Parallel Lives (24 volumes)

Description

Plutarch’s Plutarch most famous work consists of paired biographies, with one Greek and one Roman in each volume. Most of the biographies include a direct comparison of the characters of the individuals portrayed.

Plutarch’s aim was not so much to present the historical facts of each person’s life as to study their character and psychological makeup.

The Parallel Lives constitute an important source of information about major historical figures. For some of those portrayed, Plutarch provides details that are not found in any other sources.   

The biographical pairs are:

1. Solon – Publicola
2. Themistocles – Camillus
3. Theseus – Romulus
4. Lycurgus – Numa Pompilius
5. Pericles – Fabius Maximus
6. Coriolanus – Alcibiades
7. Aristides – Cato the Elder
8. Pelopidas – Marcellus
   Agis and Cleomenes – Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus
   Aemilius Paulus – Timoleon
9. Agis and Cleomenes – Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus
10. Aemilius Paulus – Timoleon
11. Dion – Brutus
12. Cimon – Lucullus
13. Pyrrhus – Gaius Marius
14. Philopoemen – Titus Flamininus
15. Nicias – Crassus
16. Phocion – Cato the Younger
17. Alexander – Julius Caesar
18. Demosthenes – Cicero
19. Lysander – Sulla
20. Agesilaus – Pompey
21. Eumenes – Sertorius
22. Demetrius – Mark Antony
23. Aratus – Artaxerxes
24. Galba – Otho