Prologue: Biography Plutarch, (born c. 46 ad, Boeotia [Greece]—died c. 120), biographer, historian, essayist and moralist whose works strongly influenced the development of the essay, the biography, and historical writing in Europe from the 16th to the 19th century. Plutarch has been called as one of the most important writers who ever lived. Among his roughly 227 works, the most significant are the Parallel Lives (Bioi parall?loi), in which he chronicles the noble acts and characters of Greek and Roman soldiers, legislators, orators, and statesmen, and the Moralia, or Ethica, a sequence of over 60 essays on ethical, religious, physical,...
