INTRODUCTION
Again we have epideictic orations similar to the
preceding and the following essays, and the conclusion again is abrupt, as if the speaker had been
obliged to stop after a certain period of time had
elapsed. Note, however, the very considerable difference in length between the first and the second part
of the present work.
We know nothing of the circumstances under
which these orations were delivered, but it is quite
possible that they were spoken at Rome to show the
Romans what an educated Greek could do in the
treatment of a controversial subject.
The first oration deals mainly with the manner in
which Fortune used Alexander ; but much is also
said of the manner in which he met the buffetings of
Fortune and rose superior to them. In the second
oration Fortune is by no means neglected, but rather
more is said of Alexander's Virtue ; thus it is not
surprising to find in Lamprias's list of Plutarch's
works two entries : the first, No. 176,
Alexander's
Fortune (
Περὶ τῆς Ἀλεξάνδρου τύχης) and the second,
No. 186,
Alexander's Virtue (
Περὶ τῆς Ἀλεξάνδρου ἀρετῆς).
Much that is included here is found also in
Plutarch's
Life of Alexander, in Arrian's
Anabasis,
and in other writers cited in the notes.
[p. 381]
The genuineness of the tradition which ascribes
these works to Plutarch (for the attribution had been
attacked by A. Schäfer and by L. Weber) has been
brilliantly vindicated by W. Nachstädt in his dissertation,
De Plutarchi Declamationibus quae sunt De
Alexandri Fortuna (Berliner Beiträge für klassischen
Philologie, ii.), Karl Vogt, Berlin, 1895. This excellent work also contains a discussion of many of the
problems which confront the editor of these essays
and has been of great service.
