For it is not Histories that I am writing, but Lives; and in the most illustrious deeds there is not always a manifestation of virtue or vice, nay, a slight thing like a phrase or a jest often makes a greater revelation of character than battles where thousands fall, or the greatest armaments, or sieges of cities.

According to the 10th century historian George Syncellus late in Plutarch's life emperor Hadrian appointed him nominal procurator of Achaea – a position that entitled him to wear the vestments and ornaments of a consul himself. Then he himself making his way with difficulty after all the rest plunged into the muddy current and at last without his shield partly swimming and partly wading got across. Again in Britain when the enemy had fallen upon the foremost centurions who had plunged into a watery marsh a soldier while Caesar in person was watching the battle daPlutarchd into the midst of the fight displayed many conspicuous deeds of daring and rescued the centurions after the Barbarians had been routed.

46 – 120 AD was a Greek historian biographer and essayist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. Plutarch (/ˈpluːtɑrk/; Greek: Πλούταρχος Ploútarkhos Koine Greek: [plŭːtarkʰos]) then named on his becoming a Roman citizen Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (Λούκιος Μέστριος Πλούταρχος)c. He was born to a prominent family in Chaeronea Boeotia a town about twenty miles east of Delphi.