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{{Short description|Greek philosopher and historian (c. AD 40 – 120s)}} | |||
{{distinguish|Plutocracy{{!}}Plutarchy}} | |||
{{Other uses}} | |||
{{Use British English|date=February 2025}} | |||
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}} | |||
{{Infobox philosopher | {{Infobox philosopher | ||
| name = Plutarch | | name = Plutarch | ||
| image = Plutarch | | image = Portrait of a philosopher, maybe Plutarch, 2nd century BC, AM Delphi, 0135.jpg | ||
| caption = | | caption = 2nd-century bust from Delphi sometimes identified as Plutarch<!--discussed on Talk: see also File:Head of a philosopher - Archaeological Museum of Delphi.jpg --> | ||
| birth_date = | | birth_date = before AD 50 | ||
| birth_place = [[Chaeronea]], [[Boeotia]] | | birth_place = [[Chaeronea]], [[Boeotia]] | ||
| death_date = after AD | | death_date = after AD 120 | ||
| death_place = [[Delphi]], [[Phocis (ancient region)|Phocis]] | | death_place = [[Delphi]], [[Phocis (ancient region)|Phocis]] | ||
| occupation = | | occupation = {{hlist|[[Biographer]]|essayist|[[philosopher]]|[[priest]]|diplomat|[[magistrate]]}} | ||
|school_tradition = [[Middle Platonism]] | |school_tradition = [[Middle Platonism]] | ||
|notable_works = ''[[Parallel Lives]]''<br />''[[Moralia]]'' | |notable_works = ''[[Parallel Lives]]''<br />''[[Moralia]]'' | ||
|region = [[Ancient philosophy]] | |region = [[Ancient philosophy]] | ||
|era = [[ | |era = [[Ancient Roman philosophy]] | ||
|main_interests = [[Epistemology]], [[ethics]], [[history]], [[metaphysics]] | |main_interests = [[Epistemology]], [[ethics]], [[history]], [[metaphysics]] | ||
}} | }} | ||
'''Plutarch''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|l|uː|t|ɑr|k}}; {{langx|grc|Πλούταρχος}}, ''Ploútarchos'', {{IPA|grc-x-koine|ˈplúːtarkʰos|lang|link=yes}}; before AD 50 – after 120{{sfn|Russell|2012}}) was a Greek and later Roman [[Middle Platonist]] philosopher,{{sfn|Dillon|1996|p=184}} historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the [[Temple of Apollo (Delphi)|Temple of Apollo]] in [[Delphi]]. He is known primarily for his ''[[Parallel Lives]]'', a series of biographies of illustrious Greeks and Romans, and ''[[Moralia]]'', a collection of essays and speeches.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy|title=Plutarch }}</ref> Upon becoming a [[Roman citizen]], he was possibly named '''Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus''' ({{lang|grc|Λούκιος Μέστριος Πλούταρχος}}).{{sfn|Russell|2012}}{{efn|It was common practice for "new Romans" to adopt the name of their patrons.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Salway |first=Benet |author-link=Benet Salway |date=1994 |title=What's in a Name? A Survey of Roman Onomastic Practice from c. 700 B.C. to A.D. 700 |journal=[[Journal of Roman Studies]] |volume=84 |pages=137–140 |doi=10.2307/300873 |jstor=300873 |s2cid=162435434}}</ref>}} | |||
'''Plutarch''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|l|uː|t|ɑr|k}}; {{ | |||
== | == Family == | ||
[[ | Plutarch was born to a prominent family in the small town of [[Chaeronea]],{{sfn|Stadter|2014|p=13}} about {{convert|30|km}} east of [[Delphi]], in the Greek region of [[Boeotia]]. His family was long established in the town; his father was named Autobulus and his grandfather was named [[Lamprias]].{{sfn|Russell|2012}} His brothers, Timon and Lamprias, are frequently mentioned in his essays and dialogues, which speak of Timon in particular in the most affectionate terms. | ||
== Studies and life == | |||
Plutarch studied [[mathematics]] and [[philosophy]] in [[Roman Athens|Athens]] under [[Ammonius of Athens|Ammonius]] from AD 66 to 67.<ref name="eb">{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Plutarch|volume=21|pages=857–860|last1=Paley|first1=Frederick Apthorp|author1-link=Frederick Apthorp Paley|last2=Mitchell|first2=John Malcolm|short=1}}</ref> He attended the games of Delphi where the emperor [[Nero]] competed and possibly met prominent Romans, including future emperor [[Vespasian]].{{sfn|Stadter|2014|p=14}} At some point, Plutarch received [[Roman citizenship]]. His sponsor was [[Lucius Mestrius Florus]], who was an associate of the new emperor Vespasian, as evidenced by his new name, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus.{{sfn|Stadter|2014|p=14}} As a Roman citizen, Plutarch would have been of the [[Equestrian (Roman)|equestrian]] order. He visited Rome some time {{circa|AD 70}} with Florus, who served also as a historical source for his ''Life of Otho''.<ref>Plutarch, ''Otho'' 14.1</ref>{{sfn|Stadter|2014|p=14}} Plutarch was on familiar terms with a number of Roman nobles, particularly the consulars [[Quintus Sosius Senecio]], [[Titus Avidius Quietus]], and [[Arulenus Rusticus]], all of whom appear in his works.{{sfn|Jones|1971|p=20-27}} | |||
[[File:Plutarch and herm.jpg|thumb|Portrait of a philosopher alongside a [[Herm (sculpture)|hermaic]] [[stele]] dedicated to Plutarch at the [[Delphi Archaeological Museum]]]] | |||
Plutarch lived most of his life at Chaeronea, and was initiated into the [[Greco-Roman mysteries|mysteries]] of the Greek god [[Apollo]]. He probably took part in the [[Eleusinian Mysteries]].<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Mark |first1=Joshua J. |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/article/32/the-eleusinian-mysteries-the-rites-of-demeter/|title=The Eleusinian Mysteries: The Rites of Demeter|website=[[World History Encyclopedia]]|date=18 January 2012 |access-date=27 April 2019}}</ref> During his visit to Rome, he may have been part of a municipal embassy for [[Delphi]]: around the same time, Vespasian granted Delphi various municipal rights and privileges.{{sfn|Stadter|2014|p=15}} Some time {{circa|AD 95}}, Plutarch was made one of the two sanctuary priests for the temple of Apollo at Delphi; the site had declined considerably since the classical Greek period. Around the same time in the 90s, Delphi experienced a construction boom, financed by Greek patrons and possible imperial support.{{sfn|Stadter|2014|p=20}} There was a portrait bust dedicated to Plutarch for his efforts in helping to revive the Delphic shrines.{{sfn|Russell|2012}} The portrait of a philosopher exhibited at the exit of the [[Delphi Archaeological Museum|Archaeological Museum of Delphi]] dates to the 2nd century; due to its inscription, in the past it had been identified with Plutarch. The man, although bearded, is depicted at a relatively young age: His hair and beard are rendered in coarse volumes and thin incisions. The gaze is deep, due to the heavy eyelids and the incised pupils.<ref>{{cite web |title=SELECTED EXHIBITS – Archaeological Site of Delphi – Museum of Delphi |url=https://delphi.culture.gr/museum/selected-exhibits/ |website=Delphi.culture.gr |publisher=Delphi Archaeological Museum |access-date=26 October 2022 |date=11 December 2019}}</ref> A fragmentary [[Herm (sculpture)|hermaic]] [[stele]] ''next'' to the portrait probably did once bear a portrait of Plutarch, since it is inscribed, "The Delphians, along with the Chaeroneans, dedicated this (image of) Plutarch, following the precepts of the Amphictyony" ({{lang|grc|"Δελφοὶ Χαιρωνεῦσιν ὁμοῦ Πλούταρχον ἔθηκαν}} | {{lang|grc|τοῖς Ἀμφικτυόνων δόγμασι πειθόμενοι}}").<ref>''Syll.''<sup>3</sup> 843=''CID'' 4, no. 151 {{full citation needed|date=July 2021}}</ref> | |||
=== | In addition to his duties as a priest of the [[Temple of Apollo (Delphi)|Delphic temple]], Plutarch was also a [[magistrate]] at Chaeronea and he represented his home town on various missions to foreign countries during his early adult years. Plutarch held the office of [[archon]] in his native municipality, probably only an annual one which he likely served more than once.<ref>{{cite book|title=Plutarch's Lives|last=Clough|first=Arthur Hugh|year=1864|publisher=Liberty Library of Constitutional Classics|chapter-url=http://www.constitution.org/rom/plutarch/intro.htm|chapter=Introduction }}</ref> Plutarch was [[epimeletes]] (manager) of the [[Amphictyonic League]] for at least five terms, from 107 to 127, in which role he was responsible for organising the [[Pythian Games]]. He mentions this service in his work, ''Whether an Old Man Should Engage in Public Affairs'' (17 = ''Moralia'' 792f).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=West |first1=Allen B. |title=Notes on Achaean Prosopography and Chronology |journal=Classical Philology |date=1928 |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=262–267|doi=10.1086/361044 |jstor=263715 |s2cid=161334831 |issn=0009-837X}}</ref> According to the 8th/9th-century historian [[George Syncellus]], late in Plutarch's life, Emperor [[Hadrian]] appointed him nominal [[Procurator (ancient Rome)|procurator]] of [[Achaea (Roman province)|Achaea]] – which entitled him to wear the vestments and ornaments of a consul.{{sfn|Russell|2001}} | ||
Plutarch and his wife, Timoxena,<ref>[[Joannes Rualdus|Rualdus]], ''Life of Plutarchus'' 1624</ref> had at least four sons and one daughter, although two died in childhood. A letter is still extant, addressed by Plutarch to his wife, bidding her not to grieve too much at the death of their two-year-old daughter, who was named Timoxena after her mother, which also mentions the loss of a young son, Chaeron.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Plutarch, Consolatio ad uxorem, section 5 |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0310:section=5 |access-date=15 January 2023 |website=Perseus Digital Library}}</ref> Two sons, named Autoboulos and Plutarch, appear in a number of Plutarch's works; Plutarch's treatise on Plato's ''[[Timaeus (dialogue)|Timaeus]]'' is dedicated to them.{{sfn|Jones|1971|p=11}} It is likely that a third son, named Soklaros after Plutarch's confidant Soklaros of Tithora, survived to adulthood as well, although he is not mentioned in Plutarch's later works; a Lucius Mestrius Soclarus, who shares Plutarch's Latin family name, appears in an inscription in Boeotia from the time of [[Trajan]].<ref>The inscription is in [https://epigraphy.packhum.org/text/42003?bookid=8&location=1698 ''Inscriptiones Graecae'', 9.1.61], see the note in {{harvnb|Jones|1971|p=22}} Older scholarship tended assume Soklaros was not a son or died young because he did not appear in any dedications.</ref> Traditionally, the surviving catalog of Plutarch's works is ascribed to another son, named Lamprias after Plutarch's grandfather;<ref><!--See for example the entry for-->{{cite encyclopedia|translator-last=Whitehead|translator-first=David|date=8 September 2001|url=http://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-entries/lambda/96|title=Lamprias|encyclopedia=Suda|access-date=7 May 2024|via=Department of Computer Science at the University of Kentucky}}</ref> most modern scholars believe this tradition is a later interpolation.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ziegler |first=Konrat |title=Plutarchos von Chaironeia |publisher=Alfred Druckenmuller |year=1964 |location=Stuttgart |page=60 |language=de}}</ref> His family remained in Greece down to at least the fourth century, producing a number of philosophers and authors.{{sfn|Jones|1971|p=11}} [[Apuleius]], author of ''[[The Golden Ass]]'', made his fictional protagonist a descendant of Plutarch.<ref>''The Golden Ass'' 1.2</ref> | |||
