Plutarch's Ethics

Plutarch's most famous works are ethical writings of a different kind. These are his parallel lives, which recount the bio s of greek and roman figures. The importance of these works for our knowledge of ancient history is beyond dispute. If the overt theme of the histories is an ethical one, its implicit theme is the relation of greece to rome. In the second century a d, men like plutarch were already looking back to the glories of a hellenic past. But greek philosophy had plenty of life left in it before we reach the third century and later.