Plutarch(46-122)
- Writer
Greek biographer and philosopher who was born c. 46 AD in Chaeronea,
Boeotia, central Greece. Son of Aristobulus. In A.D. 66 he was in
Athens, studying physics, mathematics natural science, and rhetoric -
though the subject which held the greatest interest for him was ethics.
He lectured in Rome on philosophical and rhetorical subjects. Plutarch
went on fairly extensive travels to Egypt, Asia Minor and other parts
of Greece. He was given a honorific position by Trajan and made a
procurator by the emperor Hadrian. Athens granted him citizenship, and
a life priesthood was bestowed on him at Delphi where he helped revive
the shrine there. He also held numerous municipal posts in Chaeronea. A
discipline of Romans like Plato and Aristotle, he nevertheless had his
own views of humanity and expressed them in his works. He was a
prolific and varied writer who produced two extensive collections of
essays, Moralia (Morals) and Vitae parallelae (Parallel lives;
translated simply as Lives). The latter includes biographies on
Alexander the Great, two mythical or legendary monarchs, Romulus and
Numa, and Mark Antony among others. The biography of the divine
Heracles, Scipio the Younger, and Scipio the Elder are missing. He
probably died c. 120-25 CE.
