Plutarch's Lives of the great Greek statesmen and men of action were designed to pair with the now better-known Roman portraits and contain many of his finest descriptions of war, revolution and heroic achievement.

They include studies of Demosthenes and Phocion, the leading Athenian orators; of Agesilaus, the Spartan King, and Pelopidas, the Theban military hero; of Dion and Timoleon, the 'liberators' of Sicily; and, above all, of three generals - Demetrius 'the Besieger', Pyrrhys and Alexander the Great.