PLITTARCH (Ploutarclios), the biographer and moralist, was b. at Chteroneia in Bceo tia. We can only approximate to the year of his birth. He tells us himself that lie was a student of philosophy at Delphi, under Ammonius, when Nero was making his prog ress through Greece in 66 A.D.; and we may safely infer. therefore, that in that year he was beyond the age of puberty. He lived for some years in Rome, and in other towns of Italy; where lie seems to have been much occupied with public business, and with giv ing lessons in philosophy—a circumstance to which be attributes his having failed to learn the Latin language in Italy, and his having to postpone his studies in Roman litera ture till bite in life. During the reign of Domitian he was delivering lectures on philos ophy at Rome; but we have not sufficient e'iidence for the statement that lie was pre ceptor to Trajan, or that that emperor raised him to consular rank. The later years of his life he spent at Chteroneia, where he dis,-.harged the ditties of archon and priest of Apollo. He lived down to 106, the eighth year of the rAgn of Trojan; hut how much longer is not known. Ile was married to an amiable wife of the name of Timoxena, by whom he had several sons, who reached manhood, and left descendants.
The work by which Plutarch is best known is his Parallel Lives of 40 Greeks and Romans. These are arranged in pairs, each pair forming one book (billion), consisting of the life of a Greek and a Roman, and followed by a comparison between the two men. In a few eases, the comparison is omitted or lost. The heroes of these biographies are the following: 1. Theseus and Romulus; 2. Lycurgus and Nnma; 3. Solon and Valerius Publicola; 4. Themistoeles and Camillus; 5. Pericles- and Q. Fabius 3Iaximus; 6. !Jcihiades and Coriolanus; 7. Timoleon and tEmilius Paulus; 8. Pelopidas and Marcel Ins; 9. Aristides and Cato the elder; 10. Philopremen and Flamininus; 11. Pyrrhus and Marius; 12. Lysander and Sulki; 13. Cimon and Lucullus; 14. Nicias and Crassus; 15. Emnenes and Sertorius; 16. Agesilaus and Pompeius; 17. Alexander and Caesar; 18. Phocion and Cato the younger; 19. Agis and Cleomenes, and Tiberius and Caius Grac chus; 20. Demosthenes and Cicero; 21. Demetrius Polioreetes and M. Antonius; 22.
Dion and M. Junius Brutus. In addition to these are placed in the editions after the 46th Parallel Lives, the biographies of Artaxerxes Mnemon, Aratus, Gallia, and Otho. Plutarch has no equal in ancient, and few in modem times, as a writer of "lives." His power lies in his felicitous grasp of the character as a whole, and his skill in keeping minor details in subordination. It is not till the reader has seen the portrait in its com pleteness that his attention is attracted to accessory points. "There are biographers (says an admirable writer in the Quarterly Review) who deal with the hero, and biog raphers who deal with the nun. But Plutarch is the representative of ideal biography, for he delineates both in one." Yet with all their artistic harmony, his lives abound with anecdotes and bon-mots in such profusion that they form one of our chief authorities for the table-talk of the Greeks and Romans. Their popularity in ancient, mediseval, and modern times, with readers of every rank and age, is something extraordinary, and they have in consequence exerted a very powerful and a very salutary influence on the art of biography, as subsequently practiced. The other writings of Plutarch, more than 60 in number, are included under the general title of Horatio, or ethical works. Several of these are not purely ethical in their tenor; while many of, them are probably not by him, or if they are, do him small credit. Even in the best of the Horatio, there is no philo sophical system to be found; ,their merits are not spessilative, but practical; and their value consists mainly in their good sense, in the justness of their views on the ordinary affairs of human life; and in the benevolence of tone diffused throughout them. The best text of the lives is that of Immanuel Bekker; the best translation in English is that of Dryden and others, as re-edited by Clough. The best edition of the Afora/irt is by Wyftenbach (Oxford, 1705-1800); and of the entire works, the editions of Reiske (Leip. 1774–S2) and Mitten (Tubingen, 17914805).