Plutarch, Greek Ploutarchos c.46-c.120AD
Greek historian, biographer and philosopher

Plutarch was born in Chaeroneia in Boeotia, of a wealthy and cultured family. He spent most of his later life there, but before that he studied philosophy in Athens and travelled in Italy and Egypt, building a circle of cultivated friends. He paid more than one visit to Rome, and gave public lectures in philosophy.

His extant writings amount to about a half of his total output, and fall into two categories: the historical works, and those which are grouped under the general head of Opera Moralia. To the former belong his Parallel Lives, the work by which he is best known. These are biographies of 23 Greek great politicians and soldiers paired with 23 Roman lives that offer points of similarity, followed (in all but four cases) by a short comparison of each pair (regarded by some critics as spurious). The Lives concentrate on the moral character of each subject rather than on the political events of the time, so that a minor incident or anecdote will acquire a greater importance in the narrative than it would in a standard histroy or biography. They are none the less of great literary value for the information they contain, which is often additional to that found in the narrative histories of a particular time.

The others and less known half of his writings - the Morals - are a collection of short treatises, 60 or more (although certainly not all from Plutarch's hand), on various subjects, including Ethics, Politics, History, Health, Facetiae, Love-stories, Philosophy and Isis and Osiris. Some of the essays breathe quite a Christian spirit, although the writer probably never heard of Christianity. The nine books of his Symposiaca or Table-talk exhibit him as the most amiable and genial of boon companions; while his dialogue Gryllus reveals a remarkable sense of humour.

Though not a profound thinker, Plutarch was a man of rare gifts, and occupies a unique place in literature as the encyclopaedist of antiquity. The translation by Sir Thomas North (1579) was the major source for Shakespeare's Roman plays.

Bibliography: Donald A Russell, Plutarch (1973); C P Jones, Plutarch and Rome (1971); Reginald H Barrow, Plutarch and His Times (1967).