Plutarch was born probably between A.D. 45 and A.D. 50, at the little
town of Chaeronea in Boeotia. His family appears to have been long
established in this place, the scene of the final destruction of the
liberties of Greece, when Philip defeated the Athenians and Boeotian
forces there in 338 B.C. It was here also that Sulla defeated
Mithridates, and in the great civil wars of Rome we again hear, this
time from Plutarch himself, of the sufferings of the citizens of
Chaeronea. Nikarchus, Plutarch's great-grandfather, was, with all the
other citizens, without any exception, ordered by a lieutenant of Marcus
Antonius to transport a quantity of corn from Chaeronea to the coast
opposite the island of Antikyra. They were compelled to carry the corn
on their shoulders, like slaves, and were threatened with the lash if
they were remiss. After they had performed one journey, and were
preparing their burdens for a second, the welcome news arrived that
Marcus Antonius had lost the battle of Actium, whereupon both the
officers and soldiers of his party stationed in Chaeronea at once fled
for their own safety, and the provisions thus collected were divided
among the inhabitants of the city.
When Plutarch was born, however, no such warlike scenes as these were to
be expected. Nothing more than the traditions of war remained on the
shores of the Mediterranean. Occasionally some faint echo of strife
would make itself heard from the wild tribes on the Danube, or in the
far Syrian deserts, but over nearly all the world known to the ancients
was established the Pax Romana.
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