Êthos and Greek Identity in the Early Empire. Models of Virtue and Citizenship in Plutarch’s Lives of Pompey and Brutus

Abstract

The problem of “otherness” is approached in the Bioi Paralleloi of Plutarch of Chaeronea. Plutarch, as a member of the Greek provincial elite, legitimated by perhaps an idealized past, takes part in the process which links the Greek and the Roman through a relationship based upon negotiation.The work of this pepaideuménos models a shared ideal of civilization by resignifying the sociocultural, political and identitary encounter of both societies. Based on the analysis of the Life of Pompey and Brutus we will address Plutarch’s elaborated composition of both chacacters’ êthos, taking into account the “models of virtue” that he builds of them. Moreover, we will tackle the understanding of republican citizenship, which is related to the consideration of tyrannicides during the Early Empire.