one of the most celebrated writers of antiquity, was a native of Charoneia, in Boreota. The exact date of his birth and death is unknown; but as he tells us that he studied philosophy under Ammonius at Delphi, when Nero made a tour through Greece, and as we know this circumstance to have taken place A.D. 66, we may place the birth of Plutarch towards the latter years of the reign of Claudius (A.D. 48–53). He was sprung from an honourable family, which had often been invested with the highest offices of the magistracy. He speaks of having seen his great-grandfather Nicarchus, from whom he learned, as from an eyewitness, the miseries which his country had suffered from the oppressions of Antony. His grandfather Lamprias was distinguished for his eloquence and imagination; and his father is praised for his modesty, his acquaintance with the theology of his time, and his knowledge of the works of the poets. Plutarch had two brothers, Timon and Lamprias; of the former of whom he says, that he has no obligations to fortune so great as the enjoyment of his brother Timon's invariable friendship and kindness. Under Ammonius, of whom we know little more than what his pupil has told us, he acquired the doctrines of that humane and rational philosophy for which he was afterwards so distinguished. Upon what occasion he visited Italy is uncertain, but it is supposed to have been on some public business of the Charonians. Whilst he remained at Rome, he found his house resorted to by all the principal citizens, and his lectures on philosophy attended by the most illustrious of the Romans. Sosius Senecio, who was four times consul, once under Nerva and thrice under Trajan, was his most intimate friend. To him he addresses his Lives, except that of Aratus, which is inscribed to Polycrates of Sicyon, the grandson of Aratus. Whether he remained in Italy till all philosophers were banished from that country by a decree of Domitian, is a point of which we have no means of determining; but we know that he spent the greater part of his time in his native city. Here he devoted himself to the discharge of such humble duties as the magistrates of Charoneia were required to perform; and we find that he also joined to his magisterial character the office of priest of Apollo. Suidas states that he was preceptor to Trajan; but he was so nearly contemporary with that emperor, that little credit is due to this assertion. Plutarch was married to a lady of his native city, called Timoxena, and in his matrimonial connection he seems to have been particularly fortunate. By her he had five children, four sons, and a daughter, who died young; and on this occasion he addressed a beautiful letter of consolation to his wife, which is highly honourable to both parties. Two only of his sons survived, Plutarch and Lamprias, the latter of whom appears to have been a philosopher; and it is to him that we are indebted for a catalogue of his father's writings. His nephew Sextus was of considerable eminence, and taught the Greek language to Marcus Antoninus. We have no particular account either as to the manner or the time of his death, only it is evident that he lived to a good old age. The most probable conjecture is that of Fabricius, who says he died in the fifth year of Hadrian, at the age of seventy.

His works have been divided, and they admit of a pretty equal division, into Lives and Morals; the former of which, in his own estimation, were to be preferred, as more noble than the latter. His style has been excepted to with some reason. He has also been criticised for some mistakes in Roman antiquities, and for a partiality to the Greeks. On the other hand, he has been justly praised for the copiousness of his fine sense and learning, for his integrity, and for a certain air of goodness which appears in all he wrote. His business was not to please the ear, but to instruct and charm the mind; and in this none ever excelled him. Of his moral writings it is to be regretted that we have no good English translation. An English version of his Lives, executed with fidelity and spirit, was presented to the public by the Langhorns in 1770. The best edition of his works is that of Reiske, in twelve volumes Svo, 1774-82.