Plutarch

Plutarch was a Greek who later became a Roman citizen, a Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist and priest at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Born into a long-established family at Chaeronea in Boeotia, he studied mathematics and philosophy at Athens and lived most of his life in his home town, serving as a magistrate there and as a Delphic priest. He is known above all for the Parallel Lives, biographies of illustrious Greeks and Romans arranged in pairs to show their shared virtues and vices, and for the Moralia, a collection of essays and speeches. His writings strongly shaped later English and French literature.