Written in the second century CE, Plutarch’s Lives is a series of nearly 50 biographies of illustrious ancient Greeks and Romans. Plutarch paired one Greek figure with one Roman figure to emphasize their common characters, virtues, and destinies. Politicians ever since have read, debated, and at times even tried to emulate the men described and analyzed by Plutarch, and his book forces leaders and readers past and present to weigh the moral consequences of the actions undertaken by the ancients to better understand themselves.