Plutarch and the Persica

This book addresses two historical mysteries: the content and character of fourth century B.C.E. Greek works on the Persian Achaemenid Empire, treatises called the Persica; and the methods of the second century biographer Plutarch of Chaeronea (45--120 C.E.), who based his biographies on these works, particularly his Life of the Persian king Artaxerxes. Confronting both topics simultaneously, Eran Almagor proposes a new approach to their entangled problems and offers a better understanding of both the portrayal of ancient Persia in the lost Persica works and the manner of their reception and adaptation nearly five hundred years later.