Book Description

Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, commonly called Parallel Lives or Plutarch's Lives, is a series of biographies of famous men, arranged in tandem to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings, probably written at the beginning of the second century AD. The surviving Parallel Lives comprises twenty-three pairs of biographies, each pair consisting of one Greek and one Roman, as well as four unpaired, single lives. It is a work of considerable importance, not only as a source of information about the individuals described, but also about the times in which they lived.As he explains in the first paragraph of his Life of Alexander, Plutarch was not concerned with writing histories, but with exploring the influence of character, good or bad, on the lives and destinies of famous men. He wished to prove that the more remote past of Greece could show its men of action and achievement as well as the nearer, and therefore more impressive, past of Rome. His interest was primarily ethical, although the lives have significant historical value as well. The Lives was published by Plutarch late in his life after his return to Chaeronea and, if one may judge from the long lists of authorities given, it must have taken many years to compile.CONTENTS1. Cimon 2. Lucullus 3. Comparison of Lucullus with Cimon 4. Nicias 5. Crassus 6. Comparison of Crassus with Nicias 7. Sertorius 8. Eumenes 9. Comparison of Sertorius with Eumenes 10. Agesilaus 11. Pompey 12. Comparison of Pompey and Agesilaus 13. Alexander 14. Caesar 15. Phocion 16. Cato the Younger 17. Agis 18. Cleomenes 19. Tiberius Gracchus 20. Caius Gracchus 21. Comparison of Tiberius and Caius Gracchus with Agis and Cleomenes 22. Demosthenes 23. Cicero 24. Comparison of Demosthenes and Cicero 25. Demetrius 26. Antony 27. Comparison of Demetrius and Antony 28. Dion 29. Marcus Brutus 30. Comparison of Dion and Brutus 31. Aratus 32. Artaxerxes 33. Galba 34. Otho