The Complete Collection of Plutarch's Parallel Lives

Publisher Marketing: Plutarch, later named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus, c. 46 - 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. Plutarch lived most of his life at Chaeronea, and his duties as the senior of the two priests of Apollo at the Oracle of Delphi (where he was responsible for interpreting the auguries of the Pythia) apparently occupied little of his time. He led an active social and civic life while producing an extensive body of writing, much of which survived. By his writings and lectures Plutarch became a celebrity in the Roman Empire. At his country estate, guests from all over the empire congregated for serious conversation, presided over by Plutarch in his marble chair. Many of these dialogues were recorded and published, and the 78 essays and other works which have survived are now known collectively as the Moralia. Plutarch's best-known work is the Parallel Lives, a series of biographies of famous Greeks and Romans, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues and vices. The surviving Lives contain 23 pairs, each with one Greek Life and one Roman Life, as well as four unpaired single Lives. Some of the Lives, such as those of Heracles, Philip II of Macedon and Scipio Africanus, no longer exist; many of the remaining Lives are truncated, contain obvious lacunae or have been tampered with by later writers. Extant Lives include those on Aristides, Pericles, Pompey, Julius Caesar, Cicero, Cato the Younger, Mark Antony, and Marcus Junius Brutus, all of which are included here. Contributor Bio:  Plutarch About the Introducer VICTOR DAVIS HANSON has written extensively on both ancient Greek and military history; his ?fteen books include The Western Way of War and Between War and Peace. He is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a professor of classics at California State University, Fresno. "From the Trade Paperback edition. Contributor Bio:  Dryden, John John Dryden (1631-1700) was an English poet, critic and dramatist, responsible for nearly 30 plays. He was noted both for his elegant comedies and his heroic verse dramas, which introduced the principles of French neoclassicism to England. Dryden turned to drama following the reopening of the theatres at the Restoration; his first attempt, the comedy "The Wild Gallant", was presented in 1663 at Drury Lane. The success of his heroic drama "The Indian Emperor" established him as a leading playwright. Following "Aureng-Zebe" (1675), perhaps his best heroic work, Dryden abandoned the use of rhyming couplets, producing the oft-revived blank-verse tragedy" All for Love" (a retelling of Shakespeare's" Antony and Cleopatra") in 1677. Dryden was the first to write drama criticism in an informal modern style and the first to attempt a history of English drama in his essay "Of Dramatick Poesie" (1668). He eventually tired of playwriting and his final plays, such as the tragicomedy" Love Triumphant "(1694), were written to relieve financial problems after his fortunes fell with the abdication of James II.