Plutarch’s purpose of writing Lives is to probe historical personages’ virtues which are paraded as models. He collected and analyzed historical material carefully, and hoped to reveal personages’ virtues by researching historical events,so the purpose of uncovering facts meets the need of probing virtues in his work sometimes,which reveals the characteristics of "seeking truth ". If the historical material and his cognition of virtues are in conflict with each other,Plutarch would stop founding out truth,even distorted history,so there’s a conflict between the purpose of uncovering facts and of pursuing of virtues sometimes,which means there are falsehoods in his work. "Seeking truth"and distortion coexist in Plutarch’s Lives,and both service for the pragmatic purpose of revealing virtues,this is a key characteristic of Plutarch’s writing method.