Plutarch began writing the Parallel Lives at the start of the second century, likely around 100 AD. He was a Greek philosopher and priest serving Apollo at Delphi when he composed these biographies in Greek.
The surviving collection contains twenty-three pairs of biographies linking one Greek figure with one Roman counterpart. Four singular lives remain outside this pairing system: Artaxerxes, Aratus, Galba, and Otho.
Thomas North produced an English version in 1579 that followed Amyot's French text phrase for phrase. Shakespeare drew heavily on North's translation for plays like Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra.
Plutarch stated clearly in the opening paragraph of his Life of Alexander that he wrote about lives not histories. His goal was ethical exploration rather than historical documentation to show how character shaped destiny for famous men across time.
John Dryden edited this version though he did not actually perform the translation work himself. Jacob Tonson published this edition which became known as Dryden's translation despite Dryden's limited role.