It is not known in which year Plutarch died. Gregory Crane estimates that he died {{circa}} 125,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Perseus Encyclopedia, Pachynum, Pison, Plutarch |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0004:alphabetic+letter=P:entry+group=12:entry=plutarch |access-date=10 January 2025 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> while the 1911 edition of [[Encyclopædia Britannica]] estimates that he died {{circa}} 120.<ref name="eb" /> As of the 21st century, Encyclopædia Britannica gives Plutarch's death year as "after 119".<ref>{{Cite web |date=1 January 2025 |title=Plutarch – Biographer, Historian, Philosopher {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Plutarch/Reputation-and-influence |access-date=10 January 2025 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> | |||
==Works== | ==Works== | ||
===''Parallel Lives''=== | ===''Parallel Lives''=== | ||
{{Main|Parallel Lives}} | {{Main|Parallel Lives}} | ||
Plutarch's best-known work is the '' | Plutarch's best-known work is the ''Parallel Lives'', a series of [[biography|biographies]] of illustrious Greeks and Romans, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common [[morality|moral]] virtues and vices, thus it being more of an insight into human nature than a [[History|historical]] account. As is explained in the opening paragraph of his ''Life of Alexander'',<ref>{{Cite book|last=Plutarch|title=The life of Alexander|page=1}}</ref> Plutarch was not concerned with history so much as the influence of character, good or bad, on the lives and destinies of men. Whereas sometimes he barely touched on epoch-making events, he devoted much space to charming anecdote and incidental triviality, reasoning that this often said far more for his subjects than even their most famous accomplishments. He sought to provide rounded portraits, likening his craft to that of a painter; indeed, he went to tremendous lengths (often leading to tenuous comparisons) to draw [[Physiognomy|parallels between physical appearance]] and [[moral character]].{{citation needed|date=July 2021}} | ||
The surviving ''Lives'' contain 23 pairs, each with one Greek life and one Roman life, as well as four unpaired single lives. Some of the ''Lives'', such as those of [[Heracles]], [[Philip II of Macedon]], [[Epaminondas]], [[Scipio Africanus]], [[Scipio Aemilianus]] and possibly [[Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus]] no longer exist; many of the remaining ''Lives'' are truncated, contain obvious [[lacuna (manuscripts)|lacunae]] or have been tampered with by later writers.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}} | |||
Extant ''Lives'' include those on [[Solon]], [[Themistocles]], [[Aristides]], [[Agesilaus II]], [[Pericles]], [[Alcibiades]], [[Nicias]], [[Demosthenes]], [[Pelopidas]], [[Philopoemen]], [[Timoleon]], [[Dion of Syracuse]], [[Eumenes]], [[Alexander the Great]], [[Pyrrhus of Epirus]], [[Romulus]], [[Numa Pompilius]], [[Gaius Marcius Coriolanus|Coriolanus]], [[Theseus]], [[Aemilius Paullus]], [[Tiberius Gracchus]], [[Gaius Gracchus]], [[Gaius Marius]], [[Lucius Cornelius Sulla|Sulla]], [[Sertorius]], [[Lucullus]], [[Pompey]], [[Julius Caesar]], [[Cicero]], [[Cato the Elder]], [[Cato the Younger]], [[Mark Antony]], and [[Marcus Junius Brutus]]. | |||
====''Life of Alexander''==== | ====''Life of Alexander''==== | ||
Plutarch's ''Life of Alexander'', written as a parallel to that of Julius Caesar, is one of five extant tertiary sources on the Macedonian conqueror [[Alexander the Great]]. It includes [[anecdote]]s and descriptions of events that appear in no other source, just as Plutarch's portrait of [[Numa Pompilius]], the putative second king of Rome, holds much that is unique on the early [[Roman calendar]]. | {{quote box|bgcolor=#c6dbf7|width=30em | ||
|"It is not ''histories'' I am writing, but ''lives''; and in the most glorious deeds there is not always an indication of virtue or vice, indeed a small thing like a phrase or a jest often makes a greater revelation of a character than battles where thousands die."|''Life of Alexander'' }} | |||
Plutarch devotes a great deal of space to Alexander's drive and desire, and strives to determine how much of it was presaged in his youth. He also draws extensively on the work of [[Lysippos]], Alexander's favourite [[sculptor]], to provide what is probably the fullest and most accurate description of the conqueror's physical appearance. When it comes to his character, Plutarch emphasizes his unusual degree of self-control and scorn for luxury: "He desired not pleasure or wealth, but only excellence and glory." As the narrative progresses | Plutarch's ''Life of Alexander'', written as a parallel to that of Julius Caesar, is one of five extant tertiary sources on the Macedonian conqueror [[Alexander the Great]]. It includes [[anecdote]]s and descriptions of events that appear in no other source, just as Plutarch's portrait of [[Numa Pompilius]], the putative second king of Rome, holds much that is unique on the early [[Roman calendar]]. Plutarch devotes a great deal of space to Alexander's drive and desire, and strives to determine how much of it was presaged in his youth. He also draws extensively on the work of [[Lysippos]], Alexander's favourite [[sculptor]], to provide what is probably the fullest and most accurate description of the conqueror's physical appearance. When it comes to his character, Plutarch emphasizes his unusual degree of self-control and scorn for luxury: "He desired not pleasure or wealth, but only excellence and glory." As the narrative progresses, the subject incurs less admiration from his biographer and the deeds that it recounts become less savoury. The murder of [[Cleitus the Black]], which Alexander instantly and deeply regretted, is commonly cited to this end.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}} | ||
====''Life of Caesar''==== | ====''Life of Caesar''==== | ||
Together with [[Suetonius]]'s ''[[The Twelve Caesars]]'', and [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]]'s own works [[Commentarii de Bello Gallico|''de Bello Gallico'']] and ''[[Commentarii de Bello Civili|de Bello Civili]]'', the ''Life of Caesar'' is the main account of [[Julius Caesar]]'s feats by ancient historians. Plutarch starts by telling of the audacity of Caesar and his refusal to dismiss [[Lucius Cornelius Cinna|Cinna's]] daughter, [[Cornelia (wife of Caesar)|Cornelia]]. Other important parts are those containing his military deeds, accounts of battles and Caesar's capacity of inspiring the soldiers. | Together with [[Suetonius]]'s ''[[The Twelve Caesars]]'', and [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]]'s own works [[Commentarii de Bello Gallico|''de Bello Gallico'']] and ''[[Commentarii de Bello Civili|de Bello Civili]]'', the ''Life of Caesar'' is the main account of [[Julius Caesar]]'s feats by ancient historians. Plutarch starts by telling of the audacity of Caesar and his refusal to dismiss [[Lucius Cornelius Cinna|Cinna's]] daughter, [[Cornelia (wife of Caesar)|Cornelia]]. Other important parts are those containing his military deeds, accounts of battles and Caesar's capacity of inspiring the soldiers. | ||
Plutarch's life shows few differences from Suetonius' work and Caesar's own works (see ''[[De Bello Gallico]]'' and ''[[De Bello Civili]]''). Sometimes, Plutarch quotes directly from the ''De Bello Gallico'' and even tells us of the moments when Caesar was dictating his works. In the final part of this life, Plutarch recounts details of [[Assassination of Julius Caesar|Caesar's assassination]]. It ends by telling the destiny of his murderers, just after a detailed account of the scene when a [[Ghost|phantom]] appeared to [[Marcus Junius Brutus|Brutus]] at night.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Plutarch|title=The life of Caesar}}</ref> | |||
In the final part of this life, Plutarch recounts details of [[Assassination of Julius Caesar|Caesar's assassination]]. It ends by telling the destiny of his murderers, just after a detailed account of the scene when a [[Ghost|phantom]] appeared to [[Marcus Junius Brutus|Brutus]] at night.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Plutarch|title=The life of Caesar}}</ref> | |||
====''Life of Pyrrhus''==== | ====''Life of Pyrrhus''==== | ||
Plutarch's ''Life of Pyrrhus'' is a key text because it is the main historical account on Roman history for the period from 293 to 264 BCE, for which both [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus|Dionysius]]' and [[Livy]]'s texts are lost.<ref name=TJCornell>{{cite book |last=Cornell |first=T.J. |year=1995 |title=The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000–264 BC) |publisher=Routledge |page=3 |chapter=Introduction}}</ref> | Plutarch's ''Life of Pyrrhus'' is a key text because it is the main historical account on Roman history for the period from 293 to 264 BCE, for which both [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus|Dionysius]]' and [[Livy]]'s texts are lost.<ref name=TJCornell>{{cite book |last=Cornell |first=T.J. |year=1995 |title=The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000–264 BC) |publisher=Routledge |page=3 |chapter=Introduction}}</ref> | ||
===''Moralia''=== | ===''Moralia''=== | ||
{{Main|Moralia}} | {{Main|Moralia}} | ||
The remainder of Plutarch's surviving work is collected under the title of the '' | 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 appearance and a source for Galileo's own work),<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bakker & Palmerino |title=Motion to the Center or Motion to the Whole? Plutarch's Views on Gravity and Their Influence on Galileo |journal=Isis |date=2020 |volume=111 |issue=2 |pages=217–238 |doi=10.1086/709138 |s2cid=219925047 |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/709138|hdl=2066/219256 |hdl-access=free |url-access=subscription }}</ref> "On Fraternal Affection" (a discourse on honour and affection of siblings toward each other), "On the Fortune or the Virtue of [[Alexander the Great]]" (an important adjunct to his Life of the great king), and "On the Worship of [[Isis]] and [[Osiris]]" (a crucial source of information on [[ancient Egyptian religion]]);<ref>(but which according to Erasmus referred to the Thessalonians){{cite web|url=http://altreligion.about.com/library/texts/bl_isisandosiris.htm|title=Isis and Osiris|access-date=10 December 2006|last=Plutarch|others=Frank Cole Babbitt (trans.)|archive-date=14 September 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080914104237/http://altreligion.about.com/library/texts/bl_isisandosiris.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> more philosophical treatises, such as "On the Decline of the Oracles", "On the Delays of the Divine Vengeance", and "On Peace of Mind"; and lighter fare, such as "[[Odysseus]] and Gryllus", a humorous [[dialogue]] between [[Homer]]'s Odysseus and one of [[Circe]]'s enchanted pigs. | ||
==== | ====Pseudepigrapha==== | ||
{{Main|Pseudo-Plutarch}} | |||
Some editions of the ''Moralia'' include several works now known to have been falsely attributed to Plutarch. Among these are the ''Lives of the Ten Orators'', a series of biographies of the [[Attic orators]] based on [[Caecilius of Calacte]]; ''On the Opinions of the Philosophers'', ''On Fate'', and ''On Music''.<ref name=Blank>{{cite book| last= Blank| first= D.| year= 2011| chapter= 'Plutarch' and the Sophistry of 'Noble Lineage'| editor-first= J. |editor-last= Martínez | title= Fakes and Forgers of Classical Literature| location= Madrid| publisher= Ediciones Clásicas| pages= 33–60}}</ref> These works are all attributed to a single, unknown author, referred to as "[[Pseudo-Plutarch]]".<ref name="Blank"/> Pseudo-Plutarch lived sometime between the third and fourth centuries AD. Despite being falsely attributed, the works are still considered to possess historical value.<ref>{{cite book| first= Don E.| last= Marietta| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Gz-8PsrT32AC |title= Introduction to Ancient Philosophy| publisher= M.E. Sharpe| year= 1998| page= 190 |number= 11| isbn= 978-0-7656-0216-9}}</ref> | |||
