Plutarch (born before AD 50, died after AD 120) is the ancient author who has arguably contributed more than any other to the popular conception of Sparta. Writing under the Roman Empire, at a time when the glory days of ancient Sparta were already long in the past, Plutarch represents a milestone in Sparta's mythologisation, but at the same time is a vital source for our historical understanding of Sparta. In this volume, eight scholars from around the world come together to consider Plutarch's understanding and presentation of Sparta, his flaws and significance as an historical source, and his development of Sparta as a resonant subject and theme within his bestknown work, the Parallel Lives. This book is the latest in a series which the Classical Press of Wales is publishing on major sources for Sparta. Volumes on Xenophon and Sparta (Powell & Richer 2020) and Thucydides and Sparta (Powell & Debnar 2021) have already been released, and a further volume on Herodotus and Sparta is currently in preparation

Reprint of the original, first published in 1875.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1874.

It includes contributions on Plutarch's life and cultural milieu; his methodology; the chronological order of composition and the cross-references from one Life to another; on the possibility that several biographies were edited simultaneously; the methods Plutarch adopted to summarize his own reading and research; the choice of subjects and of sources; Plutarch's compositional techniques; and the criteria for selecting the Greek and Roman pairs. An introduction discusses the traditions of historiography which influenced Plutarch, and the background to Graeco-Roman biography, analysing Plutarch's sources and assessing how he used them.