Plutarchs Aims and Achievements as a Biographer Essay

A critical study of a significant aspect or aspects of Plutarchs aims and achievements as a biographer -To what extent does Plutarch achieve his aims for the lives of Marius and Caesar? We are able to establish Plutarchs aims in creating his biographies by looking at his background and influences. Plutarch was born in Greece to a wealthy established family. He was well educated, studying rhetoric in Athens, and then travelled to Rome where he established connections with some important political figures. Despite being an outsider (a Greek), Plutarch accepted Roman aristocratic tradition as well as the moralising of some key Roman figures. This is reflected in the Lives which in effect provide moral guidelines, prescribing†¦show more content†¦The reader is invited to reflect on what they have read and to emulate the actions of the virtuous man, being encouraged to shun vice throughout. To do this Plutarch used a list of twelve virtues presenting a golden mean that could be taken to excess or to deficiency, both being a vice. This list was developed by Aristotle from the five cardinal virtues, and is known as the virtue theory, it expresses that to be virtuous, the irrational side must be governed by the rational side. By the time of Plutarch (nearly 400 years after Aristotle,) there had been some modification of Aristotles system, but the basic principles still applied. Russell goes as far as to say: Without Aristotles Ethics, there would have been no such thing as the Plutarchian biography.[5] Both Plato and Aristotle were eudaimonists, believing the purpose of man is to be eudaimon, or virtuous. Plutarchs religion is also key in working out his aims. He believed in gods and an after life, this meant he believed there were two reasons for a person to be virtuous; firstly because it is the right was to behave and secondly because you will be rewarded or punished as appropriate in the afterlife: Athletes receive their prizes not during the contest but after they have won[6] These ideas as to what Plutarchs aims were likely to have been are backed up by a statement made by Plutarch on what he thinks he is trying to