The Moralia (loosely translatable as Matters relating to Customs and Mores) of the 1st-century Greek scholar Plutarch of Chaeronea is an eclectic collection of 78 essays and transcribed speeches. They give an insight into Roman and Greek life, but often are also fascinating timeless observations in their own right.

Plutarch subsequently named, on becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus ( circa 46 – 120 AD), was a Greek historian, biographer, and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Morals. He was born to a prominent family in Chaeronea, Boeotia, a town about twenty miles east of Delphi.