L'attore e il regista. L'uomo politico nei Moralia di Plutarco

This volume is focused on the political thought of Plutarch of Chaeronea as it can be deduced from five essays included in the corpus of his Moralia. They are: Praecepta gerendae rei publicae, An seni sit gerenda res publica, Maxime cum principibus philosopho esse disserendum, Ad principem ineruditum and De unius in re publica dominatione, populari statu et paucorum imperio. Starting from a textual and lexical analysis of them, I highlight the most relevant elements of the plutarchean political thought. The ethic is the cornerstone of Plutarch’s ideas about politics. Men who are in power must be virtuous in their private life if they want to be good statesmen. The good politics is not depending on a peculiar form of government considered better than another one, but it depends on the morality of men who are in charge. The ethic and the good politics are deeply related: in Plutarch’s political thought it is not possible to create, manage and govern any communities if the basis of power is not the areté.