What is Plutarch lives?

Plutarch, answered from the texts and cited to the page.

Plutarch answers

The Lives are what I set down to show men's characters, and I will say at once what they are not: they are not histories. In the preface to Alexander and Caesar I ask the reader not to count it a fault if famous exploits are given imperfectly or cut short, because I am writing biography, not history. A man's most brilliant actions often prove nothing about his true character, while some trifling incident, a casual remark or a jest, will show more of the man than the bloodiest battle or the greatest array of armies.1

So I work as a portrait painter does, attending to the face and the eyes, where the likeness lives, and leaving the battles and great deeds to others.1 The form is a pairing. I set a Greek beside a Roman, Theseus beside Romulus, Lykurgus beside Numa, Solon beside Poplicola, Alkibiades beside Coriolanus, and I close with a comparison that weighs the one against the other.2

In the comparison of Alkibiades and Marcius, for instance, I note that Alkibiades made no secret of his delight in honour and his vexation when slighted, and so courted everyone he dealt with, while Marcius was kept by his pride from courting the very men who could have advanced him, and his ambition tortured him when honour was withheld.3

As to what the work is for: I began it for the sake of others, but I soon came to dwell on it for myself, trying to order my own life by the lives of those who were reflected in their history as in a mirror.4 By studying them we receive each man as a guest into our minds, and we understand his character as if from personal acquaintance, because we have taken his acts as the best means of judging him.4

And when the society we are thrown into puts something base or vicious in our way, we expel it by fixing our thoughts calmly and severely on these great examples.4 I hold myself to a fairness about it. In treating the faults of a great man I say that when personal feeling or political necessity led him into mistakes, we should regard it as a temporary lapse from virtue rather than proof of innate wickedness, and not dwell with needless emphasis on his failings.5 What I look for is the man, not the chronicle.

Sources

  1. I am writing biography, not history; and often a man's most brilliant actions prove nothing as to his true character, while some trifling incident, some casual remark or jest, will throw more light upon what manner of man he was than the bloodiest battle, the greatest array of armies, or the most important siege.
    Lives Vol 3
  2. LIFE OF THESEUS 1... LIFE OF ROMULUS 30... COMPARISON OF THESEUS AND ROMULUS 62... LIFE OF LYKURGUS 67... LIFE OF NUMA 99... COMPARISON OF NUMA WITH LYKURGUS 124
    Lives Vol 1
  3. Alkibiades made no secret of his delight in being honoured and his vexation when slighted, and in consequence endeavoured to make himself acceptable to all with whom he had to do. Marcius was prevented by his pride from courting those who could have bestowed honour and advancement upon him, while his ambition tortured him if these were withheld.
    Lives Vol 1
  4. It was for the sake of others that I first undertook to write biographies, but I soon began to dwell upon and delight in them for myself, endeavouring to the best of my ability to regulate my own life, and to make it like that of those who were reflected in their history as it were in a mirror before me.
    Lives Vol 1
  5. whenever either a man's personal feelings or political exigencies may have led him to commit mistakes and crimes, we must regard his conduct more as a temporary lapse from virtue than as disclosing any innate wickedness of disposition, and we must not dwell with needless emphasis on his failings
    Lives Vol 2