Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans Vol. 2 by Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus is a fascinating exploration of the lives of notable figures from ancient Greece and Rome. Plutarch's detailed accounts of individuals such as Themistocles, Marcus Cato, and Demosthenes offer a unique perspective on the political and cultural environments of the time.

What sets this book apart is Plutarch's skill in drawing parallels between the lives of these figures, highlighting their similarities and differences in character, actions, and outcomes. This approach allows readers to gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of human nature and the impact of individual decisions on history.

While the language can be a bit dense at times, Plutarch's vivid storytelling and insightful analysis make this book a rewarding read for anyone interested in ancient history or biographical literature. Overall, Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans Vol. 2 is a thought-provoking and educational work that sheds light on the lives and legacies of some of the most influential figures of antiquity.

Book Description:
Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans is a series of biographies of famous men, arranged in tandem to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings. The surviving lives contain twenty-three pairs of biographies, each pair consisting of one Greek and one Roman, as well as four unpaired, single lives.

Plutarch was not concerned with writing histories, as such, but in exploring the influence of character, good or bad, on the lives and destinies of famous men. The first pair of lives the Epaminondas-Scipio Africanus no longer exists, and many of the remaining lives are truncated, contain obvious lacunae and/or have been tampered with by later writers.

His Life of Alexander is one of the five surviving secondary or tertiary sources about Alexander the Great and it includes anecdotes and descriptions of incidents that appear in no other source. Likewise, his portrait of Numa Pompilius, an early Roman king, also contains unique information about the early Roman calendar.

In this copy-right expired 11-volume translation from the Loeb Classical library, the order of the paired lives is rearranged to present the Greek lives in chronological order. Vol 2 presents the paired lives of Themistocles and Camillus, Aristides and Cato Major, and Cimon and Lucullus.