Plutarch's Lives - Volume III.: Translated from the Greek, with Notes and a Life of Plutarch

Plutarch’s Lives continues its exploration of character and consequence in this third volume, examining figures whose lives were shaped by uncertainty, ambition, and political danger.

Here, Plutarch presents paired biographies such as Nikias and Crassus, Sertorius and Eumenes, and Agesilaus, drawing attention to how temperament, foresight, and moral judgment determine outcomes as much as external events. Success and failure are traced not to fate alone, but to character revealed in decisive ...