Plutarch

Greek · 46 to 120

Born around 46 CE in the small town of Chaeronea in Boeotia, about thirty kilometres east of Delphi, Plutarch came from a long-established Boeotian family; his father was Autobulus, his grandfather Lamprias, and his brothers Timon and Lamprias appear with affection in his dialogues. He studied mathematics and philosophy in Athens under the Platonist Ammonius around 66 to 67, attending the games at Delphi where Nero competed and possibly meeting the future emperor Vespasian. Through his Roman sponsor Lucius Mestrius Florus he received Roman citizenship and the name Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus. He lived most of his life at Chaeronea, where he served as magistrate, archon, and envoy on missions to foreign cities, and around 95 he became one of the two priests at the temple of Apollo at Delphi, helping to revive the long-declined shrine. His Parallel Lives pairs twenty-three biographies of Greeks and Romans (Alexander with Caesar, Demosthenes with Cicero, Pyrrhus with Marius) to draw out the moral character of each through what he called the small things, a jest or a passing word rather than the great battles. The Moralia gathers seventy-eight essays on subjects from the face on the moon to peace of mind, from vegetarianism to brotherly love. He and his wife Timoxena had at least four sons and a daughter; they lost the two-year-old Timoxena, named for her mother, and a son named Chaeron, and a letter to his wife counselling her not to grieve excessively survives. Late in life the emperor Hadrian appointed him nominal procurator of Achaea, entitling him to the vestments of a consul. He died in Chaeronea sometime after 119 CE, in his mid-seventies, having outlived two of his children.