Makers of Rome

For this volume Ian Scott-Kilvert has selected nine of Plutarch's Roman Lives: figures whose careers range from the earliest years of the Republic to the establishment of the Empire under Octavius Caesar. The Shakespearean heroes Coriolanus, Brutus and Mark Antony have been included to illustrate Plutarch's fondness for a semi-fictional rather than a factual treatment of history.

Plutarch (c.50-c.120 AD) was a writer and thinker born into a wealthy, established family of Chaeronea in central Greece. He received the best possible education in rhetoric and philosophy, and traveled to Asia Minor and Egypt. Later, a series of visits to Rome and Italy contributed to his fame, which was given official recognition by the emperors Trajan and Hadrian. Plutarch rendered conscientious service to his province and city (where he continued to live), as well as holding a priesthood at nearby Delphi. His voluminous surviving writings are broadly divided into the ‘moral’ works and the Parallel Lives of outstanding Greek and Roman leaders. The former (Moralia) are a mixture of rhetorical and antiquarian pieces, together with technical and moral philosophy (sometimes in dialogue form). The Lives have been influential from the Renaissance onwards.