=== | ===Lives of the Roman emperors=== | ||
[[ | Plutarch's first biographical works were the Lives of the Roman Emperors from [[Augustus]] to [[Vitellius]]. These early emperors' biographies were probably published under the [[Flavian dynasty]] or during the reign of Nerva (AD 96–98). Of these, only the Lives of [[Galba]] and [[Otho]] survive. The Lives of [[Tiberius]] and [[Nero]] are extant only as fragments, provided by Damascius<ref>(Life of Tiberius, cf. his Life of Isidore) Ziegler, Konrad, Plutarchos von Chaironeia (Stuttgart 1964), 258. Citation translated by the author.</ref> as well as Plutarch himself,<ref>Life of Nero, cf. Galba 2.1</ref> respectively. There is reason to believe that the two Lives still extant, those of Galba and Otho, "ought to be considered as a single work." Therefore, they do not form a part of the Plutarchian canon of single biographies – as represented by the Life of [[Aratus of Sicyon]] and the Life of [[Artaxerxes II of Persia|Artaxerxes II]] (the biographies of [[Hesiod]], [[Pindar]], [[Crates (comic poet)|Crates]] and Daiphantus were lost). ''Galba-Otho'' can be found in the appendix to Plutarch's ''Parallel Lives'' as well as in various Moralia manuscripts, most prominently in [[Maximus Planudes]]' edition where Galba and Otho appear as ''Opera'' XXV and XXVI. Thus it seems reasonable to maintain that ''Galba-Otho'' was from early on considered as an illustration of a moral-ethical approach.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}} | ||
'' | |||
===Lost works=== | ===Lost works=== | ||
The [[Lost literary work|lost works]] of Plutarch are determined by references in his own texts to them and from other authors' references over time. Parts of the ''Lives'' and what would be considered parts of the ''Moralia'' have been lost. The 'Catalogue of Lamprias', an ancient list of works attributed to Plutarch, lists 227 works, of which 78 have come down to us. | The [[Lost literary work|lost works]] of Plutarch are determined by references in his own texts to them and from other authors' references over time. Parts of the ''Lives'' and what would be considered parts of the ''Moralia'' have been lost. The 'Catalogue of Lamprias', an ancient list of works attributed to Plutarch, lists 227 works, of which 78 have come down to us.{{sfn|Russell|2012}} The Romans loved the ''Lives''. Enough copies were written out over the centuries so that a copy of most of the lives has survived to the present day, but there are traces of twelve more Lives that are now lost.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Parallel Lives|publisher=Loeb Classical Library Edition|edition=Vol. I|year=1914|chapter=Translator's Introduction|chapter-url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Introduction*.html }}</ref> Plutarch's general procedure for the ''Lives'' was to write the life of a prominent Greek, then cast about for a suitable Roman parallel, and end with a brief comparison of the Greek and Roman lives. Currently, only 19 of the parallel lives end with a comparison, while possibly they all did at one time. Also missing are many of his ''Lives'' which appear in a list of his writings: those of Hercules, the first pair of ''Parallel Lives'', [[Scipio Africanus]] and [[Epaminondas]], and the companions to the four solo biographies, as well as biographies of important figures such as [[Augustus]], [[Claudius]] and [[Nero]].<ref name="NewCriterion">{{cite web|last=Kimball|first=Roger|title=Plutarch & the issue of character|url=http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/19/dec00/plutarch.htm|publisher=The New Criterion Online|access-date=11 December 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061116200602/http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/19/dec00/plutarch.htm|archive-date=16 November 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.e-classics.com/plutarch.htm|title=Plutarch – His Life and Legacy|access-date=10 December 2006|last=McCutchen|first=Wilmot H. |website=e-classics.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061205061217/http://e-classics.com/plutarch.htm|archive-date=5 December 2006}}</ref> Lost works that would have been part of the ''Moralia'' include "Whether One Who [[epoche|Suspends Judgment on Everything]] Is Condemned to Inaction", "On [[Pyrrho]]'s Ten Modes", and "On the Difference between the [[Pyrrhonism|Pyrrhonians]] and the [[Academic Skepticism|Academics]]".<ref>Mauro Bonazzi, "[https://www.academia.edu/2362682/Plutarch_on_the_Difference_between_Academics_and_Pyrrhonists_in_Oxford_Studies_in_Ancient_Philosophy_43_2012_pp._271-298 Plutarch on the Differences Between the Pyrrhonists and Academics]", Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, 2012.</ref> | ||
The Romans loved the ''Lives''. Enough copies were written out over the centuries so that a copy of most of the lives has survived to the present day, but there are traces of twelve more Lives that are now lost.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Parallel Lives|publisher=Loeb Classical Library Edition|edition=Vol. I|year=1914|chapter=Translator's Introduction|chapter-url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Introduction*.html }}</ref> Plutarch's general procedure for the ''Lives'' was to write the life of a prominent Greek, then cast about for a suitable Roman parallel, and end with a brief comparison of the Greek and Roman lives. Currently, only 19 of the parallel lives end with a comparison, while possibly they all did at one time. Also missing are many of his ''Lives'' which appear in a list of his writings: those of Hercules, the first pair of ''Parallel Lives'', [[Scipio Africanus]] and [[Epaminondas]], and the companions to the four solo biographies | |||
Lost works that would have been part of the ''Moralia'' include "Whether One Who [[epoche|Suspends Judgment on Everything]] Is Condemned to Inaction", "On [[Pyrrho]]'s Ten Modes", and "On the Difference between the [[Pyrrhonism|Pyrrhonians]] and the [[Academic Skepticism|Academics]]".<ref>Mauro Bonazzi, "Plutarch on the Differences Between the Pyrrhonists and Academics", Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, 2012 | |||
==Philosophy== | ==Philosophy== | ||
{{quote box|bgcolor=#c6dbf7|width=30em | {{quote box | ||
|"The [[soul]], being eternal, after [[death]] is like a caged bird that has been released. If it has been a long time in the body, and has become tame by many affairs and long habit, the soul will immediately take another body and once again become involved in the troubles of the world. The worst thing about old age is that the soul's memory of the other world grows dim, while at the same time its attachment to things of this world becomes so strong that the soul tends to retain the form that it had in the body. But that soul which remains only a short time within a body, until liberated by the higher powers, quickly recovers its fire and goes on to higher things." | | bgcolor = #c6dbf7 | ||
|Plutarch ("The Consolation", ''Moralia'') | | width = 30em|"The [[soul]], being eternal, after [[death]] is like a caged bird that has been released. If it has been a long time in the body, and has become tame by many affairs and long habit, the soul will immediately take another body and once again become involved in the troubles of the world. The worst thing about old age is that the soul's memory of the other world grows dim, while at the same time its attachment to things of this world becomes so strong that the soul tends to retain the form that it had in the body. But that soul which remains only a short time within a body, until liberated by the higher powers, quickly recovers its fire and goes on to higher things."|Plutarch ("The Consolation", ''Moralia'') | ||
}} | }} | ||
Plutarch was a [[Middle Platonism|Platonist]], but was open to the influence of the [[Peripatetics]], and in some details even to [[Stoicism]] despite his criticism of their principles. | Plutarch was a [[Middle Platonism|Platonist]], but was open to the influence of the [[Peripatetics]], and in some details even to [[Stoicism]] despite his criticism of their principles.{{sfn|Zeller|1931}} He rejected only [[Epicureanism]] absolutely.{{sfn|Zeller|1931}} He attached little importance to theoretical questions and doubted the possibility of ever solving them.{{sfn|Zeller|1931}} He was more interested in moral and religious questions.{{sfn|Zeller|1931}} | ||
In opposition to Stoic materialism and Epicurean atheism he cherished a pure idea of [[God]] that was more in accordance with [[Plato]]. | In opposition to Stoic materialism and Epicurean atheism he cherished a pure idea of [[God]] that was more in accordance with [[Plato]].{{sfn|Zeller|1931}} He adopted a second principle (''[[Dyad (Greek philosophy)|Dyad]]'') in order to explain the phenomenal world.{{sfn|Zeller|1931}} This principle he sought, however, not in any indeterminate matter but in the evil [[Anima mundi|world-soul]] which has from the beginning been bound up with matter, but in the creation was filled with reason and arranged by it.{{sfn|Zeller|1931}} Thus it was transformed into the divine soul of the world, but continued to operate as the source of all evil.{{sfn|Zeller|1931}} He elevated God above the finite world, and thus [[Daemon (mythology)|daemons]] became for him agents of God's influence on the world. He strongly defends freedom of the will, and the immortality of the soul.{{sfn|Zeller|1931}} | ||
Platonic-Peripatetic [[ethics]] were upheld by Plutarch against the opposing theories of the Stoics and Epicureans. | Platonic-Peripatetic [[ethics]] were upheld by Plutarch against the opposing theories of the Stoics and Epicureans.{{sfn|Zeller|1931}} The most characteristic feature of Plutarch's ethics is its close connection with religion.{{sfn|Zeller|1931}} However pure Plutarch's idea of God is, and however vivid his description of the vice and corruption which superstition causes, his warm religious feelings and his distrust of human powers of knowledge led him to believe that God comes to our aid by direct revelations, which we perceive the more clearly the more completely that we refrain in "enthusiasm" from all action; this made it possible for him to justify popular belief in [[divination]] in the way which had long been usual among the Stoics.{{sfn|Zeller|1931}} | ||
His attitude to popular religion was similar. The gods of different peoples are merely different names for one and the same divine Being and the powers that serve it. | His attitude to popular religion was similar. The gods of different peoples are merely different names for one and the same divine Being and the powers that serve it.{{sfn|Zeller|1931}} The [[Greek mythology|myths]] contain philosophical truths which can be interpreted allegorically.{{sfn|Zeller|1931}} Thus, Plutarch sought to combine the philosophical and religious conception of things and to remain as close as possible to tradition.{{sfn|Zeller|1931}} Plutarch was the teacher of [[Favorinus]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Richter |first1=Daniel S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bZ47DwAAQBAJ |title=The Oxford Handbook of the Second Sophistic |last2=Johnson |first2=William Allen |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-983747-2 |page=552 |language=en}}</ref> | ||
Plutarch was | Plutarch was a [[vegetarian]], although how long and how strictly he adhered to this diet is unclear.<ref name="newmyer">{{cite journal |last=Newmyer |first=Stephen |date=1992 |title=Plutarch on Justice Toward Animals: Ancient Insights on a Modern Debate |url=https://journals.co.za/content/scholia/1/1/EJC128293 |journal=Scholia: Studies in Classical Antiquity |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=38–54 |access-date=5 September 2020}}</ref> He wrote about the [[ethics of meat-eating]] in two discourses in ''Moralia''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Plutarch |title=Moralia |url=https://www.loebclassics.com/view/plutarch-eating_flesh/1957/pb_LCL406.539.xml |chapter=On the Eating of Flesh}}</ref> | ||
