‘The slowness and procrastination of the Deity in the punishment of the wicked seem to me the most mysterious of all things.’
“On the Delay of the Divine Justice” is one of Plutarch’s most remarkable writings that is valuable from both a philosophical and an ethical point of view. It deals with the delay of penal consequences of guilt, which has been a mystery to serious minds since ancient times. Plutarch, with his unquestioning faith in immortality, believed that guilt, if not punished in this life, will be punished in the next. And although the punishment seems late, it will last long. Plutarch’s treatise is a comprehensive analysis of the ethics of punishment and he also considers the question of mercy and the solidarity of family and community when punishment falls.
Plutarch was a Greek biographer and writer best known for his Parallel Lives, which is a work of immense historical importance. He studied philosophy and mathematics in Athens in his youth and later travelled to Rome several times due to public duties. He may have been acquainted with the Roman emperors Trajan and Hadrian.