Plutarch
Greek biographer and moralist; his Lives were the founders' handbook of republican virtue and its enemies.
Ask Plutarch a question
Answers come only from his own recorded words, with every quotation checked against its source.
Who he was
Plutarch was a Greek biographer and moralist. His Lives of Greek and Roman statesmen include Aristides "the Just" and Cato the Younger, and his essays are collected as the Morals.
Why he is at the Seat
Plutarch is on the Lutz-based roster. He is the Seat's voice on character in public life: what virtue asks of a statesman and how republics lose it.
What we hold
- Editions
- Lives, in Dryden's translation as edited by Clough (5 vols.)
- Morals, Goodwin edition (5 vols.)
- Size
- About 1.6 million words; essentially complete in English. Word counts are whole files, so they include editors' headnotes and footnotes.
- Translation
- English translations: the Lives in the Dryden translation (Clough's edition); the Morals in Goodwin's edition. Both are loose.
Known limits
- The translations are loose.
- The Lives are narratives about other men; speeches in them are Plutarch's reports, not the speakers' own words.
- His dates are uncertain (c. 46-after 119 AD), and the "as of" year does not apply.
Questions he answers well
The questions his engine was tested on before it opened.
- What does virtue require of a man in public life?
Published answers
- How should an old man take part in public affairs?
- Why did Solon refuse to become a tyrant?
- How does ambition destroy a republic?
- What should a statesman do about flatterers?
- How did Lycurgus shape the laws of Sparta?
- Why did Cato the Younger oppose Caesar?
- How did Aristides earn the name 'the Just'?
- What does virtue require of a man in public life?
More in Prior Questions.