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. Battles were indeed fought, and troops
were marched upon Rome, but this was merely to decide who was to be the
nominal head of the vast system of the Empire, and what had once been
independent cities, countries, and nations submitted unhesitatingly to
whoever represented that irresistible power. It might be imagined that a
political system which destroyed all national individuality, and
rendered patriotism in its highest sense scarcely possible, would have
reacted unfavourably on the literary character of the age. Yet nothing
of the kind can be urged against the times which produced Epictetus, Dio
Chrysostom and Arrian; while at Rome, Pliny the Younger, Tacitus,
Martial, and Juvenal were reviving the memories of the Augustan age.