Who was Plutarch

Plutarch (AD 46 – AD 119) was a Greek-Roman Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his Parallel Lives, a series of biographies of illustrious Greeks and Romans, and Moralia, a collection of essays and speeches. Upon becoming a Roman citizen, he was named Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus.

Plutarch’s best-known work is the Parallel Lives and the basis of the podcast, a series of biographies of illustrious Greeks and Romans, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues and vices, thus it being more of an insight into human nature than a historical account. The surviving Lives contain 23 pairs, each with one Greek life and one Roman life, as well as four unpaired single lives.