Introduction

This introductory chapter provides an overview of Plutarch's Lives, which represent a valuable ancient source for the more interesting periods of Greek and Roman history. However, it is not as a historian, or even as a biographer in the modern sense of the word, that Plutarch has been so highly valued. Rather, those who regard Plutarch as among the greatest of ancient authors appreciate him principally as a moralist and as a purveyor of political wisdom. To understand what kind of biography Plutarch was writing (or thought he was writing), the chapter considers what the art of biography was like in Plutarch's lifetime. Plutarch is in large measure responsible for the importation of ethical concern into the biographical genre. The chapter then looks at the Lives of Aristeides and Cato. While Cato is wholly admirable for his ability to be satisfied with the absolute minimum, his virtue is somewhat tainted, as far as Plutarch is concerned, by an excessive interest in commercial enterprise and by an obsession with money. For this reason, Aristeides is more virtuous and more nearly divine.