Perspective

Plutarch is writing in the second century A.D., hundreds of years after the lives of some of the men he profiles, but only a generation or less removed from others. His perspective changes from life to life somewhat, as he is more or less removed in time from his subject. He works primarily from the writings of other historians for the outlines of his lives, but he notes that these sources often disagree and gives his own opinion on the likely accuracy of each version.

Plutarch is an educated Greek living in a small town in Greece under Roman rule. He prefers small town life to that of the city, he writes, and his perspective is as something of an outsider to the dominant politics of his day. His heritage as a Greek seems to influence his perspective in his choice of leaders to write about, although...