Book description
Bringing together nine biographies from Plutarch's Parallel Lives
series, this edition examines the lives of major figures in Roman
history, from Lucullus (118-57 BC), an aristocratic politician and
conqueror of Eastern kingdoms, to Otho (32-69 AD), a reckless young
noble who consorted with the tyrannical, debauched emperor Nero before
briefly becoming a dignified and gracious emperor himself. Ian
Scott-Kilvert s and Christopher Pelling s translations are accompanied
by a new introduction, and also includes a separate introduction for
each biography, comparative essays of the major figures, suggested
further reading, notes and maps. PLUTARCH (c. 50 c. 120 AD) was a
Greek writer and thinker. He received the best possible education in
rhetoric and philosophy, and travelled to Asia Minor and Egypt. Later, a
series of visits to Rome and Italy contributed to his fame, and it was
said that he had received official recognition by the emperors Trajan
and Hadrian. His voluminous surviving writings are broadly divided into
the moral works and the Lives of outstanding Greek and Roman leaders.
IAN SCOTT-KILVERTwas Director of English Literature at the British
Council and Editor of Writers and Their Works. For the Penguin Classics,
he translated Plutarch s Makers of Rome, The Rise and Fall of Athens:
Nine Greek Lives and The Age of Alexander, and Cassius Dio s The Roman
History. He died in 1989. CHRISTOPHER PELLING is Regius Professor of
Greek at Oxford University. He published a commentary on Plutarch s Life
of Antony in 1988 (Cambridge University Press) and most of his articles
on Plutarch are collected in his Plutarch and History (Classical Press
of Wales and Duckworth, 2002).
