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This treatise could hardly have been written by a person ignorant of Latin. Plutarch in his Life of Demosthenes, chap, ii., modestly disavows any profound knowledge of Latin: yet he had read a considerable amount in the language and had spent some time in Rome. Hence he was quite able to use Latin works in compiling the Roman Questions. Some Roman writers he mentions by name, especially Varro, and Verrius Flaccus, an antiquarian of the Augustan age. Livy is specifically cited but twice in the Moralia, once in the present work and once in De Fortuna Romanorum; yet he is referred to no less than twelve times in the Lives, most of these citations being in the Marcellus and the Camillus. Perhaps Plutarch’s more exact acquaintance with Livy, if he ever acquired this, dates from a time later than the period during which he was engaged in the compilation of the Roman Questions.
intro
Other Roman authorities are mentioned occasionally, such as Cato the Elder, Nigidius Figulus, Antistius Labeo, Ateius Capito, and Fenestella: but no doubt they and others are used in accounts introduced by such expressions as they say, some say, the story is told, and the like. Some of these references have, in fact, been traced by scholars to their originals. It has been remarked of Cicero that any statement found in that author’s works appears, or has appeared, elsewhere. The same affirmation might be made of Plutarch with some confidence. Unless he specifically testifies to oral tradition or hearsay, we may be certain that his facts, like Cicero’s, are drawn from his extensive reading.
