Parallel Lives

Plutarch´s "Parallel Lives" is a collection of biographies about great men and leaders from Greece and Rome. The book is structured in pairs of biographies including Themistocles v. Camillus, Pyrrhus v. Marius, Alexander v. Caesar, and Phocion v. Cato the Younger. The author compares the lives of leaders from both the Greeks and the Romans to show how similar they were. He hoped that the comparisons would lead to mutual respect between the two empires that were both influential at the time. As a result, most of the biographies are filled with moral teachings. This book can still be used by anyone intending to run for public office today since the same ethical principles apply to modern leaders.