Parallel Lives

The Parallel Lives (Greek: Βίοι Παράλληλοι, Bíoi Parállēloi; Latin: Vītae Parallēlae) is a series of 48 biographies of famous men written by the Greco-Roman philosopher, historian, and Apollonian priest Plutarch, probably at the beginning of the second century. It is also known as Plutarch's Lives (Πλούταρχου Βίοι, Ploútarchou Bíoi; Plutarchī Vītae); Parallels (Παράλληλα, Parállēla; Parallela); the Comparative Lives (Συγκριτικοί Βίοι, Sygkritikoí Bíoi; Vitae Comparatae); the Lives of Illustrious Men (Vitae Illustrium Virorum); and the Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans (Βίοι Ῥωμαίων καὶ Ἑλλήνων, Bioi Rhōmaiōn kai Hellēnōn; Vitae Illustrium Virorum Graecorum et Romanorum or Graecorum Romanorumque Illustrium Vitae).

The lives are arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings.^[1] The surviving Parallel Lives comprises 23 pairs of biographies, each pair consisting of one Greek and one Roman of similar destiny, such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, or Demosthenes and Cicero. 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.