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W CLASSICS
O R L D'S
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Plutarch
Selected Essays
AND Dialogues
A new translation by Donald Russell
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THE WORLD'S CLASSICS
PLUTARCH
SELECTED ESSAYS AND
DIALOGUES
Plutarch was bom about ad 50 at Chaeronea in central
Greece, and livedthere mostofhis life, teaching and writing.
His most famous work is the Parallel Lives, biographies of
Greek and Roman statesmen and generals, which have been
extraordinarily influential in forming our picture of the
Greco-Roman world. But he also wrote a large number of
dialogues, treatises, and essays, of which this volume con-
tains a selection. They have much charm, and have been an
important model for writers like Montaigne and Emerson;
and they give a vivid and individual view of the religious,
moral, and political concernsofPlutarch's age.
Donald Russell was a Fellow of St John's College,
Oxford, from 1948 to 1988, as tutor in Classics and latterly
as Professor of Classical Literature. He is a Fellow of the
British Academy, and has held visiting professorships in the
United States, at Chapel Hill and at Stanford. His books in-
clude Plutarch (London, 1972), Criticism in Antiquity (Lon-
don, 1981), Greek Declamation (Cambridge, 1983), as well
as commentaries on Longinus (Oxford, 1964), Menander
Rhetor (with N. G. Wilson, Oxford, 1981) and Dio Chrysos-
tom. Orations 7, 12, 36 (Cambridge, 1992), and a collection
of translations of ancient critical texts (with M. Winterbot-
tom, Oxford, 1972; abridged in World's Classics, Classical
Literary Criticism, 1989).
THE WORLD'S CLASSICS
PLUTARCH
Selected Essays and
Dialogues
Oxford NewYork
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1993
CODMAN SQUARE
OCT - - 1993
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Plutarch.
[Moralia.English.Selections]
Selectedessays—anddialogues/Plutarch.
p. cm. (World'sclassics)
Includesbibliographicalreferences. —
1.Dialogues,Greek-—TranslationsintoEnglish. 2. Greekessays Translationsinto
English.' ' I. Title. //.Series.
PA4374.M7 1993 888':Oi<X7—dc20 92-18159
ISBN 0-19-283^94-5
10 8 6 4 2
Typeset^byPureTechCorporation,Pondicherry,India.
PrintedinGreatBritainby
BPCCHazellsLtd.
Aylesbury,Bucks
CONTENTS
Preface
, vi
References
vii
Introduction ix
List ofPlutarch's Moralia xxiii
FurtherReading xxx
I. Superstition (14,164-71) 1
II. Oracles in Decline (26,409-38) 13
III. Why Are Delphic Oracles No LongerGiven
in Verse? (25,394-409) 57
IV. SocTdiiQs"Daimonion (43,575-98) 82
V. 'Live Unknown' (75,1128-30) 120
VI. The Fortune ofRome (20,316-26) 125
VII. Rules for Politicians (52,798-825) 140
VIII. How to Profit from your Enemies (6,75-86) 183
IX. Curiosity (36,515-23) 193
X. Talkativeness (35,502-15) 206
XI. Bashfulness (38,528-36) 226
XII. Against Borrowing Money (54,827-32) 239
XIII. Eroticus (47,748-71) 246
XIV. Advice on Marriage (12,138-46) 284
XV. A Consolation to His Wife (45,608-12) 297
XVI. Virtues in Women (17,242-63) 304
XVII. Gryllus (64,985-92) 337
Notes 349
Sources ofQuotations 388
Glossary ofProperNames 400
PREFACE
This selection ofPlutarch's miscellaneous works is designed to
illustrate his thought on a variety of subjects. It comprises less
than a quarter of the extant corpus of the Moralia, and it has
been planned so as tocomplement, with few overlaps, therecent
Penguin volume by Robin Waterfield and Professor Ian Kidd. I
owe much to many helpers: especially to the staff of the Clas-
sics Office in Oxford, and to Dr S. C. R. Swain, who has read
and corrected alot ofmy work. I hope the result will make these
*essays and dialogues' accessible and enjoyable to new readers
and to students who know something of them already, but wish
to know a little more.
D.A.R.
Note: Plutarch's 'mosaic' calls for a lot of explanation. I have
tried to give the essentials economically by providing: some
notes; a glossary ofpropernames; a list ofreferences tohis quo-
tations. I hope that readers of various interests will find that,
between them, these three aids supply most of their needs,
though there is naturally no place for scholarly discussion of
problems.
REFERENCES
Referring to parts oftheMoralia is difficult.Greek, Latin and
English titles are not generally agreed, though there is usually
no difficulty in seeing what is meant. The tradition has been to
use the pages ofthe Frankfurt edition of 1599, a revision ofthat
ofH. Etienne (1572); these page-numbers are given in the right-
hand margins ofthis translation andare used forreference in the
Notes, List of Quotations, and Glossary. Individual pieces are
identified in the Introduction and Notes either by Arabic num-
erals (1-78), referring to the list given on pp. xxiii-xxix, or by
Roman numerals I-XVII, referring to the Table of Contents.
The treatises are also divided by editors into chapters, and the
numbers ofthese are given in bold type in the text.
