his own writings. The name of his father has not been preserved, but it
was probably Nikarchus, from the common habit of Greek families to
repeat a name in alternate generations. His brothers Timon and Lamprias
are frequently mentioned in his essays and dialogues, where Timon is
spoken of in the most affectionate terms. Rualdus has ingeniously
recovered the name of his wife, Timoxena, from internal evidence
afforded by his writings. A touching letter is still extant, addressed
by Plutarch to his wife, bidding her not give way to excessive grief at
the death of their only daughter, who was named Timoxena after her
mother. The number of his sons we cannot exactly state. Autobulus and
Plutarch are especially spoken of as his sons, since the treatise on the
Timaeus of Plato is dedicated to them, and the marriage of his son
Autobulus is the occasion of one of the dinner-parties recorded in the
'Table Talk.' Another person, one Soklarus, is spoken of in terms which
seem to imply that he was Plutarch's son, but this is nowhere definitely
stated. His treatise also on Marriage Questions, addressed to Eurydike
and Pollianus, seems to speak of her as having been recently an inmate
of his house, but without enabling us to form an opinion whether she was
his daughter or not. A modern writer well describes his maturer years by
the words: "Plutarch was well born, well taught, well conditioned; a
self-respecting amiable man, who knew how to better a good education by
travels, by devotion to affairs private and public; a master of ancient
culture, he read books with a just criticism: eminently social, he was a
king in his own house, surrounded himself with select friends, and knew
the high value of good conversation; and declares in a letter written to
his wife that 'he finds scarcely an erasure, as in a book well written,
in the happiness of his life.'"

He was an active member of the little community of Chaeronea, being
archon of that town. Whether this dignity was annual or for life we do