46 ΑΤΕ ΔΗ ΚΑΙ ΤΗΣ ΠΑΤΡΙΔΟΣ ΗΜΩΝ тоте лупра праттоусно ΚΑΙ ΔΙΑ ΜΙΚΡΟΤΗΤΑ ΚΑΙ ΠΕΝΙΑΝ ΠΑΡΟΡΩΜΕΝΗΣ

Marcus Antonius forced the Charonenses to serve as porters; and caused them to be flogged when they were dilatory with their burdens; as Plutar-chus relates in his life of that commander. 10

Cap. III.

The Boeotians were generally considered as a stu-pid people. Thus Cicero says 1:

"Athenis tenue cœlum, ex quo acutiores etiam putantur Attici: crassum Thebis, itaque pingues Thebani et valentes.

Similarly Dionysius Halicarnessensis says 2:

“ ΑΘΗΝΑΙΟΣ TOPOC, ΛΑΛΟΣ софос : ICON Аврос, ANEIME-NOC : Βοιωτος ΕΥΗΘΗΣ : ΘΕΤΤΑΛΟΣ Διπλογ ΠΟΙΚΙΛΟΣ . and Lucianus introduces 3 Momus as saying [to Hercules]:

ΑΓΡΟΙΚΟΝ ΤΟΥΤΟ ΕΙΡΗΚΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΔΕΙΝΟΣ ΒΟΙΩΤΙΟΝ.”

Plutarchus himself acknowledges that this failing was attributed to his compatriots, when he speaks of Hercules as

66

NEOC ΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΚΟΜΙΔΗ Βοιωτιος .”

and when again he says 5:

τους Βοιωτους HMAC οι ΑΤΤΙΚΟΙ,

ΚΑΙ ΠΑΧΕΙΣ, ΚΑΙ ΑΝ

-Aισθητος, ΚΑΙ ΗΛΙΘΙΟΥΣ, ΜΑΛΙΣΤΑ ΔΙΑ ΤΑΣ ΑΔΗΦΑΓΙΑΣ, προς

ΗΓΟΡΕΥΟΝ ογτοι AE AY Cyct."

10 ΒΙΩΝ ΠΑΡΑΛΛ. p. 948. Α.

' in libr.

3

2 In syntagm. пeрi лoгWN EZETACEWC.

66

[In his admirable Jupiter Tragoedus," ch. 32. ]

4 In libr, περι του Ε1 ΤΟΥ ΕΝ Δελφοις, p. 387, D.

3 In orat. пері Саркофагас, р. 995, Е.

He remarks, however, that this reproach was al-ready wearing away, when expressing his fear 6 -Η ΑΝΕΓΕΙΡΕΙΝ ΤΟ ΚΑΤΑ ΒΟΙΩΤΩΝ ΑΡΧΑΙΩΝ EIC MICΟΛΟΓΙΑΝ ΟΝΕΙ ΟΔΟΣ ΗΔΗ ΜΑΡΑΙΝΟΜΕΝΟΝ.

But the talents of Epaminondas and Pindarus had already shewn:

"Summos posse viros, et magna exempla daturos

Vervecum in patria, crasso que sub aere nasci.''

7

as Juvenalis says, when speaking of Democritus, a native of Abdera, in Thrace, a calumniated city, in a similarly calumniated country.

Cap. IV.

The year in which Plutarchus was born cannot be exactly ascertained.

Origines mentions him among the

16 τοις Νεωτεροις ΚΑΙ ΧΘΕΣ ΚΑΙ ΠΡΩΗΝ ΓΕΓΕΝΗΜΕΝΟΙΣ . And Origines was born A. D. 191, according to the anonymous author of the Fasti Siculi; and flourish-ed A. D. 230, according to the Chronicon of Euse-bius.

Photius, as also Paulus Diaconus, mentions Plu-tarchus en TOY NEPWNOC.

The anonymous writer, above mentioned, says, at the 13th. year of Nero, when Capito and Rufus were consuls :

6 In libr. περι τον σωκρατους ΔΑΙΜΟΝΙΟΥ, Ρ. 575, D.

7 Sat. X, v. 49.

8

KATA KEACOY, B. 5. [ p. 268. edit. Spencer. ]

9 Myriobibl. Cod. 245, in fine.

МЕГАС HN ΚΑΙ ΕΠΑΙΝΟΥΜΕΝΟΣ OMOIWC ΔΕ KAI MOYCWNIOC, ΚΑΙ ΠΛΟΥΤΑΡΧΟΣ, ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΟΙ ΕΓΝΩΡΙΖΟΝΤΟ."

Eusebius, in one part of his Chronicle, places Mu-sonius and Plutarchus in the 14th. year of Nero; but, in another part of his Chronicle, at the 3rd. year of the 224th. Olympiad, or A. D. 120, he says:

་

"плоутAржоC XAIPWNEYC, CEZTOC ΚΑΙ ΑΓΑΘΟΒΟΥΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΟΙ ΕΓΝΩΡΙΖΟΝΤΟ .

-AOC

So also Suidas says of Plutarchus :

"

ΓΕΓΟΝΕΝΑΙ ΕΠΙ ΤΩΝ ΤΡΑΙΑΝΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΚΑΙ CAPOC ΧΡΟΝΩΝ ΚΑΙ еті просеем.”

All the information that can be derived from these contradictory data, is, that Plutarchus was proba-bly born about the middle of the reign of Claudius. 10 He could not have been born much later: because, when Nero (probably about the 11th. year of his reign was at Delphi, Plutarchus was already stu-dying under Ammonius. Again, he could not have been born much earlier; because he lived (probably many years) under the reign of Trajanus.

3

10 Who reigned from the 24th. of Jan. A. D. 41 to the 13th. of Oct. A. D. 54.

1 A. D. 66.

2 vid. libr. περι του ει ΕΝ ΔΕΛΦ. Ρ. 385, Β.

3 Who reigned from the 27th of July A. D. 98, to Aug. A. D. 117.

4

THE following Table will present the reader with a synoptic view of Plutarch's contemporaries.

Caius Valerius Flaccus

aged about 30 about A. D. 93, or 94

Marcus Valerius Martialis

4 In Rualdus there is no Table or dates, but the names are mentioned in this order, and are divided into three classes, viz: those persons whom Plutarchus may have seen, 1st. in his youth, 2ndly. in his maturity, and 3rdly. in his old age. I have omit-ted Probus Berytius, and Papinius Surculus, of whom I know nothing. Observe, that there is a great uncertainty in many of the dates which I have given. I find from the Biographie Uni-verselle, that Lucianus is supposed, by Reitz, to have lived from A. D. 120 to A. D. 200.

5 One of the most grievous false prints, in that incorrect work the Dictionnaire Historique Universel, is the fixing this birth at "48 ou 50 avant J. C."

6 According to Brucker, Saxius, Chalmers, and the Bibliotheca Britannica. But Ladvocat, the Dictionnaire Historique, and Lem-priere, would fix the death of Plutarchus at about A D. 140. The following extract, from Morèri, seems to explain the cause of this discrepancy: "S. Jerôme dit qu'il vécut jusqu'à la 3. année d' Adrien, qui etoit l'an 119. mais si ce que Plutarque même as-sure, dans ses Discours de Table, est vrai, je veux dire, qu'il ait été Préteur ou Archonte de Cheronée, il faut qu'il ait vécu long tems après. Et même on peut croire qu'il ne mourut que sous Antonin le Pieux, conformement à ce qu'il dit dans le Traité, si les vieillards peuvent avoir l'administration des affaires publiques.'