By way of completing his education he proceeded to visit Egypt. The
"wisdom of the Egyptians" always seems to have had a fascination for the
Greeks, and at this period Alexandria, with its famous library and its
memories of the Ptolemies, of Kallimachus and of Theokritus, was an
important centre of Greek intellectual activity. Plutarch's treatise on
Isis and Osiris is generally supposed to be a juvenile work suggested by
his Egyptian travels. In all the Graeco-Egyptian lore he certainly
became well skilled, although we have no evidence as to how long he
remained in Egypt. He makes mention indeed of a feast given in his
honour by some of his relatives on the occasion of his return home from
Alexandria, but we can gather nothing from the passage as to his age at
that time.
One anecdote of his early life is as follows:--"I remember," he says,
"that when I was still a young man, I was sent with another person on a
deputation to the Proconsul; my colleague, as it happened, was unable to
proceed, and I saw the Proconsul and performed the commission alone.
When I returned I was about to lay down my office and to give a public
account of how I had discharged it, when my father rose in the public
assembly and enjoined me not to say _I_ went, but _we_ went, nor to say
that _I_ said, but _we_ said, throughout my story, giving my colleague
his share."
The most important event in the whole of Plutarch's pious and peaceful
life is undoubtedly his journey to Italy and to Rome; but here again we
know little more than that he knew but little Latin when he went
thither, and was too busy when there to acquire much knowledge of that
tongue.
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