A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

PLUTARCHIUS. PLUTARCHUS. 429
Trusting perhaps to the influence of his friend which only exists in the Policraticus of John of SalisMeidias, he applied to the Athenians in B.c. 354 bury (Lib. 5. c. 1, ed. Leiden, 1639), is a forgery,
for aid against his rival, Callias of Chalcis, who though John probably did not forge it. John's
had allied himself with Philip of Macedon. The expression is somewhat singular: " Extat Epistola
application was granted in spite of the resistance of Plutarchi Trajanum instituentis, quae cujusdam
Demosthenes, and the command of the expedition politicae constitutionis exprimit sensum. Ea dicitur
was entrusted to Phocion, who defeated Callias at esse hujusmodi;" and then he gives the letter.
Tamynae. But the conduct of Plutarchus in the In the second chapter of this book John says that
battle had placed the Athenians in great jeopardy, this Politica Constitutio is a small treatise inand though it may have been nothing more than scribed " Institutio Trajani," and he gives the subrashness, Phocion would seem to have regarded it stance of part of the work. Plutarch, who dedias treachery, for he thenceforth treated Plutarchus cated the'A7roq)0eyf7ava BahLAerw' Kaly,2paTIycvV
as an enemy and expelled him from Eretria to Trajanus, says nothing of the emperor having
(Dem. de Pac. p. 58, Philipp. iii. p. 125, c. Meid. been his pupil. But some critics have argued that
pp. 550, 567, 579; Aesch. de Fals. Leg. p. 50, Plutarch is not the author of the Apophthemata,
c. Ctes. p. 66; Plut. Phoc. 12, 13; Paus. i. 36.) because he says in the dedication that he had
[CALLIAS; PHOCION.] [E. E.] written the lives of illustrious Greeks and RoPLUTARCHUS (fIhovTapXos), was born at mans; for they assume that he did not return to
Chaeroneia in Boeotia. The few facts of his life Chaeroneia until after the death of Trajanus, and
which are known, are chiefly collected from his own did not write his Lives until after his return. If
writings. these assumptions could be proved, it follows that he
He was studying philosophy under Ammonius did not write the Apophthegmata, or at least the
at the time when Nero was making his progress dedication. If we assume that he retired to Chaerothrough Greece (Isep TroO El s' Aexqpos, c. 1), neia before the death of Trajanus, we may admit
as we may collect from the passage referred to. that he wrote his Lives at Chaeroneia and the
Nero was in Greece and visited Delphi in A.D. 66; Apophthegmata afterwards. It appears from his
and Plutarch seems to say, that he was at Delphi Life of Demosthenes (c. 2), that he certainly
at that time. We may assume then that he was wrote that Life at Chaeroneia, and this Life and
a youth or a young man in A. D. 66. In another that of Cicero were the fifth pair. (Demosthenes,
passage (Antonius, 87) he speaks of Nero as his c. 3.) Plutarch probably spent the later years of
contemporary. His great-grandfather Nicarchus his life at Chaeroneia, where he discharged various
told him what the citizens of Chaeroneia had suf- magisterial offices, and had a priesthood.
fered at the time of the battle of Actium (Plut. Plutarch's wife, Timoxena, bore him four sons
Antonius, 68). He also mentions his grandfather and a daughter, also named Timoxena. It was
Lamprias, from whom he heard various anecdotes on the occasion of his daughter's death that he
about M. Antonius, which Lamprias had heard from wrote his sensible and affectionate letter of consoPhilotas, who was studying medicine at Alexandria lation to his wife (InapatvepOrat aos etS r7s' 1laC yuwhen M. Antonius was there with Cleopatra. vaYKa).
(Antonius, 29.) His father's name does not The time of Plutarch's death is unknown.
appear in his extant works. He had two brothers, The work which has immortalised Plutarch's
Timon and Lamprias. As a young man, lie was name is his Parallel Lives (Blot IIapadAAXAo) of
once employed on a mission to the Roman governor forty-six Greeks and Romans. The forty-six
of the province. (rIOhALTcKa rapayy2-E6ara, 20.) Lives are arranged in pairs; each pair contains
It appears incidentally from his own writings the life of a Greek and a Roman, and is followed
that he must have visited several parts of Italy: by a comparison (Ud'YKPItSj) of the two men: in a
for instance, he speaks of seeing the statue or bust few pairs the comparison is omitted or lost. He
of Marius at Ravenna (hloarius, 2). But lie says seems to have considered each pair of Lives and
in express terms that he spent some time at Rome, the Parallel as making one book (PiGAtove). When
and iii other parts of Italy (Denzostlenes, 2). He he says that the book of the Lives of Demosthenes
observes, that he did not learn the Latin language and Cicero was the fifth, it is the nlost natural inin Italy, because he was occupied with public com- terpretation to suppose that it was the fifth in the
missions, and in giving lectures on philosophy; order in which he wrote them. It could not be
and it was late in life before he busied himself with the fifth in any other sense, if each pair composed
Roman literature. He was lecturing at Rome a book.
durino the reign of Donitiianus, for he gives an The forty-six Lives are the following: —. Theaccount of the stoic L. Junius Arulenus Rusticus seus and Romulus; 2. Lycurgus and Numa; 3.
receiving a letter from the emperor while he was Solon and Valerius Publicola; 4. Themistocles and
present at one of Plutarch's discourses (Ilepl 7ro- Camillus; 5. Pericles and Q. Fabius Maximus;
Avarpa-yeuoervls, c. 15). Rusticus was also a friend 6. Alcibiades and Coriolanus; 7. Timoleon and
of the younger Plinius, and was afterwards put to Aemilius Paulus; 8. Pelopidas and Marcellus;
death by Domitianus. Sossius Senecio, whom 9. Aristides and Cato the Elder; 10. Philopoemen
Plutarch addresses in the introduction to his life of and Flamininus; 11. Pyrrhus and Marius; 12.
Theseus (c. 1), is probably the same person who Lysander and Sulla; 13. Cimon and Lucullus; 14.
was a friend of the younger Plinius (Fp. i. 13), and Nicias and Crassus; 15. Eumenes and Sertorius;
consul several times in the reign of Trajanus. 16. Agesilaus and Pompeimts; 17. Alexander and
The statement that Plutarch was the preceptor Caesar; 18. Phocion and Cato the Younger; 19.
of Trajanus, and that the emperor raised him to the Agis and Cleomenes, and Tiberius and Caius Gracconsular rank, rests on the authority of Suidas chi; 20. Demosthenes and Cicero; 21. Demetrius
(s. v. nhoAU'apXeo), and a Latin letter addressed to Poliorcetes and Marcus Antonius; 22. Dion and
Trajanus. But this short notice in Suidas is a worth- M. Junius Brutus.
less authority; and the Latin letter to Trajanus, There are also the Lives of Artaxerxes Mnemoil,