==Influence== | ==Influence== | ||
[[File:Nuremberg_chronicles_f_111r_3.png|thumb|Plutarch in the ''[[Nuremberg Chronicle]]'' ]] | |||
[[File:Plutarch of Chaeronea-03 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Modern portrait at [[Chaeronea]], based on the bust from Delphi]] | |||
| | There are multiple translations of ''Parallel Lives'' into Latin, most notably the one titled "Pour le Dauphin" (French for "for the [[dauphin of France|Crown Prince]]") written by a scribe in the court of [[Louis XV]] of France, and a 1470 [[Ulrich Han]] translation. In 1519, Hieronymus Emser translated ''De capienda ex inimicis utilitate'' (''wie ym eyner seinen veyndt nutz machen kan'', Leipzig). The biographies were translated by Gottlob Benedict von Schirach (1743–1804) and printed in Vienna by Franz Haas (1776–1780). Plutarch's ''Lives'' and ''Moralia'' were translated into German by [[Johann Friedrich Salomon Kaltwasser]]. | ||
===France and England=== | |||
Plutarch's writings had an enormous influence on [[English Literature|English]] and [[French literature]]. | |||
[[Michel de Montaigne|Montaigne]]'s | [[Michel de Montaigne|Montaigne]]'s ''[[Essays (Montaigne)|Essays]]'' draw extensively on Plutarch's ''Moralia'' and are consciously modelled on the Greek's easygoing and discursive inquiries into science, manners, customs and beliefs. ''Essays'' contains more than 400 references to Plutarch and his works.<ref name="NewCriterion" /> | ||
[[ | [[Jacques Amyot]]'s translations brought Plutarch's works to French readers. He went to Italy and studied the Vatican text of Plutarch, from which he published a French translation of the ''Lives'' in 1559 and ''Moralia'' in 1572, which were widely read by educated Europe.<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle= Amyot, Jacques | volume= 01 | page = 901 |quote= He was thus enabled to go to Italy to study the Vatican text of Plutarch, on the translation on whose Lives (1559; 1565) he had been some time engaged.}}</ref> Amyot's translations had as deep an impression in England as France, because [[Sir Thomas North]] later published his English translation of the ''Lives'' in 1579 based on Amyot's French translation instead of the original Greek.<ref>Denton, John. “Renaissance Translation Strategies and the Manipulation of a Classical Text. Plutarch from Jacques Amyot to Thomas North”. Europe Et Traduction, edited by Michel Ballard, Artois Presses Université, 1998, https://doi.org/10.4000/books.apu.6433.</ref> [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] paraphrased parts of [[Thomas North]]'s translation of selected ''Lives'' in [[Shakespeare's plays|his plays]], and occasionally quoted from them verbatim.{{sfn|Honigmann|1959}} | ||
Plutarch' | The complete ''Moralia'' was first translated into English from the original Greek by [[Philemon Holland]] in 1603. In 1683, [[John Dryden]] began a life of Plutarch and oversaw a translation of the ''Lives'' by several hands and based on the original Greek. This translation has been reworked and revised several times, most recently in the 19th century by the English poet and classicist [[Arthur Hugh Clough]] (first published in 1859). One contemporary publisher of this version is [[Modern Library]]. Another is ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' in association with the University of Chicago, {{ISBN|0-85229-163-9}}, 1952, {{LCCN|5510323}}. In 1770, English brothers [[John Langhorne (poet)|John]] and [[William Langhorne (clergyman)|William Langhorne]] published "Plutarch's ''Lives'' from the original Greek, with notes critical and historical, and a new life of Plutarch" in 6 volumes and dedicated to Lord Folkestone. Their translation was re-edited by Archdeacon Wrangham in the year 1813.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}} | ||
[[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] quotes Plutarch in the 1762 ''[[Emile, or On Education]]'', a treatise on the education of the whole person for citizenship. Rousseau introduces a passage from Plutarch in support of his position against eating meat: {{"'}}You ask me', said Plutarch, 'why [[Pythagoras]] abstained from eating the flesh of beasts...{{'"}}<ref>[[Jean Jacques Rousseau]], ''[[Emile, or on Education|Emile]]'' ([[Barbara Foxley]], tr.), [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.23766/page/n132/mode/1up p.118] (London: [[J.M. Dent]] & Sons, 1955) (retrieved 8 March 2026).</ref> | |||
[[James Boswell]] quoted Plutarch on writing lives, rather than biographies, in the introduction to his own ''[[Life of Samuel Johnson]]''.<ref>[[James Boswell]], ''[[Life of Samuel Johnson]], LL.D.'', ([[Ernest Rhys]], ed.) [https://archive.org/details/lifeofsamueljohn00boswuoft/page/9/mode/1up Vol.I, p.9] (London: [[J.M. Dent]], 1906) (retrieved 8 March 2026).</ref> | |||
===America=== | |||
Plutarch is the most frequently named of the ancient historians in the [[Federalist Papers]]. [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] and the [[transcendentalists]] were greatly influenced by the ''Moralia'' and in his glowing introduction to the five-volume, 19th-century edition, he called the ''Lives'' "a bible for heroes".<ref>{{cite book|last=Emerson|first=Ralph Waldo|editor=William W. Goodwin|title=Plutarch's Morals|year=1870|publisher=Sampson, Low|location=London|page=xxi|chapter=Introduction}}</ref> | |||
[[ | |||
=== | |||
Plutarch | |||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||
* [[6615 Plutarchos]] | * [[6615 Plutarchos]] | ||
* [[Plutarchia (wasp)|''Plutarchia'' (wasp)]] | * [[Plutarchia (wasp)|''Plutarchia'' (wasp)]] | ||
* [[Plutarchia (plant)|''Plutarchia'' (plant)]] | * [[Plutarchia (plant)|''Plutarchia'' (plant)]] | ||
==Notes== | ==Notes== | ||
| Line 300: | Line 121: | ||
{{Reflist}} | {{Reflist}} | ||
== | ==Bibliography== | ||
{{refbegin|colwidth=25em|small=yes}} | {{refbegin|colwidth=25em|small=yes}} | ||
* {{cite book |first=J.M. |last=Dillon |author-link=John M. Dillon |year=1996 |title=The Middle Platonists: 80 B.C. to A.D. 220 |place=Ithaca, NY |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-8316-5}} | * {{cite book |first=J.M. |last=Dillon |author-link=John M. Dillon |year=1996 |title=The Middle Platonists: 80 B.C. to A.D. 220 |place=Ithaca, NY |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-8316-5}} | ||
* {{cite journal |last=Honigmann |first=E.A.J. |year=1959 |title=Shakespeare's Plutarch |journal=[[Shakespeare Quarterly]] |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=25–33|doi=10.2307/2867020 |jstor=2867020 }} | * {{cite journal |last=Honigmann |first=E.A.J. |year=1959 |title=Shakespeare's Plutarch |journal=[[Shakespeare Quarterly]] |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=25–33|doi=10.2307/2867020 |jstor=2867020 }} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Jones |first=C.P. |year=1971 |title=Plutarch and Rome |place=Oxford, UK |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-814363-5}} | * {{cite book |last=Jones |first=C.P. |year=1971 |title=Plutarch and Rome |place=Oxford, UK |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-814363-5}} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Russell |first=D.A. |orig-date=1972 |year=2001 |title=Plutarch |publisher=Duckworth Publishing |isbn=978-1-85399-620-7}} | * {{cite book |last=Russell |first=D.A. |orig-date=1972 |year=2001 |title=Plutarch |publisher=Duckworth Publishing |isbn=978-1-85399-620-7}} | ||
* {{cite dictionary |last=Russell |first=Donald |year=2012 |title=Plutarch |editor-first1=Simon |editor-last1=Hornblower |editor-first2=Antony |editor-last2=Spawforth |editor-first3=Esther |editor-last3=Eidinow |dictionary=The Oxford Classical Dictionary |edition=4th |place=Oxford, UK |publisher=Oxford University Press |oclc=959667246 |isbn=978-0-19-954556-8 |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.5141 |pages=1165–1166}} | * {{cite dictionary |last=Russell |first=Donald |year=2012 |title=Plutarch |editor-first1=Simon |editor-last1=Hornblower |editor-first2=Antony |editor-last2=Spawforth |editor-first3=Esther |editor-last3=Eidinow |dictionary=The Oxford Classical Dictionary |edition=4th |place=Oxford, UK |publisher=Oxford University Press |oclc=959667246 |isbn=978-0-19-954556-8 |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.5141 |pages=1165–1166}} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Stadter |first=Philip A. |year=2014 |section=Plutarch and Rome |editor-last=Beck |editor-first=Mark |title=A Companion to Plutarch |series=Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World |pages=13–31 |publisher=Wiley Blackwell |isbn=978-1-4051-9431-0 |lccn=2013028283 }} | * {{cite book |last=Stadter |first=Philip A. |year=2014 |section=Plutarch and Rome |editor-last=Beck |editor-first=Mark |title=A Companion to Plutarch |series=Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World |pages=13–31 |publisher=Wiley Blackwell |isbn=978-1-4051-9431-0 |lccn=2013028283 }} | ||
* {{cite book | | * {{cite book |last1=Zeller |first1=Eduard |title=Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy: 13th Edition, Revised by Wilhelm Nestle |date=1931 |publisher=K. Paul, Trench, Trubner |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eGfw0AEACAAJ |pages = 306–308 |access-date=18 December 2024 |language=en}} | ||
{{refend}} | {{refend}} | ||
| Line 320: | Line 137: | ||
* {{cite book |editor-last=Beck |editor-first=Mark |year=2014 |title=A Companion to Plutarch |series=Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World |place=Malden, MA / Oxford, UK |publisher=Blackwell}} | * {{cite book |editor-last=Beck |editor-first=Mark |year=2014 |title=A Companion to Plutarch |series=Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World |place=Malden, MA / Oxford, UK |publisher=Blackwell}} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Beneker |first=Jeffrey |year=2012 |title=The passionate Statesman: ''Eros'' and politics in Plutarch's Lives |place=Oxford, UK |publisher=Oxford University Press}} | * {{cite book |last=Beneker |first=Jeffrey |year=2012 |title=The passionate Statesman: ''Eros'' and politics in Plutarch's Lives |place=Oxford, UK |publisher=Oxford University Press}} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Blackburn |first=Simon |year=1994 |title=Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy |place=Oxford, UK |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Brenk |first1=Frederick E. |last2=Roig Lanzillotta |first2=Lautaro |title=Plutarch on literature, Graeco-Roman religion, Jews and Christians |date=2023 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden; Boston |isbn=9789004531956}} | * {{cite book |last1=Brenk |first1=Frederick E. |last2=Roig Lanzillotta |first2=Lautaro |title=Plutarch on literature, Graeco-Roman religion, Jews and Christians |date=2023 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden; Boston |isbn=9789004531956}} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Duff |first=Timothy | * {{cite book |last=Duff |first=Timothy |orig-date=1999 |year=2002 |title=Plutarch's Lives: Exploring Virtue and Vice |publisher=Oxford University Press |place=Oxford, UK |isbn=978-0-19-925274-9}} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Georgiadou |first=Aristoula |year=1992 |section=Idealistic and realistic portraiture in the Lives of Plutarch |title=Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt: Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung |volume=2.33.6 |series=Sprache und Literatur: Allgemeines zur Literatur des 2. Jahrhunderts und einzelne Autoren der trajanischen und frühhadrianischen Zeit |editor-first=Wolfgang |editor-last=Haase |pages=4616–4623 |publication-place=Berlin, DE / New York, NY |publisher=Walter de Gruyter}} | * {{cite book |last=Georgiadou |first=Aristoula |year=1992 |section=Idealistic and realistic portraiture in the Lives of Plutarch |title=Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt: Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung |volume=2.33.6 |series=Sprache und Literatur: Allgemeines zur Literatur des 2. Jahrhunderts und einzelne Autoren der trajanischen und frühhadrianischen Zeit |editor-first=Wolfgang |editor-last=Haase |pages=4616–4623 |publication-place=Berlin, DE / New York, NY |publisher=Walter de Gruyter}} | ||
