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The Suda, a medieval Greek encyclopedia, states that Emperor Trajan made Plutarch procurator of Illyria. He busied himself with all the little matters of the town and undertook the humblest of duties. Plutarch held the office of archon in his native municipality, probably only an annual one which he likely served more than once. In addition to his duties as a priest of the Delphic temple, Plutarch was also a magistrate at Chaeronea and he represented his home town on various missions to foreign countries during his early adult years. Many of these dialogues were recorded and published, and the 78 essays and other works which have survived are now known collectively as the Moralia. At his country estate, guests from all over the empire congregated for serious conversation, presided over by Plutarch in his marble chair. By his writings and lectures Plutarch became a celebrity in the Roman Empire, yet he continued to reside where he was born, and actively participated in local affairs, even serving as mayor. He probably took part in the Eleusinian Mysteries. For many years Plutarch served as one of the two priests at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, the site of the famous Delphic Oracle, twenty miles from his home. He lived most of his life at Chaeronea, and was initiated into the mysteries of the Greek god Apollo. As evidenced by his new name, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus, his sponsor for citizenship was Lucius Mestrius Florus, a Roman of consular status whom Plutarch also used as a historical source for his Life of Otho. Īt some point, Plutarch received Roman citizenship. He wrote about the ethics of meat-eating in two discourses in Moralia.
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Plutarch was a vegetarian, though how long and how strictly he adhered to this diet is unclear. Ruins of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, where Plutarch served as one of the priests responsible for interpreting the predictions of the Pythia Plutarch studied mathematics and philosophy in Athens under Ammonius from 66 to 67. Plutarch was the uncle of Sextus of Chaeronea, who was one of the teachers of Marcus Aurelius, and who may have been the same person as the philosopher Sextus Empiricus. His treatise on marriage questions, addressed to Eurydice and Pollianus, seems to speak of the former as having recently lived in his house, but without any clear evidence on whether she was his daughter or not. Another person, Soklarus, is spoken of in terms which seem to imply that he was Plutarch's son, but this is nowhere definitely stated. Plutarch's treatise De animae procreatione in Timaeo is dedicated to them, and the marriage of his son Autobulus is the occasion of one of the dinner parties recorded in the "Table Talk". The exact number of his sons is not certain, although two of them, Autobulus and the second Plutarch, are often mentioned. He hinted at a belief in reincarnation in that letter of consolation. A letter is still extant, addressed by Plutarch to his wife, bidding her not to grieve too much at the death of their two-year-old daughter, who was named Timoxena after her mother. Rualdus, in his 1624 work Life of Plutarchus, recovered the name of Plutarch's wife, Timoxena, from internal evidence afforded by his writings. His brothers, Timon and Lamprias, are frequently mentioned in his essays and dialogues, which speak of Timon in particular in the most affectionate terms. The name of Plutarch's grandfather was Lamprias, as he attested in Moralia and in his Life of Antony. The name of Plutarch's father has not been preserved, but based on the common Greek custom of repeating a name in alternate generations, it was probably Nikarchus ( Nίκαρχoς). Plutarch was born to a prominent family in the small town of Chaeronea, about 30 kilometres (19 mi) east of Delphi, in the Greek region of Boeotia. 5.5.3 Johann Friedrich Salomon Kaltwasser.