The ways in which Plutarch reworked the image of Timoclea in the essays A Pleasant Life is Impossible on Epicurean Principles and On The Virtues of Women, and in his Life of Alexander reveal the impact of the rhetorical culture and paideia on his selection and use of evidence. This article traces the influence of the progymnasmata on Plutarch’s handling of the Timoclea episode, including Alexander’s ability to appreciate Timoclea’s “virtue and speech”, and to respond in kind, which presented him as a typical pepaideumenos. 

Keywords: Plutarch, Timoclea, rhetoric, progymnasmata, paideia, Alexander the Great.