at Chaeronea in Boeotia. After having been trained in philosophy at Athens he travelled and stayed some time at Rome, where he lectured on philosophy and undertook the education of Hadrian. (There seems no authority for this statement earlier than the middle ages.) Trajan bestowed consular rank upon him, and Hadrian appointed him procurator of Greece. He died in his native town, where he was archon and priest of the Pythian Apollo. In the Consolation to his Wife on the loss of his young daughter, he tells us (§ 2) that they had brought up four sons besides, one of whom was called by the name of Plutarch's brother, Lamprias. We learn incidentally from this treatise (§ 1o) that the writer had been initiated in the secret mysteries of Dionysus, which held that the soul was imperishable. He seems to have been an independent thinker rather than an adherent of any particular school of phi losophy. His vast acquaintance with the literature of his time is everywhere apparent.
The celebrity of Plutarch, or at least his popularity, is mainly founded on his 46 Parallel Lives. He is thought to have written this work in his later years after his return to Chaeronea. His knowledge of Latin and of Roman history he must have partly derived from some years' residence in Rome and other parts of Italy (Demostli. § 2), though he says he was too much engaged in lecturing (doubtless in Greek, on philosophy) to turn his atten tion much to Roman literature during that period.
Plutarch's design in writing the Parallel Lives—for this is the title which he gives them in dedicating Theseus and Romulus to Sosius Senecio—appears to have been the publication, in succes sive books, of authentic biographies in pairs, taking together a Greek and a Roman. In the introduction to the Theseus he speaks of having already issued his Lycurgus and Numa, viewing them, no doubt, as bearing a resemblance to each other in their legislative character. Theseus and Romulus are compared as the legendary founders of States. In the opening sentence of the life of Alex ander he says that "in this book he has written the lives of Alex ander and Caesar" (Julius), and in his Demosthenes, where he again (§ I) mentions his friend Sosius, he calls the life of this orator and Cicero the fifth book. (It is quite evident that the original order of the books has been altered in the series of Lives as we now have them.) It may, therefore, fairly be inferred that Plutarch's original idea was simply to set a Greek warrior, states man, orator or legislator side by side with some noted Roman celebrated for the same qualities, or working under similar con ditions. Nearly all the lives are in pairs ; but the series concluded
with single biographies of Artaxerxes, Aratus (of Sicyon), Galba and Otho. In the life of Aratus, not Sosius Senecio, but one Polycrates, is addressed.
The Lives are works of great learning and research, long lists of authorities are given, and they must for this very reason, as well as from their considerable length, have taken many years in compilation. It is true that many of the lives, especially of Romans, do not show such an extent of research. But Plutarch must have had access to a great store of books, and his diligence as an historian cannot be questioned, if his accuracy is in some points impeached. From the historian's point of view the weak ness of the biographies is that their interest is primarily ethical. The author's sympathy with Doric characters and institutions is very evident ; he delights to record the exploits, the maxims and virtues of Spartan kings and generals. This feeling is the key to his apparently unfair and virulent attack on Herodotus, who, as an Ionian, seemed to him to have exaggerated the prowess and the foresight of the Athenian leaders.
The voluminous and varied writings of Plutarch exclusive of the Lives are known under the common term Opera moralia. These consist of above 6o essays, some of them long and many of them rather difficult, some too of very doubtful genuineness. Their literary value is greatly enhanced by the large number of citations from lost Greek poems, especially verses of the dramatists, among whom Euripides holds by far the first place. The principal treatises in the Opera moralia are the following On the Education of Children; How a Young Man Ought to Hear Poetry, on the moral aspect of Homer and the tragedians, with quotations On the Right Way of Hearing (flip/. Toi) eudwav) is another educational essay. Among the moral essays may be included : How a Flatterer may be Distinguished from a Friend, How One May be Conscious of Progress in Goodness, addressed to Sosius Senecio, consul under Nerva and Trajan; three short essays, On Having many Friends, On Chance and On Virtue and Vice, mainly valuable for quotations from poets otherwise lost ; Advice to the Married, On the Late Vengeance of the Deity, On the Genius of Socrates, On Superstition, On Exile, a fine essay plentifully illustrated with quotations ; The Amorous Man, and the Gryllus, an entertaining dialogue proving the moral superiority of many animals over man. The speakers are Circe, Odysseus, and a pig; the pig wins.