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Biography
Greek

Plutarch

46 — 120

Greek biographer and moral philosopher whose Parallel Lives — a series of paired biographies comparing famous Greeks with famous Romans — has been one of the most widely read works of classical literature for two millennia. Shakespeare drew on Plutarch (via Thomas North's 1579 English translation) for Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Coriolanus. The Lives are simultaneously literary masterpieces and the primary source for the biographies of dozens of ancient figures.

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PeriodClassical
NationalityGreek
1. Biography

A short life of the author

Plutarch (c. 46–120 CE) was a Greek biographer and philosopher from Chaeronea in Boeotia. He studied at the Academy in Athens, travelled to Rome and Egypt, and served as a priest at the Oracle of Delphi. His two major works are the Parallel Lives and the Moralia (essays on ethics, philosophy, and miscellaneous topics).

Parallel Lives

The Lives pair biographies of famous Greeks with famous Romans — Theseus with Romulus, Alexander with Caesar, Demosthenes with Cicero — followed by a brief comparison. Forty-six biographies survive (twenty-three pairs). They are not critical histories in the modern sense — Plutarch was interested in character and moral example rather than political analysis — but they are the primary biographical source for many of the most important figures of the ancient world.

Their literary influence is immense: Shakespeare’s Roman plays draw directly from Thomas North’s 1579 English translation of Plutarch, and the Lives shaped European ideas about heroism, virtue, and political life from the Renaissance through the Enlightenment.

Collecting Plutarch

The Loeb Classical Library edition (11 volumes, Harvard University Press, Greek text with English translation by Bernadotte Perrin) is the standard scholarly edition. The Penguin Classics translations by Ian Scott-Kilvert and others are widely available. Early printed editions — particularly the 1559 Jacques Amyot French translation and the 1579 North English translation — are significant antiquarian books.