* {{cite journal |last=Gill |first=Christopher |year=1983 |title=The question of character-development: Plutarch and Tacitus |journal=Classical Quarterly |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=469–487|doi=10.1017/S0009838800034741 |s2cid=170532855 }} | * {{cite journal |last=Gill |first=Christopher |year=1983 |title=The question of character-development: Plutarch and Tacitus |journal=Classical Quarterly |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=469–487 |doi=10.1017/S0009838800034741 |s2cid=170532855}} | ||
* {{cite book |last1=Ginestí Rosell |first1=Anna |title=Dialogpoetik der Quaestiones Convivales von Plutarch |date=2023 |publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht |location=Göttingen |isbn=9783525361566}} | * {{cite book |last1=Ginestí Rosell |first1=Anna |title=Dialogpoetik der Quaestiones Convivales von Plutarch |date=2023 |publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht |location=Göttingen |isbn=9783525361566}} | ||
* {{cite book |last1=Guerrier |first1=Olivier |title=Visages singuliers du Plutarque humaniste. Autour d'Amyot et de la réception des Moralia et des Vies à la Renaissance |date=2023 |publisher=Les Belles Lettres |location=Paris |isbn=9782251454344}} | * {{cite book |last1=Guerrier |first1=Olivier |title=Visages singuliers du Plutarque humaniste. Autour d'Amyot et de la réception des Moralia et des Vies à la Renaissance |date=2023 |publisher=Les Belles Lettres |location=Paris |isbn=9782251454344}} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Hamilton |first=Edith |year=1957 |title=The Echo of Greece |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=0-393-00231-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/echoofgreece00edit/page/194 194] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/echoofgreece00edit/page/194}} | |||
* {{cite book |editor-last=Humble |editor-first=Noreen |year=2010 |title=Plutarch's Lives: Parallelism and purpose |place=Swansea, UK |publisher=Classical Press of Wales}} | * {{cite book |editor-last=Humble |editor-first=Noreen |year=2010 |title=Plutarch's Lives: Parallelism and purpose |place=Swansea, UK |publisher=Classical Press of Wales}} | ||
* {{cite book |last=McInerney |first=Jeremy |year=2003 |section=Plutarch's manly women |title=Andreia: Studies in manliness and courage in classical Athens |editor1-first=Ralph M. |editor1-last=Rosen |editor2-first=Ineke |editor2-last=Sluiter |pages=319–344 |series=Mnemosyne, Bibliotheca Classica Batava, Supplementum |volume=238 |place=Leiden, NL / Boston, MA |publisher=Brill}} | * {{cite book |last=McInerney |first=Jeremy |year=2003 |section=Plutarch's manly women |title=Andreia: Studies in manliness and courage in classical Athens |editor1-first=Ralph M. |editor1-last=Rosen |editor2-first=Ineke |editor2-last=Sluiter |pages=319–344 |series=Mnemosyne, Bibliotheca Classica Batava, Supplementum |volume=238 |place=Leiden, NL / Boston, MA |publisher=Brill}} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Mossman |first=Judith |year=2015 |section=Dressed for success? Clothing in Plutarch's Demetrius |title=Fame and infamy: Essays for Christopher Pelling on characterization and Roman biography and historiography |editor1-first=Rhiannon |editor1-last=Ash |editor2-first=Judith |editor2-last=Mossman |editor3-first=Frances B. |editor3-last=Titchener |pages=149–160 |place=Oxford, UK |publisher=Oxford University Press}} | * {{cite book |last=Mossman |first=Judith |year=2015 |section=Dressed for success? Clothing in Plutarch's Demetrius |title=Fame and infamy: Essays for Christopher Pelling on characterization and Roman biography and historiography |editor1-first=Rhiannon |editor1-last=Ash |editor2-first=Judith |editor2-last=Mossman |editor3-first=Frances B. |editor3-last=Titchener |pages=149–160 |place=Oxford, UK |publisher=Oxford University Press}} | ||
* {{cite book |editor-last=Nikolaidis |editor-first=Anastasios G. |year=2008 |title=The unity of Plutarch's work: ''Moralia'' themes in the ''Lives'', features of the ''Lives'' in the ''Moralia'' |place=Berlin, DE / New York, NY |publisher=Walter de Gruyter}} | * {{cite book |editor-last=Nikolaidis |editor-first=Anastasios G. |year=2008 |title=The unity of Plutarch's work: ''Moralia'' themes in the ''Lives'', features of the ''Lives'' in the ''Moralia'' |place=Berlin, DE / New York, NY |publisher=Walter de Gruyter}} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Pelling |first=Christopher |year=2002 |title=Plutarch and | * {{cite book |last=Pelling |first=Christopher |year=2002 |title=Plutarch and History: Eighteen studies |place=Swansea, UK |publisher=Classical Press of Wales |isbn=0-7156-3128-4 |oclc=50552352}} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Roskam |first=Geert |title=Plutarch |year=2021 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-1-009-10822-5}} | * {{cite book |last=Roskam |first=Geert |title=Plutarch |year=2021 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-1-009-10822-5}} | ||
* {{cite book |editor-last=Scardigli |editor-first=Barbara |year=1995 |title=Essays on Plutarch's ''Lives'' |place=Oxford, UK |publisher=Clarendon}} | * {{cite book |editor-last=Scardigli |editor-first=Barbara |year=1995 |title=Essays on Plutarch's ''Lives'' |place=Oxford, UK |publisher=Clarendon}} | ||
* {{cite conference |last=Stadter |first=Philip |date=26–28 May 1994 |title=Anecdotes and the thematic structure of Plutarchean biography |book-title=Estudios sobre Plutarco: Aspectos formales |conference=IV Simposio español sobre Plutarco |place=Salamanca, ES |editor1-first=José Antonio |editor1-last=Fernández Delgado |editor2-first=Francisca |editor2-last=Pordomingo Pardo |pages=291–303 |publication-place=Madrid, ES |publisher=Ediciones Clásicas |publication-date=1996 }} | * {{cite conference |last=Stadter |first=Philip |date=26–28 May 1994 |title=Anecdotes and the thematic structure of Plutarchean biography |book-title=Estudios sobre Plutarco: Aspectos formales |conference=IV Simposio español sobre Plutarco |place=Salamanca, ES |editor1-first=José Antonio |editor1-last=Fernández Delgado |editor2-first=Francisca |editor2-last=Pordomingo Pardo |pages=291–303 |publication-place=Madrid, ES |publisher=Ediciones Clásicas |publication-date=1996}} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Stadter |first=Philip A. |year=2015 |section=The rhetoric of virtue in Plutarch's ''Lives'' |title=Plutarch and his Roman Readers |pages=231–245 |place=Oxford, UK |publisher=Oxford University Press}} | * {{cite book |last=Stadter |first=Philip A. |year=2015 |section=The rhetoric of virtue in Plutarch's ''Lives'' |title=Plutarch and his Roman Readers |pages=231–245 |place=Oxford, UK |publisher=Oxford University Press}} | ||
*{{cite book |editor1-last=Titchener |editor1-first=Frances B. |editor2-last=Zadorojnyi |editor2-first=Alexei V. |title=The Cambridge companion to Plutarch |date=2023 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge New York, NY |isbn=9780521766227}} | *{{cite book |editor1-last=Titchener |editor1-first=Frances B. |editor2-last=Zadorojnyi |editor2-first=Alexei V. |title=The Cambridge companion to Plutarch |date=2023 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge New York, NY |isbn=9780521766227}} | ||
* {{cite book |last=van Hoof |first=Lieve |author-link=Lieve Van Hoof |year=2010 |title=Plutarch's Practical Ethics: The social dynamics of philosophy |place=Oxford, UK |publisher=Oxford University Press}} | * {{cite book |last=van Hoof |first=Lieve |author-link=Lieve Van Hoof |year=2010 |title=Plutarch's Practical Ethics: The social dynamics of philosophy |place=Oxford, UK |publisher=Oxford University Press}} | ||
* {{cite journal |last=Wardman |first=Alan E. |year=1967 |title=Description of personal appearance in Plutarch and Suetonius: The use of statues as evidence |journal=Classical Quarterly |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=414–420|doi=10.1017/S0009838800028512 |s2cid=170633095 }} | * {{cite journal |last=Wardman |first=Alan E. |year=1967 |title=Description of personal appearance in Plutarch and Suetonius: The use of statues as evidence |journal=Classical Quarterly |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=414–420 |doi=10.1017/S0009838800028512 |s2cid=170633095}} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Wardman |first=Alan |year=1974 |title=Plutarch's ''Lives'' |publisher=Elek |isbn=0-236-17622-6 |page=274}} | |||
* {{cite book |last=Zadorojnyi |first=Alexei V. |year=2012 |section=Mimesis and the (plu)past in Plutarch's ''Lives'' |title=Time and Narrative in Ancient Historiography: The "plupast" from Herodotus to Appian |editor1-first=Jonas |editor1-last=Grethlein |editor2-first=Christopher B. |editor2-last=Krebs |pages=175–198 |place=Cambridge, UK |publisher=Cambridge University Press}} | * {{cite book |last=Zadorojnyi |first=Alexei V. |year=2012 |section=Mimesis and the (plu)past in Plutarch's ''Lives'' |title=Time and Narrative in Ancient Historiography: The "plupast" from Herodotus to Appian |editor1-first=Jonas |editor1-last=Grethlein |editor2-first=Christopher B. |editor2-last=Krebs |pages=175–198 |place=Cambridge, UK |publisher=Cambridge University Press}} | ||
{{refend}} | {{refend}} | ||
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* Plutarch in the [https://www.loebclassics.com/browse?t1=author.plutarch Loeb Classical Library] | |||
* {{Gutenberg author | id=342 | name=Plutarch}} | * {{Gutenberg author | id=342 | name=Plutarch}} | ||
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Latest revision as of 11:21, 24 March 2026
Plutarch | |
|---|---|
 2nd-century bust from Delphi sometimes identified as Plutarch | |
| Born | before AD 50 |
| Died | after AD 120 |
Notable work | Parallel Lives Moralia |
| Era | Ancient Roman philosophy |
| Region | Ancient philosophy |
| School | Middle Platonism |
Main interests | Epistemology, ethics, history, metaphysics |
Plutarch (/ˈpluːtɑːrk/; Script error: The function "langx" does not exist., Ploútarchos, grc-x-koine; before AD 50 – after 120[1]) was a Greek and later Roman Middle Platonist philosopher,[2] historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his Parallel Lives, a series of biographies of illustrious Greeks and Romans, and Moralia, a collection of essays and speeches.[3] Upon becoming a Roman citizen, he was possibly named Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (Λούκιος Μέστριος Πλούταρχος).[1][lower-alpha 1]
Family[edit | edit source]
Plutarch was born to a prominent family in the small town of Chaeronea,[5] about 30 kilometres (19 mi) east of Delphi, in the Greek region of Boeotia. His family was long established in the town; his father was named Autobulus and his grandfather was named Lamprias.[1] His brothers, Timon and Lamprias, are frequently mentioned in his essays and dialogues, which speak of Timon in particular in the most affectionate terms.
