The famous Greek historian Plutarch lived from 50 to 120 A.D. He came from a prosperous family and studied philosophy, history and literature. In his 32 volume work "Ethics", he covers a wide range of topics which constitute an excellent source of information. In these writings he deals with metaphysics, religion, history, politics, archeology, astronomy, physics, medicine, literature and music. In "Contemporary Lives" he presents a series of paired biographies of Greeks and Romans, with elaborate commentary, depicting his subjects in human dimensions. These biographies became landmarks in world literature and effected a very large public in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Newer Age. Among his admirers were the French thinkers Montesquieu and Rousseau as well as Napoleon, the German poet Schiller and the Prussian emperor Frederick the Great.
