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 work emerged as his second major set of biographical writings after the Lives of Roman Emperors from Augustus to Vitellius. Only two of those earlier imperial lives survive today: Galba and Otho. 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. He wanted to show how character shaped destiny for famous men across time. Writing nearly three centuries after most subjects had died, Plutarch relied on manuscripts of uncertain accuracy. In his biography of Pericles, he admitted that finding truth through past records is extremely difficult. Time obscures facts, and even contemporary writers often twist events out of malice or flattery.
Structural Pairings
The surviving collection contains twenty-three pairs of biographies linking one Greek figure with one Roman counterpart. These pairings included Alexander the Great alongside Julius Caesar and Demosthenes paired with Cicero. Four singular lives remain outside this pairing system: Artaxerxes, Aratus, Galba, and Otho. Traces suggest another twelve single lives once existed but are now lost forever. Eighteen of the paired biographies conclude with a formal comparison section between the two figures. Most pairs place the Greek hero first followed by the Roman hero. Three exceptions reverse this order: Aemilius Paullus before Timoleon, Coriolanus before Alcibiades, and Sertorius before Eumenes. The arrangement follows the Lamprias Catalogue, a list supposedly compiled by Plutarch's son Lamprias. This structure allowed Plutarch to illuminate shared virtues or failings across cultures separated by time and geography.