I am writing not histories but lives, and the most glorious deeds do not always reveal the workings of virtue or vice. Often a small thing, a phrase or a jest, shows character better than battles where thousands fall.
Full text not yet available.
About this text
Biographies pairing a famous Greek with a famous Roman, written to illuminate character rather than to chronicle events. Plutarch believed a single jest or gesture could reveal a soul more truly than a won battle.