THAT WE OUGHT NOT TO BORROW (DE VITANDO AERE ALIENO)
INTRODUCTION
This brief essay consists of repeated warnings, enlivened by numerous examples and anecdotes, against
running into debt. There is nothing to indicate that
it was delivered as a lecture, but it would probably
have been interesting to an audience of Plutarch's
time, and may have been written with an audience
in mind. It contains no profound or original doctrines, but is simply an agreeable presentation of
somewhat commonplace thoughts - rather learned,
rather literary, rather sensible, and, to the modern
reader, rather amusing.