Plutarch's Parallel Lives (first printed in Rome in 1470) is a work of tremendous quality and equally great historical importance. Although it is a very complex book, it can be easily described as a series of biographies of famous people (like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Antonius). The book is structured such that Plutarch talks first about a Greek person, then about a famous Roman person, thus ensuring that he subjects get a fair and balanced history.
Throughout, Plutarch’s main goal in writing the book was to illuminate each of his subjects' virtues, vices, and failings and to show the influence character can have on people and how it can influence them -- good and bad. Interestingly, Plutarch’s section on Alexander the Great (titled Life of Alexander) is one of the very few secondary sources left in existence on the great Macedonian general. But Plutarch’s Parallel Lives is not just important historically. It provides an invaluable eye into the lives of those many likely would not have known or heard of.
Many people in the present and in the past loved the book. Present-day The American Conservative enjoyed the book, writing: "The Age of Caesar makes for an engaging introduction for English-only readers to a small sliver of the greatness that is Plutarch’s Parallel Lives." Those in the past loved the book too. The biography of Antonius is often regarded as one of the many masterpieces of the series. In 1895, George Wyndham wrote ranked the histories in the book as follows: Themistocles, Alcibiades, Marius, Cato, Alexander, Demetrius, Antonius, and Pompey. However, Parallel Lives still has some detractors. Many have cited a number of factual errors and inaccuracies.
