Plutarch’s Heroes in the Moralia: a Matter of Variatio or Another (More Genuine) Outlook? (original) (raw)

2008, The Unity of Plutarch's Work

From the 48 extant biographical heroes of Plutarch, 2 (Galba and Otho) are never mentioned in the Moralia, and 6 are only cited-and very rarely at thatin essays of a somewhat special nature, such as the Apophthegmata, the Roman Questions, and the rhetorical pieces On the Fortune or Virtue of Alexander and On the Fortune of the Romans, where the relevant references are more or less expected. 1 The above essays aside, we shall find 19 heroes being mentioned only once or up to five times in the rest of the Moralia corpus, and another 7 being cited from six to ten times. 2 This arithmetic yields that from the 48 Plutarchean worthies only 14 occur with some frequency in the Moralia (48À34 [2+6+19+7] = 14); and that from those 14, Romans are only 3: the two Catos and-rather surprisingly-Pompey. 3 As for the heroes more frequently referred to, and leaving out again the special treatises above, the first place clearly belongs to Alexander (about 60 occurrences), and then follow Perikles (27 occurrences), Themistokles, Solon (without reckoning the Symposium of the Seven Sages), the elder Cato, Phokion, Demosthenes, Alkibiades, and the rest. My purpose in this paper is, on the one hand, to examine the context in which some Plutarchean heroes occur in the Moralia as well as the reasons for which Plutarch refers to them, and, on the other, to attempt an explanation in cases of varying or even conflicting versions between the Moralia and the Lives. Hopefully, this investigation may also tell us something about Plutarch's method of work and literary talent and, further, it may even plausibly suggest the sequence or relative chronology of some of his works. As I have argued elsewhere, 4 Plutarch's narrative in the Lives is of necessity influenced by his historical sources. This entails that his true beliefs about the