Knowra Plutarch Plutarch Plutarch was a Greek biographer and essayist of the first and second centuries CE. His Parallel Lives paired Greek and Roman figures, while the essays and dialogues collected as Moralia explored ethics, religion, politics, and literature.
Parallel Lives : A collection of paired Greek and Roman biographies by Plutarch, often ending with comparisons of the two figures. This is Plutarch’s best-known work and the clearest example of his comparative biography.
Synkrisis : A formal comparison used in ancient rhetoric and literature to assess similarities and differences between people or things. Plutarch’s paired biographies often conclude with this explicit comparison of their subjects.
Chaeronea : A town in Boeotia, Greece, where Plutarch was born and spent much of his life. Plutarch’s ties to this small town shaped his perspective on civic life and Roman rule.
Shakespeare's Roman plays : William Shakespeare’s tragedies Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Coriolanus, set in Roman history. Shakespeare drew much of their historical material from Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch.
Moralia : A collection of Plutarch’s essays and dialogues on ethics, religion, politics, literature, and other subjects. These works show the breadth of Plutarch’s writing beyond biography.
Character in ancient biography : The depiction of a person’s dispositions and habits in ancient life-writing, often through actions and anecdotes. Plutarch treats small incidents as evidence of a figure’s lasting character.
Roman Greece : The Greek-speaking regions governed by Rome after their incorporation into the Roman Empire. Plutarch wrote as a Greek intellectual living within the Roman imperial order.
Thomas North : An English translator whose 1579 version of Plutarch’s Lives became a major source for Shakespeare. North carried Plutarch’s biographies into English and helped transmit them to the theater.
Ancient Greek biography : A prose genre that recounts the lives and character of notable people in the ancient Greek world. Plutarch adapted this genre to connect character, conduct, and historical action.
Anecdote : A brief account of a notable incident, often used to illustrate a person’s character or a larger point. Plutarch uses memorable episodes to make moral qualities visible.
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