Plutarch
Plutarch was a Greek historian, biographer, and philosopher.
He lived circa 46-120 AD. After studying philosopy in Athens, Plutarch
traveled the Mediterranean world, and gave lectures in Rome. As a
historian, Plutarch is considered fairly reliable.
The most famous of Plutarch's works, and one that will be
relied upon heavily as a source, is his Bioi Parelleloi (Parallel Lives). This is
a series of biographies covering fifty lives of famous Greeks and
Romans. Most of the biographies are paired with another biography,
with Plutarch's comparisons attached. Because of his background as a
philosopher, Plutarch's goal in his Lives is not to simply relate
historic fact, but to portray the moral character of each individual.
Source(s):
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Oxford Concise Companion to Classical Literature. ed.
Howatson and Chilvers. Oxford. New York, 1993.