Studies and life[edit | edit source]
Plutarch studied mathematics and philosophy in Athens under Ammonius from AD 66 to 67.[6] He attended the games of Delphi where the emperor Nero competed and possibly met prominent Romans, including future emperor Vespasian.[7] At some point, Plutarch received Roman citizenship. His sponsor was Lucius Mestrius Florus, who was an associate of the new emperor Vespasian, as evidenced by his new name, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus.[7] As a Roman citizen, Plutarch would have been of the equestrian order. He visited Rome some time c. AD 70 with Florus, who served also as a historical source for his Life of Otho.[8][7] Plutarch was on familiar terms with a number of Roman nobles, particularly the consulars Quintus Sosius Senecio, Titus Avidius Quietus, and Arulenus Rusticus, all of whom appear in his works.[9]
Plutarch lived most of his life at Chaeronea, and was initiated into the mysteries of the Greek god Apollo. He probably took part in the Eleusinian Mysteries.[10] During his visit to Rome, he may have been part of a municipal embassy for Delphi: around the same time, Vespasian granted Delphi various municipal rights and privileges.[11] Some time c. AD 95, Plutarch was made one of the two sanctuary priests for the temple of Apollo at Delphi; the site had declined considerably since the classical Greek period. Around the same time in the 90s, Delphi experienced a construction boom, financed by Greek patrons and possible imperial support.[12] There was a portrait bust dedicated to Plutarch for his efforts in helping to revive the Delphic shrines.[1] The portrait of a philosopher exhibited at the exit of the Archaeological Museum of Delphi dates to the 2nd century; due to its inscription, in the past it had been identified with Plutarch. The man, although bearded, is depicted at a relatively young age: His hair and beard are rendered in coarse volumes and thin incisions. The gaze is deep, due to the heavy eyelids and the incised pupils.[13] A fragmentary hermaic stele next to the portrait probably did once bear a portrait of Plutarch, since it is inscribed, "The Delphians, along with the Chaeroneans, dedicated this (image of) Plutarch, following the precepts of the Amphictyony" ("Δελφοὶ Χαιρωνεῦσιν ὁμοῦ Πλούταρχον ἔθηκαν | τοῖς Ἀμφικτυόνων δόγμασι πειθόμενοι").[14]
In addition to his duties as a priest of the Delphic temple, Plutarch was also a magistrate at Chaeronea and he represented his home town on various missions to foreign countries during his early adult years. Plutarch held the office of archon in his native municipality, probably only an annual one which he likely served more than once.[15] Plutarch was epimeletes (manager) of the Amphictyonic League for at least five terms, from 107 to 127, in which role he was responsible for organising the Pythian Games. He mentions this service in his work, Whether an Old Man Should Engage in Public Affairs (17 = Moralia 792f).[16] According to the 8th/9th-century historian George Syncellus, late in Plutarch's life, Emperor Hadrian appointed him nominal procurator of Achaea – which entitled him to wear the vestments and ornaments of a consul.[17]
Plutarch and his wife, Timoxena,[18] had at least four sons and one daughter, although two died in childhood. A letter is still extant, addressed by Plutarch to his wife, bidding her not to grieve too much at the death of their two-year-old daughter, who was named Timoxena after her mother, which also mentions the loss of a young son, Chaeron.[19] Two sons, named Autoboulos and Plutarch, appear in a number of Plutarch's works; Plutarch's treatise on Plato's Timaeus is dedicated to them.[20] It is likely that a third son, named Soklaros after Plutarch's confidant Soklaros of Tithora, survived to adulthood as well, although he is not mentioned in Plutarch's later works; a Lucius Mestrius Soclarus, who shares Plutarch's Latin family name, appears in an inscription in Boeotia from the time of Trajan.[21] Traditionally, the surviving catalog of Plutarch's works is ascribed to another son, named Lamprias after Plutarch's grandfather;[22] most modern scholars believe this tradition is a later interpolation.[23] His family remained in Greece down to at least the fourth century, producing a number of philosophers and authors.[20] Apuleius, author of The Golden Ass, made his fictional protagonist a descendant of Plutarch.[24]
It is not known in which year Plutarch died. Gregory Crane estimates that he died c. 125,[25] while the 1911 edition of Encyclopædia Britannica estimates that he died c. 120.[6] As of the 21st century, Encyclopædia Britannica gives Plutarch's death year as "after 119".[26]
Works[edit | edit source]
Parallel Lives[edit | edit source]
Plutarch's best-known work is the Parallel Lives, a series of biographies of illustrious Greeks and Romans, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues and vices, thus it being more of an insight into human nature than a historical account. As is explained in the opening paragraph of his Life of Alexander,[27] Plutarch was not concerned with history so much as the influence of character, good or bad, on the lives and destinies of men. Whereas sometimes he barely touched on epoch-making events, he devoted much space to charming anecdote and incidental triviality, reasoning that this often said far more for his subjects than even their most famous accomplishments. He sought to provide rounded portraits, likening his craft to that of a painter; indeed, he went to tremendous lengths (often leading to tenuous comparisons) to draw parallels between physical appearance and moral character.[citation needed]
The surviving Lives contain 23 pairs, each with one Greek life and one Roman life, as well as four unpaired single lives. Some of the Lives, such as those of Heracles, Philip II of Macedon, Epaminondas, Scipio Africanus, Scipio Aemilianus and possibly Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus no longer exist; many of the remaining Lives are truncated, contain obvious lacunae or have been tampered with by later writers.[citation needed]
Extant Lives include those on Solon, Themistocles, Aristides, Agesilaus II, Pericles, Alcibiades, Nicias, Demosthenes, Pelopidas, Philopoemen, Timoleon, Dion of Syracuse, Eumenes, Alexander the Great, Pyrrhus of Epirus, Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Coriolanus, Theseus, Aemilius Paullus, Tiberius Gracchus, Gaius Gracchus, Gaius Marius, Sulla, Sertorius, Lucullus, Pompey, Julius Caesar, Cicero, Cato the Elder, Cato the Younger, Mark Antony, and Marcus Junius Brutus.
Life of Alexander[edit | edit source]
"It is not histories I am writing, but lives; and in the most glorious deeds there is not always an indication of virtue or vice, indeed a small thing like a phrase or a jest often makes a greater revelation of a character than battles where thousands die."
Life of Alexander
Plutarch's Life of Alexander, written as a parallel to that of Julius Caesar, is one of five extant tertiary sources on the Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great. It includes anecdotes and descriptions of events that appear in no other source, just as Plutarch's portrait of Numa Pompilius, the putative second king of Rome, holds much that is unique on the early Roman calendar. Plutarch devotes a great deal of space to Alexander's drive and desire, and strives to determine how much of it was presaged in his youth. He also draws extensively on the work of Lysippos, Alexander's favourite sculptor, to provide what is probably the fullest and most accurate description of the conqueror's physical appearance. When it comes to his character, Plutarch emphasizes his unusual degree of self-control and scorn for luxury: "He desired not pleasure or wealth, but only excellence and glory." As the narrative progresses, the subject incurs less admiration from his biographer and the deeds that it recounts become less savoury. The murder of Cleitus the Black, which Alexander instantly and deeply regretted, is commonly cited to this end.[citation needed]
Life of Caesar[edit | edit source]
Together with Suetonius's The Twelve Caesars, and Caesar's own works de Bello Gallico and de Bello Civili, the Life of Caesar is the main account of Julius Caesar's feats by ancient historians. Plutarch starts by telling of the audacity of Caesar and his refusal to dismiss Cinna's daughter, Cornelia. Other important parts are those containing his military deeds, accounts of battles and Caesar's capacity of inspiring the soldiers.
