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Heather Davis
Ms. Bergen, Mrs. Downer, Mrs. Ibrahim
English 10-6, Latin 2-7, M/W/F
10 November 2010
Plutarch
Plutarch, who is he? Is Plutarch as great as everyone says he is? Is he the great author
everyone says he is? Plutarch is a great author who impacted the Roman Society. He wrote
many books, and each of his writings had a certain lesson to teach society. Plutarch’s Parallel
Lives was written as a comparison between Greek and Roman citizens, he compared their lives,
as a lesson for the living. The Moralia is a composition that contains most of Plutarch’s works.
So, how did Plutarch impact the Roman society? Were the changes in society really due to his
writings?
The Theological Writings, also known as the Moralia, is a book containing the
essays and dialogues that were not published in any other book. The De Supersitione is one of
the writings in The Theological Writings. This is a tractate found in the thirteenth-century
Plandudean corpus of Plutarch’s Moralia (Betz 10). The De Supersitione has been accepted as
one of Plutarch’s works, but the evidence linking the two is not strong (Betz 13). One of the few
parallels that the De Superitione has with the rest of Plutarch’s writings is the writing style.
There is not much else that connects the De Superitione to Plutarch, so most would say that it is
an educated guess that Plutarch is the author using a pen name.
Parallel Lives is another book that Plutarch wrote; this is actually the book he wrote that
made him so famous. Plutarch’s Parallel Lives compared the lives of a Greek and a Roman
citizen. He used his writings to compare the differences in their lives, and what the effects of
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what they did on a daily basis were. The book, as its title suggest, showed the parallel lives two
men could lead, the difference in the cause and effect of their actions. Parallel Lives was written
as a lesson for the living (Stander 195). It was written to teach the living people about the
mistakes that were made in the past. The Greek people that Plutarch wrote about were dead for
over three-hundred years, unlike today, there were no books or articles to reference, and due to
the lack of references Plutarch did not have very many reliable sources. Plutarch made it clear in
his writings that he was not stating fact but comparing people’s lives. Most of his works were
destroyed or lost so there are people that believe some of his most important works were lost.
Cicero is one of Plutarch’s main focuses. Plutarch only wrote about very intelligent
people in his book Parallel Lives. Cicero was a very educated individual, and he is one of the
people that Plutarch focuses the most (Gudeman 200). Plutarch wrote about Cicero because of
how many years of study he had, and because of some of his philosophical views. Even though
all of Cicero’s major philosophical views were ignored by Plutarch, he was still admired by
Plutarch for some of his views. At the end of Cicero’s life he was pictured translating Greek
philosophy into Latin (Simon 193). Cicero was pictured doing this at the end of his life because
of Plutarch, and what Plutarch wrote about him. Another reason Plutarch wrote about Cicero
was because of the lesson he has to tell the living. The lesson Plutarch gives regarding Cicero to
the living is to always be true to yourself. He also stressed how important an education to a
productive life. Cicero was a very important person that Plutarch wrote about, but he was not the
most prominent.
Cato was another one of Plutarch’s main focuses. Cato had a lot of very important
political associations. Plutarch very rarely called anyone a philosopher, but Plutarch actually
refers to Cato as a philosopher (Simon 195). Plutarch respected Cato enough to actually call him
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a philosopher. He noticed that Cato was a respectable person and he felt that Cato deserved the
title of philosopher. In many sources it said that Plutarch did a poor job in describing Cato. It
has been said that Plutarch did not include a lot of important information about Cato, but it was
never specified exactly what was left out. The reason why Plutarch wrote about Cato was
because he was an educated person that carried a lot of importance of his own in his time. Cato
made many changes and he influenced many people to assist in making the changes. The lesson
that Plutarch pulled out of Cato’s life was that making changes is a good thing at times, and that
you should not be afraid to make those changes.
Brutus is another Roman that Plutarch focuses on a lot. He shares a lot of the same
political positions as Cato, their lives should have been compared (Simon 200). Both Brutus and
Cato were acquainted with many of the Greek philosophers. They were both very active in
politics, and they were both very educated, as were all the people Plutarch wrote about. Given
what we saw with Cicero, it is not surprising that Brutus’ philosophical views were ignored by
Plutarch. Plutarch did not necessarily ignore Brutus’ philosophical views, he just did not know
about them. You see, Plutarch did not have the books, internet, or anything else we use to get
information on anything we desire to research. Plutarch only had few book sources, and what he
had learned about Brutus from the word of mouth that other Roman citizens shared with him.
Plutarch used Brutus as an example of betrayal. He showed how it is easy for friends to turn on
even the closest of friends, just because of one simple thing. Plutarch used this to show how
things can change in the blink of an eye. He also told this story as a warning for the living,
warning them about their friends and possible enemies.
In many of Plutarch’s writings he is not necessarily stating facts or stating details of his
subjects. Rather he is using his subjects as he sees them in their everyday lives and how their
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actions affected the people they ruled or had power over. That is what makes his writings so
unique and different then the rest. Plutarch just wanted to teach the living certain lessons that he
felt needed to be taught, because Plutarch wanted to help the living, to prevent mistakes from
happening again and again. He did not want the living to repeat the mistakes of the past. So he
did, he wrote Parallel Lives not only as lesson for the people currently living, but also for the
people that will be living, the people of the future. And it worked so far. Not many people have
made the same mistakes that he warned us about. And if anyone has, it has not been carried out
to an extreme like they were in the time that they first happened. Well, at least not like the
occurrence that Plutarch was writing about, those were mistakes that were carried to a very
extreme measure.
Not only did Plutarch make sure that the living did not make the same mistakes as the
people of the past, but he also changed the way people wrote books. He was the one who made
it so that no one has to state facts, or state details of the people they are writing about. Plutarch is
the one who changed that. He made it so that when one is writing about another, they can state
opinions and they can be honest about the way the feel about the person they are writing about.
Plutarch’s writings are used today in philosophy classes to show the view of one person
on another. All of the writings of Plutarch are very well known all across the Roman Empire, and
the Greek Empire. These writings are still very popular today. We have copies of his books
available to us today because of their popularity in their time and how many copies were made.
Plutarch’s writings were loved by many, everyone wanted a copy of his books. So many copies
of his books were made, the exact number is unknown, and only a few survived, we are fortunate
to still have copies of Plutarch’s great works that are available to us. Plutarch impacted the
Roman society because of his many writings and the lessons each of the writings had in them.
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Works Cited
Stander, Philip. Plutarch and the Historical Tradition. London, 1992. Print
Dieter Betz, Hans. Plutarch’s Theological Writings and Early Christian Literature. 1975.
CopyrightSwain, Simon. Plutarch’s Lives of Cicero, Cato, and Brutus. Hermes, Vol. 118, No. 2
(1990), pp. 192-203
Gudeman, A. A new source in Plutarch’s Life of Cicero. Transaction of the Philosophical
Association (1869-1896), Vol. 20