The aratus and the artaxerxes

Aratus and Artaxerxes, an Achaean and an Achaemenid, are the heroes of two of Plutarch’s extant biographies, which have been coupled together since antiquity. The Aratus may be grouped together with Plutarch’s Greek Lives, and the Artaxerxes depicts a barbarian, which rules out the possibility of any other biography being coupled with it. It seems that the association of the two works was not the original plan of Plutarch. The Lamprias Catalogue, that is, the inventory list of Plutarch’s volumes in a large library that was probably compiled in the early fourth century CE, testifies to the fact that the grouping of the Aratus and the Artaxerxes was relatively recent. The two biographies seem to share a common interest in the theme of a changed character during adult life, that is, after it is supposed to have been established and be fixed.