[151] Amatorius, 762 A.
[152] De Defectu Orac., 435 E.
[153] Consolatio ad Uxorem, 612. Cf. De Defectu Orac., 437 A.
[154] Supplying, as Bernardakis does after Wyttenbach, καὶ οὐκ ἀγνοῶ ὁτι ταῦτα πολλὰς ἔχει ἀπορίας.
[155] De Pythiæ Orac., 409 C. Cf. De Rep. Ger., 792 F.
[156] Plutarch puts these words into the mouth of Theon, a literary man, and a most intimate friend of his own. But Theon is here a mere modest disguise of Plutarch, just as “Lamprias” is in the De Defectu Oraculorum. The argument is, in any case, not affected—the statement is clearly Plutarch’s own. (See the note on that dialogue in a subsequent chapter.)
[157] De Pythiæ Orac., 409 B.
[158] The antiquarian regret of Propertius for the old simple worships of Rome—“Nulli cura fuit externos quærere divos Cum tremeret patrio pendula turba sacro” (Eleg., v. 1)—touched a chord which very few Romans would have responded to in Plutarch’s time.
[159] De Exilio, 602 E. This recognition of the sacred character of the Emperor does not preclude criticisms of individual rulers, e.g., Nero: De Sera Num. Vindicta, 567 F; and Vespasian: Amatorius, 771 C.
[160] De Pythiæ Orac., 408 B.