Plutarch's life shows few differences from Suetonius' work and Caesar's own works (see De Bello Gallico and De Bello Civili). Sometimes, Plutarch quotes directly from the De Bello Gallico and even tells us of the moments when Caesar was dictating his works. In the final part of this life, Plutarch recounts details of Caesar's assassination. It ends by telling the destiny of his murderers, just after a detailed account of the scene when a phantom appeared to Brutus at night.[28]
Life of Pyrrhus[edit | edit source]
Plutarch's Life of Pyrrhus is a key text because it is the main historical account on Roman history for the period from 293 to 264 BCE, for which both Dionysius' and Livy's texts are lost.[29]
Moralia[edit | edit source]
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 appearance and a source for Galileo's own work),[30] "On Fraternal Affection" (a discourse on honour and affection of siblings toward each other), "On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander the Great" (an important adjunct to his Life of the great king), and "On the Worship of Isis and Osiris" (a crucial source of information on ancient Egyptian religion);[31] more philosophical treatises, such as "On the Decline of the Oracles", "On the Delays of the Divine Vengeance", and "On Peace of Mind"; and lighter fare, such as "Odysseus and Gryllus", a humorous dialogue between Homer's Odysseus and one of Circe's enchanted pigs.
Pseudepigrapha[edit | edit source]
Some editions of the Moralia include several works now known to have been falsely attributed to Plutarch. Among these are the Lives of the Ten Orators, a series of biographies of the Attic orators based on Caecilius of Calacte; On the Opinions of the Philosophers, On Fate, and On Music.[32] These works are all attributed to a single, unknown author, referred to as "Pseudo-Plutarch".[32] Pseudo-Plutarch lived sometime between the third and fourth centuries AD. Despite being falsely attributed, the works are still considered to possess historical value.[33]
Lives of the Roman emperors[edit | edit source]
Plutarch's first biographical works were the Lives of the Roman Emperors from Augustus to Vitellius. These early emperors' biographies were probably published under the Flavian dynasty or during the reign of Nerva (AD 96–98). Of these, only the Lives of Galba and Otho survive. The Lives of Tiberius and Nero are extant only as fragments, provided by Damascius[34] as well as Plutarch himself,[35] respectively. There is reason to believe that the two Lives still extant, those of Galba and Otho, "ought to be considered as a single work." Therefore, they do not form a part of the Plutarchian canon of single biographies – as represented by the Life of Aratus of Sicyon and the Life of Artaxerxes II (the biographies of Hesiod, Pindar, Crates and Daiphantus were lost). Galba-Otho can be found in the appendix to Plutarch's Parallel Lives as well as in various Moralia manuscripts, most prominently in Maximus Planudes' edition where Galba and Otho appear as Opera XXV and XXVI. Thus it seems reasonable to maintain that Galba-Otho was from early on considered as an illustration of a moral-ethical approach.[citation needed]
Lost works[edit | edit source]
The lost works of Plutarch are determined by references in his own texts to them and from other authors' references over time. Parts of the Lives and what would be considered parts of the Moralia have been lost. The 'Catalogue of Lamprias', an ancient list of works attributed to Plutarch, lists 227 works, of which 78 have come down to us.[1] The Romans loved the Lives. Enough copies were written out over the centuries so that a copy of most of the lives has survived to the present day, but there are traces of twelve more Lives that are now lost.[36] Plutarch's general procedure for the Lives was to write the life of a prominent Greek, then cast about for a suitable Roman parallel, and end with a brief comparison of the Greek and Roman lives. Currently, only 19 of the parallel lives end with a comparison, while possibly they all did at one time. Also missing are many of his Lives which appear in a list of his writings: those of Hercules, the first pair of Parallel Lives, Scipio Africanus and Epaminondas, and the companions to the four solo biographies, as well as biographies of important figures such as Augustus, Claudius and Nero.[37][38] Lost works that would have been part of the Moralia include "Whether One Who Suspends Judgment on Everything Is Condemned to Inaction", "On Pyrrho's Ten Modes", and "On the Difference between the Pyrrhonians and the Academics".[39]
Philosophy[edit | edit source]
"The soul, being eternal, after death is like a caged bird that has been released. If it has been a long time in the body, and has become tame by many affairs and long habit, the soul will immediately take another body and once again become involved in the troubles of the world. The worst thing about old age is that the soul's memory of the other world grows dim, while at the same time its attachment to things of this world becomes so strong that the soul tends to retain the form that it had in the body. But that soul which remains only a short time within a body, until liberated by the higher powers, quickly recovers its fire and goes on to higher things."
Plutarch ("The Consolation", Moralia)
Plutarch was a Platonist, but was open to the influence of the Peripatetics, and in some details even to Stoicism despite his criticism of their principles.[40] He rejected only Epicureanism absolutely.[40] He attached little importance to theoretical questions and doubted the possibility of ever solving them.[40] He was more interested in moral and religious questions.[40]
In opposition to Stoic materialism and Epicurean atheism he cherished a pure idea of God that was more in accordance with Plato.[40] He adopted a second principle (Dyad) in order to explain the phenomenal world.[40] This principle he sought, however, not in any indeterminate matter but in the evil world-soul which has from the beginning been bound up with matter, but in the creation was filled with reason and arranged by it.[40] Thus it was transformed into the divine soul of the world, but continued to operate as the source of all evil.[40] He elevated God above the finite world, and thus daemons became for him agents of God's influence on the world. He strongly defends freedom of the will, and the immortality of the soul.[40]
Platonic-Peripatetic ethics were upheld by Plutarch against the opposing theories of the Stoics and Epicureans.[40] The most characteristic feature of Plutarch's ethics is its close connection with religion.[40] However pure Plutarch's idea of God is, and however vivid his description of the vice and corruption which superstition causes, his warm religious feelings and his distrust of human powers of knowledge led him to believe that God comes to our aid by direct revelations, which we perceive the more clearly the more completely that we refrain in "enthusiasm" from all action; this made it possible for him to justify popular belief in divination in the way which had long been usual among the Stoics.[40]
His attitude to popular religion was similar. The gods of different peoples are merely different names for one and the same divine Being and the powers that serve it.[40] The myths contain philosophical truths which can be interpreted allegorically.[40] Thus, Plutarch sought to combine the philosophical and religious conception of things and to remain as close as possible to tradition.[40] Plutarch was the teacher of Favorinus.[41]
Plutarch was a vegetarian, although how long and how strictly he adhered to this diet is unclear.[42] He wrote about the ethics of meat-eating in two discourses in Moralia.[43]
Influence[edit | edit source]
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There are multiple translations of Parallel Lives into Latin, most notably the one titled "Pour le Dauphin" (French for "for the Crown Prince") written by a scribe in the court of Louis XV of France, and a 1470 Ulrich Han translation. In 1519, Hieronymus Emser translated De capienda ex inimicis utilitate (wie ym eyner seinen veyndt nutz machen kan, Leipzig). The biographies were translated by Gottlob Benedict von Schirach (1743–1804) and printed in Vienna by Franz Haas (1776–1780). Plutarch's Lives and Moralia were translated into German by Johann Friedrich Salomon Kaltwasser.
France and England[edit | edit source]
Plutarch's writings had an enormous influence on English and French literature.
Montaigne's Essays draw extensively on Plutarch's Moralia and are consciously modelled on the Greek's easygoing and discursive inquiries into science, manners, customs and beliefs. Essays contains more than 400 references to Plutarch and his works.[37]
Jacques Amyot's translations brought Plutarch's works to French readers. He went to Italy and studied the Vatican text of Plutarch, from which he published a French translation of the Lives in 1559 and Moralia in 1572, which were widely read by educated Europe.[44] Amyot's translations had as deep an impression in England as France, because Sir Thomas North later published his English translation of the Lives in 1579 based on Amyot's French translation instead of the original Greek.[45] Shakespeare paraphrased parts of Thomas North's translation of selected Lives in his plays, and occasionally quoted from them verbatim.[46]
The complete Moralia was first translated into English from the original Greek by Philemon Holland in 1603. In 1683, John Dryden began a life of Plutarch and oversaw a translation of the Lives by several hands and based on the original Greek. This translation has been reworked and revised several times, most recently in the 19th century by the English poet and classicist Arthur Hugh Clough (first published in 1859). One contemporary publisher of this version is Modern Library. Another is Encyclopædia Britannica in association with the University of Chicago, ISBN 0-85229-163-9, 1952, Template:LCCN/prepare. In 1770, English brothers John and William Langhorne published "Plutarch's Lives from the original Greek, with notes critical and historical, and a new life of Plutarch" in 6 volumes and dedicated to Lord Folkestone. Their translation was re-edited by Archdeacon Wrangham in the year 1813.[citation needed]
Jean-Jacques Rousseau quotes Plutarch in the 1762 Emile, or On Education, a treatise on the education of the whole person for citizenship. Rousseau introduces a passage from Plutarch in support of his position against eating meat: Template:"'You ask me', said Plutarch, 'why Pythagoras abstained from eating the flesh of beasts...'"[47]
James Boswell quoted Plutarch on writing lives, rather than biographies, in the introduction to his own Life of Samuel Johnson.[48]
America[edit | edit source]
Plutarch is the most frequently named of the ancient historians in the Federalist Papers. Ralph Waldo Emerson and the transcendentalists were greatly influenced by the Moralia and in his glowing introduction to the five-volume, 19th-century edition, he called the Lives "a bible for heroes".[49]
See also[edit | edit source]
Notes[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Russell 2012.
- ↑ Dillon 1996, p. 184.
- ↑ "Plutarch". Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy.
- ↑ Salway, Benet (1994). "What's in a Name? A Survey of Roman Onomastic Practice from c. 700 B.C. to A.D. 700". Journal of Roman Studies. 84: 137–140. doi:10.2307/300873. JSTOR 300873. S2CID 162435434.
- ↑ Stadter 2014, p. 13.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Paley, Frederick Apthorp; Mitchell, John Malcolm (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). pp. 857–860.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Stadter 2014, p. 14.
- ↑ Plutarch, Otho 14.1
- ↑ Jones 1971, p. 20-27.
- ↑ Mark, Joshua J. (18 January 2012). "The Eleusinian Mysteries: The Rites of Demeter". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
- ↑ Stadter 2014, p. 15.
- ↑ Stadter 2014, p. 20.
- ↑ "SELECTED EXHIBITS – Archaeological Site of Delphi – Museum of Delphi". Delphi.culture.gr. Delphi Archaeological Museum. 11 December 2019. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- ↑ Syll.3 843=CID 4, no. 151 [full citation needed]
- ↑ Clough, Arthur Hugh (1864). "Introduction". Plutarch's Lives. Liberty Library of Constitutional Classics.
- ↑ West, Allen B. (1928). "Notes on Achaean Prosopography and Chronology". Classical Philology. 23 (3): 262–267. doi:10.1086/361044. ISSN 0009-837X. JSTOR 263715. S2CID 161334831.
- ↑ Russell 2001.
- ↑ Rualdus, Life of Plutarchus 1624
- ↑ "Plutarch, Consolatio ad uxorem, section 5". Perseus Digital Library. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Jones 1971, p. 11.
- ↑ The inscription is in Inscriptiones Graecae, 9.1.61, see the note in Jones 1971, p. 22 Older scholarship tended assume Soklaros was not a son or died young because he did not appear in any dedications.
