Plutarch on Cato the younger and the annexation of Cyprus

Abstract

This article offers a literary analysis of Plutarch’s narrative of Cato’s annexation of Cyprus in his Life of Cato the Younger. Through a detailed study of the parallel sources for this incident, it offers insights into Plutarch’s method of reshaping, expanding, reconstructing, and even inventing information, in order to inform his historical and moral investigation of the past. It argues that Plutarch’s narrative of Cato’s Cypriot expedition in the Life of Cato the Younger is Plutarch’s own innovation, and it should be understood as being part of his unique literary programme and method of “historical and ethical reconstruction” of events in his biographies.