The basis for Shakespeare's Roman plays, Plutarch'sLiveshave been entertaining and arousing the spirit of emulation in countless readers since their creation in the second century. Originally namedParallel Lives, the work pairs eminent Romans with famous Greek counterparts--like the orators Cicero and Demosthenes--giving illuminating treatments of each separately and then comparing the two in a pithy essay. The first of the two volumes in this translation by John Dryden presents Theseus and Romulus, Pericles and Fabius, Alcibiades and Coriolanus, Aristides and Marcus Cato, and Lysander and Sylla, among others.