Plutarch on LacusCurtius

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Quaestiones Romanae (The Roman Questions) — 113 of them, all starting with "Why?"; many deal with the more mystifying aspects of Roman religion. Plutarch is wise enough to supply not answers, but further questions: he's not at a loss for ideas, though, and has provided generations of scholars with ample fields for speculation.

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De Iside et Osiride (On Isis and Osiris): Egyptian religion rather than Roman, to be sure, but Isis especially was widely worshipped thruout the Roman empire. An enormous amount of information mixed in with an equal amount of Greek speculation and philosophical projection: who knows what the Egyptians themselves actually thought.

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Apophthegmata Romana (Sayings of Romans): a collection of memorable things said by twenty famous Roman men; just possibly, the kernel of what would become the Parallel Lives.

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De Mulierum Virtutibus (On the Bravery of Women): written by Plutarch for a woman friend of his, it's not the philosophical disquisition the title might lead one to expect — rather, an album of specific women of courage, both individuals and groups. Their bravery took an interesting variety of forms.

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You'd think that with a title like De Facie quae in orbe lunae apparet (On the Face which Appears in the Orb of the Moon) we'd have something interesting and fun. Well, those with an interest in esoteric Neoplatonist philosophy and the history of planetary science will find enough to keep them amused, but the rest of us will wonder why such a misleading title — not given by Plutarch, mind you. 460 footnotes, each abstruser than the others; enjoy.

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Eight smaller works (i.e., they each fit on a single webpage, more or less):

De fortuna Romanorum (On the Fortune of the Romans): Just how did it happen that the Romans came to dominate the entire Western world? Plutarch puts it down to luck, although he hedges a bit.

De fortuna Alexandri (On the Fortune of Alexander): In the case of Alexander the Great, on the other hand, Plutarch's feathers get quite ruffled if you think his success due to luck; he ascribes it to heroic virtue.

De defectu oraculorum (On the Failure, Ceasing, or Obsolescence of Oracles) Most of it is not about oracles at all, but about the plurality of worlds, the nature of demigods, mystical numbers: a collection of digressions, in sum. I can't say I'd pay two cents for the lot of it. (See also below, a different translation, offsite.)

De capienda ex inimicis utilitate: An engaging and therapeutic little essay on profiting from our inevitable enemies.

De vitando aere alieno (That We Ought Not to Borrow): Plutarch knew a thing or two about credit cards; his advice is still good.

Instituta Laconica (Customs of the Ancient Spartans): Living in Sparta must have been hell on wheels. They took your children from you at age 7 and trained them to rob anyone who might be asleep; they forced street people to get drunk so they could make an example of them for the élite; every teenage boy was administered a severe public ritual beating once a year; there was pressure on you to lend your wife to other men, provided they were hunks; if you made an improved musical instrument, the government would come and destroy it; they paid you in worthless scrip; and you weren't allowed to have dinner in your own house. Plutarch seems to admire it all. Fortunately, I'm not sure how much of it should be believed.

Apophthegmata Laconica (Sayings of the Ancient Spartans): What seems to have been Plutarch's notebook, in which from various sources he gathered Spartan sound bites; most of them found their way into the Lives.

The so‑called Parallela Minora: and minor indeed they are. A bizarrer, more ill-constructed hotchpotch of stuff would be hard to imagine from the pen of one of Antiquity's best writers; these "Parallel Incidents" that supposedly happened once to a Greek, once to a Roman, are probably not Plutarch's at all. Theories abound.

In addition to the items on my own site, three more works from the Moralia can be found in English translation offsite, all of them related to oracles, and very well presented: On the E at Delphi, a flight of fancy worthy of Sir Thomas Browne; On the Pythian Responses; and On the Ceasing of the Oracles.