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section: Plutarch was an admirer of the old Spartan virtues, and it seems altogether probable that the collection of sayings of Spartans was made by him as literary material for use in his writing, as he tells us was his custom (Moralia, 457 d and 464 f), and many of the sayings are actually found incorporated in his other works.
- Plutarch, Cicero, chapter 1, section 1
Plutarch's Lives. with an English Translation by. Bernadotte...
- Plutarch, Antony, chapter 1, section 1
section: Antony's grandfather was the orator Antonius, who...
- Plutarch, Cicero, chapter 1, section 1
- Overview
- Life
- The Lives
Plutarch was a Greek biographer and author born in the 1st century CE whose works strongly influenced the evolution of the essay, the biography, and historical writing in Europe from the 16th to the 19th century. Translations of Plutarch influenced writers, including Montaigne, Shakespeare, and Goethe, and inspired leaders of the French Revolution.
What is Plutarch best remembered for?
Plutarch’s popularity rests primarily on his Parallel Lives, biographies of Greek and Roman heroes in pairs, chosen for their similarity of character or career and each followed by a formal comparison. They were designed to encourage mutual respect between Greeks and Romans and to provide model patterns of behaviour by exhibiting noble deeds and characters.
What did Plutarch write?
Plutarch was a prolific writer who produced over 200 works, not all of which survived antiquity. Besides the Parallel Lives, the Moralia (or Ethica), a series of more than 60 essays on ethical, religious, physical, political, and literary topics, is his most recognizable work.
What did Plutarch do?
Plutarch was the son of Aristobulus, himself a biographer and philosopher. In 66–67 Plutarch studied mathematics and philosophy at Athens under the philosopher Ammonius. Public duties later took him several times to Rome, where he lectured on philosophy, made many friends, and perhaps enjoyed the acquaintance of the emperors Trajan and Hadrian. According to the Suda lexicon (a Greek dictionary dating from about 1000 ce), Trajan bestowed the high honour of ornamenta consularia upon him. Although that may be true, a report of a 4th-century church historian, Eusebius, that Hadrian made Plutarch governor of Greece is probably apocryphal. A Delphic inscription reveals that he possessed Roman citizenship; his nomen, or family name, Mestrius, was no doubt adopted from his friend Lucius Mestrius Florus, a Roman consul.
Plutarch traveled widely, visiting central Greece, Sparta, Corinth, Patrae (Patras), Sardis, and Alexandria, but he made his normal residence at Chaeronea, where he held the chief magistracy and other municipal posts and directed a school with a wide curriculum in which philosophy, especially ethics, occupied the central place. He maintained close links with the Academy at Athens (he possessed Athenian citizenship) and with Delphi, where, from about 95, he held a priesthood for life; he may have won Trajan’s interest and support for the then-renewed vogue of the oracle. The size of Plutarch’s family is uncertain. In the Consolatio to his wife, Timoxena, on the death of their infant daughter, he mentions four sons; of those at least two survived childhood, and he may have had other children.
Plutarch’s literary output was immense. The 227 titles in the so-called catalog of Lamprias, a list of Plutarch’s works supposedly made by his son, are not all authentic, but neither do they include all he wrote. The order of composition cannot be determined.
Britannica Quiz
Plutarch’s popularity rests primarily on his Parallel Lives. Those, dedicated to Trajan’s friend Sosius Senecio, who is mentioned in the lives “Demosthenes,” “Theseus,” and “Dion,” were designed to encourage mutual respect between Greeks and Romans. By exhibiting noble deeds and characters, they were also to provide model patterns of behaviour.
The first pair, “Epaminondas and Scipio,” and perhaps an introduction and formal dedication, are lost. But Plutarch’s plan was clearly to publish in successive books biographies of Greek and Roman heroes in pairs, chosen as far as possible for their similarity of character or career, and each followed by a formal comparison. Internal evidence suggests that the Lives were composed in Plutarch’s later years, but the order of composition can be only partially determined; the present order is a later rearrangement based largely on the chronology of the Greek subjects, who are placed first in each pair. In all, 22 pairs survive (one pair being a double group of “Agis and Cleomenes” and the “Gracchi”) and four single biographies, of Artaxerxes II, Aratus, Galba, and Otho.
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- Frank W. Walbank
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Life of Alexander Moralia Main article: Moralia Moralia, 1531 The remainder of Plutarch's surviving work is collected under the title of the Moralia (loosely translated as Customs and Mores). It is an eclectic collection of seventy-eight essays and transcribed speeches, including "Concerning the Face Which Appears in the Orb of the Moon" (a dialogue on the possible causes for such an ...
Nov 4, 2019 · Ruinis inminentibus musculi praemigrant. When collapse is imminent, the little rodents flee. Pliny the Elder. Natural History Book VIII.103. Like rats deserting a sinking ship. Cite this Article. Here are some famous Latin quotations for various occasions with translations, plus a few Greek quotes.
Sep 7, 2010 · Plutarch. First published Tue Sep 7, 2010; substantive revision Tue Nov 4, 2014. Plutarch of Chaeronea in Boeotia ( ca. 45–120 CE) was a Platonist philosopher, best known to the general public as author of his “Parallel Lives” of paired Greek and Roman statesmen and military leaders. He was a voluminous writer, author also of a collection ...
