Resorting to rare sources of antiquity: Nikephoros Basilakes and the popularity of Plutarch’s <i>Parallel Lives</i> in twelfth-century Byzantium

Abstract

This article examines the Byzantine adaptation of the anecdote of the Lydian king Pythes within Nikephoros Basilakes’ &lt;i&gt;Progymnasma&lt;/i&gt; 11 in relation to its earliest surviving source, Plutarch’s &lt;i&gt;Mulierum virtutes&lt;/i&gt; 262D–263A. By looking at the ascription accompanying Basilakes’ progymnasma, it additionally argues for the popularity of Plutarch’s &lt;i&gt;Parallel Lives&lt;/i&gt; in Komnenian Byzantium