- ↑ "Lamprias". Suda. Translated by Whitehead, David. 8 September 2001. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via Department of Computer Science at the University of Kentucky.
- ↑ Ziegler, Konrat (1964). Plutarchos von Chaironeia (in Deutsch). Stuttgart: Alfred Druckenmuller. p. 60.
- ↑ The Golden Ass 1.2
- ↑ "Perseus Encyclopedia, Pachynum, Pison, Plutarch". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
- ↑ "Plutarch – Biographer, Historian, Philosopher | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 1 January 2025. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
- ↑ Plutarch. The life of Alexander. p. 1.
- ↑ Plutarch. The life of Caesar.
- ↑ Cornell, T.J. (1995). "Introduction". The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000–264 BC). Routledge. p. 3.
- ↑ Bakker & Palmerino (2020). "Motion to the Center or Motion to the Whole? Plutarch's Views on Gravity and Their Influence on Galileo". Isis. 111 (2): 217–238. doi:10.1086/709138. hdl:2066/219256. S2CID 219925047.
- ↑ (but which according to Erasmus referred to the Thessalonians)Plutarch. "Isis and Osiris". Frank Cole Babbitt (trans.). Archived from the original on 14 September 2008. Retrieved 10 December 2006.
- ↑ 32.0 32.1 Blank, D. (2011). "'Plutarch' and the Sophistry of 'Noble Lineage'". In Martínez, J. (ed.). Fakes and Forgers of Classical Literature. Madrid: Ediciones Clásicas. pp. 33–60.
- ↑ Marietta, Don E. (1998). Introduction to Ancient Philosophy. M.E. Sharpe. p. 190. ISBN 978-0-7656-0216-9.
- ↑ (Life of Tiberius, cf. his Life of Isidore) Ziegler, Konrad, Plutarchos von Chaironeia (Stuttgart 1964), 258. Citation translated by the author.
- ↑ Life of Nero, cf. Galba 2.1
- ↑ "Translator's Introduction". The Parallel Lives (Vol. I ed.). Loeb Classical Library Edition. 1914.
- ↑ 37.0 37.1 Kimball, Roger. "Plutarch & the issue of character". The New Criterion Online. Archived from the original on 16 November 2006. Retrieved 11 December 2006.
- ↑ McCutchen, Wilmot H. "Plutarch – His Life and Legacy". e-classics.com. Archived from the original on 5 December 2006. Retrieved 10 December 2006.
- ↑ Mauro Bonazzi, "Plutarch on the Differences Between the Pyrrhonists and Academics", Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, 2012.
- ↑ 40.00 40.01 40.02 40.03 40.04 40.05 40.06 40.07 40.08 40.09 40.10 40.11 40.12 40.13 40.14 Zeller 1931.
- ↑ Richter, Daniel S.; Johnson, William Allen (2017). The Oxford Handbook of the Second Sophistic. Oxford University Press. p. 552. ISBN 978-0-19-983747-2.
- ↑ Newmyer, Stephen (1992). "Plutarch on Justice Toward Animals: Ancient Insights on a Modern Debate". Scholia: Studies in Classical Antiquity. 1 (1): 38–54. Retrieved 5 September 2020.
- ↑ Plutarch. "On the Eating of Flesh". Moralia.
- ↑ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 01 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 901.
He was thus enabled to go to Italy to study the Vatican text of Plutarch, on the translation on whose Lives (1559; 1565) he had been some time engaged.
- ↑ Denton, John. “Renaissance Translation Strategies and the Manipulation of a Classical Text. Plutarch from Jacques Amyot to Thomas North”. Europe Et Traduction, edited by Michel Ballard, Artois Presses Université, 1998, https://doi.org/10.4000/books.apu.6433.
- ↑ Honigmann 1959.
- ↑ Jean Jacques Rousseau, Emile (Barbara Foxley, tr.), p.118 (London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1955) (retrieved 8 March 2026).
- ↑ James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., (Ernest Rhys, ed.) Vol.I, p.9 (London: J.M. Dent, 1906) (retrieved 8 March 2026).
- ↑ Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1870). "Introduction". In William W. Goodwin (ed.). Plutarch's Morals. London: Sampson, Low. p. xxi.
Bibliography[edit | edit source]
- Dillon, J.M. (1996). The Middle Platonists: 80 B.C. to A.D. 220. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-8316-5.
- Honigmann, E.A.J. (1959). "Shakespeare's Plutarch". Shakespeare Quarterly. 10 (1): 25–33. doi:10.2307/2867020. JSTOR 2867020.
- Jones, C.P. (1971). Plutarch and Rome. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-814363-5.
- Russell, D.A. (2001) [1972]. Plutarch. Duckworth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85399-620-7.
- Russell, Donald (2012). "Plutarch". In Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Antony; Eidinow, Esther (eds.). The Oxford Classical Dictionary (4th ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 1165–1166. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.5141. ISBN 978-0-19-954556-8. OCLC 959667246.
- Stadter, Philip A. (2014). "Plutarch and Rome". In Beck, Mark (ed.). A Companion to Plutarch. Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World. Wiley Blackwell. pp. 13–31. ISBN 978-1-4051-9431-0. LCCN 2013028283.
- Zeller, Eduard (1931). Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy: 13th Edition, Revised by Wilhelm Nestle. K. Paul, Trench, Trubner. pp. 306–308. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
Further reading[edit | edit source]
- Beck, Mark (1996). "Anecdote and the representation of Plutarch's ethos". In van der Stockt, Luc (ed.). Rhetorical theory and praxis in Plutarch. The IVt International Congress of the International Plutarch Society. Collection d'Études Classiques. Vol. 11. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters (published 2000). pp. 15–32.
- Beck, Mark, ed. (2014). A Companion to Plutarch. Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World. Malden, MA / Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
- Beneker, Jeffrey (2012). The passionate Statesman: Eros and politics in Plutarch's Lives. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
- Blackburn, Simon (1994). Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
- Brenk, Frederick E.; Roig Lanzillotta, Lautaro (2023). Plutarch on literature, Graeco-Roman religion, Jews and Christians. Leiden; Boston: Brill. ISBN 9789004531956.
- Duff, Timothy (2002) [1999]. Plutarch's Lives: Exploring Virtue and Vice. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-925274-9.
- Georgiadou, Aristoula (1992). "Idealistic and realistic portraiture in the Lives of Plutarch". In Haase, Wolfgang (ed.). Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt: Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung. Sprache und Literatur: Allgemeines zur Literatur des 2. Jahrhunderts und einzelne Autoren der trajanischen und frühhadrianischen Zeit. Vol. 2.33.6. Berlin, DE / New York, NY: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 4616–4623.
- Gill, Christopher (1983). "The question of character-development: Plutarch and Tacitus". Classical Quarterly. 33 (2): 469–487. doi:10.1017/S0009838800034741. S2CID 170532855.
- Ginestí Rosell, Anna (2023). Dialogpoetik der Quaestiones Convivales von Plutarch. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN 9783525361566.
- Guerrier, Olivier (2023). Visages singuliers du Plutarque humaniste. Autour d'Amyot et de la réception des Moralia et des Vies à la Renaissance. Paris: Les Belles Lettres. ISBN 9782251454344.
- Hamilton, Edith (1957). The Echo of Greece. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 194. ISBN 0-393-00231-4.
- Humble, Noreen, ed. (2010). Plutarch's Lives: Parallelism and purpose. Swansea, UK: Classical Press of Wales.
- McInerney, Jeremy (2003). "Plutarch's manly women". In Rosen, Ralph M.; Sluiter, Ineke (eds.). Andreia: Studies in manliness and courage in classical Athens. Mnemosyne, Bibliotheca Classica Batava, Supplementum. Vol. 238. Leiden, NL / Boston, MA: Brill. pp. 319–344.
- Mossman, Judith (2015). "Dressed for success? Clothing in Plutarch's Demetrius". In Ash, Rhiannon; Mossman, Judith; Titchener, Frances B. (eds.). Fame and infamy: Essays for Christopher Pelling on characterization and Roman biography and historiography. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 149–160.
- Nikolaidis, Anastasios G., ed. (2008). The unity of Plutarch's work: Moralia themes in the Lives, features of the Lives in the Moralia. Berlin, DE / New York, NY: Walter de Gruyter.
- Pelling, Christopher (2002). Plutarch and History: Eighteen studies. Swansea, UK: Classical Press of Wales. ISBN 0-7156-3128-4. OCLC 50552352.
- Roskam, Geert (2021). Plutarch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-009-10822-5.
- Scardigli, Barbara, ed. (1995). Essays on Plutarch's Lives. Oxford, UK: Clarendon.
- Stadter, Philip (26–28 May 1994). "Anecdotes and the thematic structure of Plutarchean biography". Written at Salamanca, ES. In Fernández Delgado, José Antonio; Pordomingo Pardo, Francisca (eds.). Estudios sobre Plutarco: Aspectos formales. IV Simposio español sobre Plutarco. Madrid, ES: Ediciones Clásicas (published 1996). pp. 291–303.
- Stadter, Philip A. (2015). "The rhetoric of virtue in Plutarch's Lives". Plutarch and his Roman Readers. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 231–245.
- Titchener, Frances B.; Zadorojnyi, Alexei V., eds. (2023). The Cambridge companion to Plutarch. Cambridge New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521766227.
- van Hoof, Lieve (2010). Plutarch's Practical Ethics: The social dynamics of philosophy. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
- Wardman, Alan E. (1967). "Description of personal appearance in Plutarch and Suetonius: The use of statues as evidence". Classical Quarterly. 17 (2): 414–420. doi:10.1017/S0009838800028512. S2CID 170633095.
- Wardman, Alan (1974). Plutarch's Lives. Elek. p. 274. ISBN 0-236-17622-6.
- Zadorojnyi, Alexei V. (2012). "Mimesis and the (plu)past in Plutarch's Lives". In Grethlein, Jonas; Krebs, Christopher B. (eds.). Time and Narrative in Ancient Historiography: The "plupast" from Herodotus to Appian. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 175–198.
External links[edit | edit source]
| Library resources about Plutarch |
| By Plutarch |
|---|
- Plutarch's works
- Plutarch in the Loeb Classical Library
- Works by Plutarch at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Plutarch at Internet Archive
- Works by Plutarch at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Perseus Digital Library
- Plutarch on LacusCurtius
- Didot edition of Plutarch's works in Greek, with Latin translation (1857–1876): vol. 1 (Lives, pt. 1), vol. 2 (Lives, pt. 2), vol. 3 (Moralia, pt. 1), vol. 4 (Moralia, pt. 2), vol. 5 (fragmenta et spuria) (also via BNF)
- Secondary material
- Karamanolis, George. "Plutarch". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Plutarch of Chaeronea by Jona Lendering at Livius
- The International Plutarch Society Archived 11 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- The relevance of Plutarch's book De Defectu Oraculorum for Christian Theology (Ploutarchos, Journal of the International Plutarch Society) Archived 8 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine
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