Parallel Lives
1362 manuscript by Byzantine scholar Manuel Tzycandyles | |
| Author | Plutarch |
|---|---|
| Original title | Βίοι Παράλληλοι |
| Translator | Thomas North, John & William Langhorne, George Long, Aubrey Stewart, A. H. Clough, Bernadotte Perrin |
| Language | Koine Greek |
| Genre | Biography |
Publication date | Early 2nd century AD |
| Publication place | Roman Empire |
Published in English | 1579 |
| Media type | Manuscript |
| 920.038 | |
| LC Class | DE7 .P5 |
Original text | Βίοι Παράλληλοι at Greek Wikisource |
| Translation | Parallel Lives at Wikisource |
The Parallel Lives (Ancient Greek: Βίοι Παράλληλοι, Bíoi Parállēloi; Latin: Vītae Parallēlae) is a series of 48 biographies of famous men written in Greek by the Greco-Roman philosopher, historian, and Apollonian priest Plutarch, probably at the beginning of the second century. The lives are arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings.
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. There are also four singular Lives, recounting the stories of Artaxerxes, Aratus, Galba, and Otho. Traces of other biographies point to an additional twelve single Lives that are now missing.
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.