Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

Plutarch and the Greece of His Age
telligent company and also by the aid of books, of
which he had a large collection.*
Plutarch was a man who strove not only to make
others wiser, but also to become wiser himself. His
aim was to be a living exemplar of the doctrines he
professed and taught. He was a firm believer in plain
living and high thinking. He disliked as strongly as
he disliked anything the costly and luxurious ban
quets so much affected by the rich Romans of his
The little
company that so frequently came to
day.
gether under his hospitable roof met, not to eat and
drink, but to engage in serious and profitable conver
sation. The viands were plain a secondary matter;
the chief thing was the discussion. This often
turned on the most trivial subjects, for the host seems
to have thought with Terence:
"Homo
*um, et nihil human! a nif alieuum puto."
Practical politics for a Greek of Plutarch s day did
not mean serious business, especially for the citizen of
a small municipality like Chaeroneia. He had there
fore ample time for studying, lecturing and formu
lating his numerous writings. He was not only so
fortunate as to have a good memory, but he began at
* Students of German literature are reminded of a certain
moral and intellectual similarity between Plutarch and Gellert.
The latter, though a man of much less natural ability, had all of
Plutarch s kindliness, moral and religious earnestness, sympathy
for those in distress, and the same popularity among all classes
from prince to peasant. Both were equally religious, though one
was a heathen and the other a Christian; both preserved the
name serenity of mind and cheerfulness of heart in a time of
national degradation and immorality.
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