Editing Parallel Lives (section)

== Reception ==
Of the biographies in ''Parallel Lives'', that of Antonius has been cited by multiple scholars as one of the masterpieces of the series.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CtxDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA699|title=Shakespeare's Principal Plays|publisher=Century Company|date=1922}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0_GJAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA159|title=Plutarch and the Historical Tradition|page=159|editor1-last=Stadter|editor1-first=Philip A.|publisher=Routledge|date=2002|isbn=1-134-91319-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bsQpAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR26|title=Plutarch's Lives of Coriolanus, Caesar, Brutus, and Antonius: In North's Translation|author=Plutarch|translator-last=North|translator-first=Thomas|publisher=Clarendon Press|date=1906}}</ref> In 1895, [[George Wyndham]] wrote that the first rank consists of the biographies of Themistocles, Alcibiades, Marius, Cato the Elder, Alexander, Demetrius, Antonius, and Pompey.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=crXTAAAAMAAJ|title=Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, Volume 1|author=Plutarch|translator-last=North|translator-first=Thomas|publisher=D. Nutt|date=1895}}</ref> Peter D'Epiro praised Plutarch's depiction of Alcibiades as "a masterpiece of characterization."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VtaODQAAQBAJ&pg=PA38|title=The Book of Firsts: 150 World-Changing People and Events from Caesar Augustus to the Internet|page=38|last=D'Epiro|first=Peter|publisher=Anchor Books|date=2010|isbn=978-0-307-38843-8}}</ref> Academic [[Philip A. Stadter]] singled out Pompey and Caesar as the greatest figures in the Roman biographies.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m2KeBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA38|title=Aspects of Ancient Institutions and Geography: Studies in Honor of Richard J.A. Talbert|page=38|editor1-last=Brice|editor1-first=Lee L.|editor2-last=Slootjes|editor2-first=Daniëlle|publisher=BRILL|date=2014|isbn=978-9004283725}}</ref> In a review of the 1859 [[Arthur Hugh Clough|A. H. Clough]] translation, Plutarch's depictions of Antony, Coriolanus, Alcibiades, and the Cato the Elder were praised as deeply drawn. The reviewer found the sayings of Themistocles to be "snowy and splendid", those of Phocion to be "curt and sharp", and those of Cato "grave and shrewdly humorous".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ffUAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA246|title=Quarterly Review|date=1861|publisher=J. Murray.|pages=246–250|language=en}} Note that this 1861 review mistakenly identifies the author as "A.W. Clough" (p.239) but this is a typo; the author is A.H. Clough</ref> [[Carl Rollyson]] lauded the biography of Caesar as proof Plutarch is "loaded with perception" and stated that no biographer "has surpassed him in summing up the essence of a life – perhaps because no modern biographer has believed so intensely as Plutarch did in 'the soul of men'.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=km73o8ukCDYC&pg=PA12|title=Essays in Biography|last=Rollyson|first=Carl|date=2005|publisher=iUniverse|isbn=978-0-595-34181-8|pages=12|language=en}}</ref>

The English translation (1770) of [[John Langhorne (poet)|John Langhorne]] and William Langhorne noted that [[Jacques Amyot|Amiot]], Abbe of Bellozane, published a French translation of the work during the reign of [[Henry II of France|Henry II]] in the year 1558; and from that work it was translated into English, in the time of [[Elizabeth I]]. No other translation appeared until that of [[John Dryden]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4t4NAAAAQAAJ|title=Plutarch's Lives|publisher=Edward and Charles Dilly|date=1770}}</ref>