Parallel Lives Plutarch's best-known work is the
Parallel Lives, a series of
biographies of illustrious Greeks and Romans, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common
moral virtues and vices, thus it being more of an insight into human nature than a
historical account. As is explained in the opening paragraph of his
Life of Alexander, Plutarch was not concerned with history so much as the influence of character, good or bad, on the lives and destinies of men. Whereas sometimes he barely touched on epoch-making events, he devoted much space to charming anecdote and incidental triviality, reasoning that this often said far more for his subjects than even their most famous accomplishments. He sought to provide rounded portraits, likening his craft to that of a painter; indeed, he went to tremendous lengths (often leading to tenuous comparisons) to draw
parallels between physical appearance and
moral character. The surviving
Lives contain 23 pairs, each with one Greek life and one Roman life, as well as four unpaired single lives. Some of the
Lives, such as those of
Heracles,
Philip II of Macedon,
Epaminondas,
Scipio Africanus,
Scipio Aemilianus and possibly
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus no longer exist; many of the remaining
Lives are truncated, contain obvious
lacunae or have been tampered with by later writers. Extant
Lives include those on
Solon,
Themistocles,
Aristides,
Agesilaus II,
Pericles,
Alcibiades,
Nicias,
Demosthenes,
Pelopidas,
Philopoemen,
Timoleon,
Dion of Syracuse,
Eumenes,
Alexander the Great,
Pyrrhus of Epirus,
Romulus,
Numa Pompilius,
Coriolanus,
Theseus,
Aemilius Paullus,
Tiberius Gracchus,
Gaius Gracchus,
Gaius Marius,
Sulla,
Sertorius,
Lucullus,
Pompey,
Julius Caesar,
Cicero,
Cato the Elder,
Cato the Younger,
Mark Antony, and
Marcus Junius Brutus.
Life of Alexander {{quote box|bgcolor=#c6dbf7|width=30em Plutarch's
Life of Alexander, written as a parallel to that of Julius Caesar, is one of five extant tertiary sources on the Macedonian conqueror
Alexander the Great. It includes
anecdotes and descriptions of events that appear in no other source, just as Plutarch's portrait of
Numa Pompilius, the putative second king of Rome, holds much that is unique on the early
Roman calendar. Plutarch devotes a great deal of space to Alexander's drive and desire, and strives to determine how much of it was presaged in his youth. He also draws extensively on the work of
Lysippos, Alexander's favourite
sculptor, to provide what is probably the fullest and most accurate description of the conqueror's physical appearance. When it comes to his character, Plutarch emphasizes his unusual degree of self-control and scorn for luxury: "He desired not pleasure or wealth, but only excellence and glory." As the narrative progresses, the subject incurs less admiration from his biographer and the deeds that it recounts become less savoury. The murder of
Cleitus the Black, which Alexander instantly and deeply regretted, is commonly cited to this end.
Life of Caesar Together with
Suetonius's
The Twelve Caesars, and
Caesar's own works
de Bello Gallico and
de Bello Civili, the
Life of Caesar is the main account of
Julius Caesar's feats by ancient historians. Plutarch starts by telling of the audacity of Caesar and his refusal to dismiss
Cinna's daughter,
Cornelia. Other important parts are those containing his military deeds, accounts of battles and Caesar's capacity of inspiring the soldiers. Plutarch's life shows few differences from Suetonius' work and Caesar's own works (see
De Bello Gallico and
De Bello Civili). Sometimes, Plutarch quotes directly from the
De Bello Gallico and even tells us of the moments when Caesar was dictating his works. In the final part of this life, Plutarch recounts details of
Caesar's assassination. It ends by telling the destiny of his murderers, just after a detailed account of the scene when a
phantom appeared to
Brutus at night.
Life of Pyrrhus Plutarch's
Life of Pyrrhus is a key text because it is the main historical account on Roman history for the period from 293 to 264 BCE, for which both
Dionysius' and
Livy's texts are lost.
Moralia The remainder of Plutarch's surviving work is collected under the title of the
Moralia (loosely translated as
Customs and Mores). It is an eclectic collection of seventy-eight essays and transcribed speeches, including "Concerning the Face Which Appears in the Orb of the Moon" (a dialogue on the possible causes for such an appearance and a source for Galileo's own work), "On Fraternal Affection" (a discourse on honour and affection of siblings toward each other), "On the Fortune or the Virtue of
Alexander the Great" (an important adjunct to his Life of the great king), and "On the Worship of
Isis and
Osiris" (a crucial source of information on
ancient Egyptian religion); more philosophical treatises, such as "On the Decline of the Oracles", "On the Delays of the Divine Vengeance", and "On Peace of Mind"; and lighter fare, such as "
Odysseus and Gryllus", a humorous
dialogue between
Homer's Odysseus and one of
Circe's enchanted pigs.
Pseudepigrapha Some editions of the
Moralia include several works now known to have been falsely attributed to Plutarch. Among these are the
Lives of the Ten Orators, a series of biographies of the
Attic orators based on
Caecilius of Calacte;
On the Opinions of the Philosophers,
On Fate, and
On Music. These works are all attributed to a single, unknown author, referred to as "
Pseudo-Plutarch".
Lives of the Roman emperors Plutarch's first biographical works were the Lives of the Roman Emperors from
Augustus to
Vitellius. These early emperors' biographies were probably published under the
Flavian dynasty or during the reign of Nerva (AD 96–98). Of these, only the Lives of
Galba and
Otho survive. The Lives of
Tiberius and
Nero are extant only as fragments, provided by Damascius as well as Plutarch himself, respectively. There is reason to believe that the two Lives still extant, those of Galba and Otho, "ought to be considered as a single work." Therefore, they do not form a part of the Plutarchian canon of single biographies – as represented by the Life of
Aratus of Sicyon and the Life of
Artaxerxes II (the biographies of
Hesiod,
Pindar,
Crates and Daiphantus were lost).
Galba-Otho can be found in the appendix to Plutarch's
Parallel Lives as well as in various Moralia manuscripts, most prominently in
Maximus Planudes' edition where Galba and Otho appear as
Opera XXV and XXVI. Thus it seems reasonable to maintain that
Galba-Otho was from early on considered as an illustration of a moral-ethical approach.
Lost works The
lost works of Plutarch are determined by references in his own texts to them and from other authors' references over time. Parts of the
Lives and what would be considered parts of the
Moralia have been lost. The 'Catalogue of Lamprias', an ancient list of works attributed to Plutarch, lists 227 works, of which 78 have come down to us. The Romans loved the
Lives. Enough copies were written out over the centuries so that a copy of most of the lives has survived to the present day, but there are traces of twelve more Lives that are now lost. Plutarch's general procedure for the
Lives was to write the life of a prominent Greek, then cast about for a suitable Roman parallel, and end with a brief comparison of the Greek and Roman lives. Currently, only 19 of the parallel lives end with a comparison, while possibly they all did at one time. Also missing are many of his
Lives which appear in a list of his writings: those of Hercules, the first pair of
Parallel Lives,
Scipio Africanus and
Epaminondas, and the companions to the four solo biographies, as well as biographies of important figures such as
Augustus,
Claudius and
Nero. Lost works that would have been part of the
Moralia include "Whether One Who
Suspends Judgment on Everything Is Condemned to Inaction", "On
Pyrrho's Ten Modes", and "On the Difference between the
Pyrrhonians and the
Academics". ==Philosophy==