heritage of the Greek past.
Although there survive today nearly a hundred works by Plutarch, mostly essays and dialogues of a moral,
philosophical, or antiquarian nature that are collectively referred to by the title “Moralia,” or “Ethical
Treatises,” Plutarch's reputation rests primarily upon another surviving collection of works, his “Parallel
Lives,” a series of paired biographies of prominent figures – all males, naturally – from the Greek and
Roman past. Each pair of biographies concludes with a comparison (although for some pairs the
comparison has not survived), detailing the good and less good points of each man's character and
assessing the relative merits of each figure, one Greek and one Roman. So, for example, Demosthenes is
paired with his Roman counterpart Cicero, and Alexander the Great is paired with Julius Caesar. It
should be noted that there is no hesitation on the part of the Greeks of the Roman period about including
Alexander and other Macedonian rulers among the great figures of “Greek” history. Plutarch makes it
quite clear, however, that “history” is not his primary concern. While his biographies are about the men
who directed the course of Greek and Roman history, his focus is on the character, rather than on the
accomplishments, of these men. In other words, the “Parallel Lives” no less than the “Moralia” are ethical
treatises. Plutarch has treated his subjects in pairs so that he can explore the ways in which similar
personalities react to different circumstances and the ways in which similar circumstances are responded
to by different personalities. The fact that one member of each pair is Greek and one is Roman serves to
convey the universality of ethical categories and to illustrate the fact that neither the Greeks nor the
Romans have a monopoly on virtue. For what is most striking about Plutarch's comparisons is the degree
to which he seeks to be fair and humane in his assessment. In one pair, the Greek holds a slight edge over
the Roman in virtue; in another, the Roman is marginally more admirable. In still another pair, the balance
is quite even, with the Greek surpassing the Roman in some respects and falling short in others. What is
missing, in fact, from Plutarch's biographies is an historical sensitivity to the differences between, say,
Athens in the fifth century and Rome in the first century BC. Everyone from the mythical Greek hero
Theseus to Caesar's assassin Brutus is evaluated according to the same set of ethical values, namely the
values of a Greek gentleman of the first century after Christ.
Chaeronean Plutarch, to thy deathless praise
Does martial Rome this grateful statue raise,
Because both Greece and she thy fame have shared
(Their heroes written, and their lives compared).
But thou thyself couldst never write thy own;
Their lives have parallels, but thine has none.
(Agathias, The Greek Anthology 16.331, translated by John Dryden)