"An outstanding new edition of Plutarch, the inventor of biography, focused on five lives that remade the Roman world. Pompey, Caesar, Cicero, Brutus, Antony: the names still resonate across thousands of years. Major figures in the civil wars that brutally ended the Roman republic, they haunt us with questions of character and authority: how to safeguard a republic from the flaws of its leaders. Plutarch's rich, vivid profiles show character shaping history through grand scale events and intimate details. The creator and master of the biographical form, Plutarch brilliantly locates character in small gestures such as the selfless Brutus's punctilious use of money, or Caesar's embrace of the plainspoken discourse of the soldier rather than the eloquence of Cicero. This is a true reader's edition of Plutarch. The translation lends a straightforward clarity to Plutarch's prose, and the notes helpfully identify people, places, and events named in the text. The substantial introduction and foreword explore both Plutarch himself as a historical figure and the basic history of the republic's fall."--Provided by publisher.