Setting out ‘to serve the needs of readers exploring ancient history through primary sources’ (p. viii), this volume provides excerpts from fifteen (of the extant twenty-three) of Plutarch's Greek Lives: Theseus, Lycurgus, Solon, Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon, Pericles, Nicias, Alcibiades, Lysander, Agesilaus, Pelopidas, Demosthenes, Alexander and Phocion. Excluded from the volume are: Pyrrhus, Eumenes, Dion, Timoleon, Agis and Cleomenes, Demetrius and Philopoemen. As R. explains, the Dion and the Timoleon are excluded on account of their dealing principally with Greek Sicily, the others because they ‘take place largely or entirely in the Hellenistic age’ (p. viii). This volume follows in the footsteps of R.'s Herodotus. On the War for Greek Freedom. Selections from the Histories, also published by Hackett (2003), with translations by S. Shirley. In the same style as the earlier volume, R. excerpts material aimed at constructing a linear narrative of Greek history, excising material considered to be extraneous or tangential to the main storyline.

The volume begins with a brief, four-page introduction to the Parallel Lives, providing some general remarks on Plutarch's literary style and his approach to history. Mention is made of the paired structure of the Parallel Lives, their concern with questions of what makes a good leader and their moral agenda (p. vi). These are important issues for understanding the Lives, and the discussion might profitably have been extended in the context of this volume to discuss the ways in which these factors influenced Plutarch's representation of the past. The paired structure of the Parallel Lives, for instance, and their comparative approach to history, significantly affects Plutarch's representation of the past and the ways in which he shapes his material in each of the paired biographies. In this connection, it might also have been helpful to mention the Roman pair to each of the Greek Lives excerpted.

The introductory material includes a table showing the life spans of most of the subjects of the Lives included in the volume, alongside three maps: the Greek World, the Persian invasions and the route of Alexander's campaigns in the Persian Empire. A helpful bibliography is also provided, which cites the most important works of scholarship on Plutarch's Parallel Lives. Some recent works, which will have appeared too late to have been mentioned here but which may be of interest to readers, include: N. Humble (ed.), Parallelism in Plutarch's Lives: Parallelism and Purpose (2010) and T.E. Duff's exhaustive study, ‘The Structure of the Plutarchan Book’, Classical Antiquity 30.2 [2011], 213–78).

Each excerpt begins with a brief (between ten and twenty lines) historical introduction to the subject of the Life, usually with some discussion of the relationship of the Life to the other main sources (e.g. Herodotus and Thucydides for Themistocles), and with other Lives where there is some crossover of material (e.g. narrative of the same events in Agesilaus and Pelopidas). These introductions generally do not discuss how much of the Life has been excerpted, except in the case of the Theseus where the brevity of the excerpts is mentioned and justified on the grounds that most of the material is mythical (p. 1). Each excerpt is well translated by M., and accompanied by R.'s historical notes, which are useful in orienting the reader and providing important historical details (e.g. dates and explanations of key terms). Within the excerpts, excisions from the middle of a paragraph or chapter are marked (…), but no explicit indication is given when material is cut from the beginning or end of a chapter, as discussed by R. in the introduction (p. viii). There is a glossary of terms and an index for ease of reference.

The principle determining what to excerpt has been to include only the material deemed to be of greatest historical significance (p. viii). In this way, anecdotes and apophthegms, both integral to Plutarch's characterisation of his subjects, are excised. So too are not only literary allusions, but direct citations of contemporary literature used as evidence for a subject's character, such as Nicias 4.5–8 which cites comic poets as evidence of Nicias' political behaviour. Even passages of critical evaluation or comment, such as that evaluating and describing Nicias' actions when setting out on the Sicilian campaign (Nicias 14.1–2), which is integral not only to Plutarch's presentation of his subject, but to his assessment of the reasons why this campaign failed, are excluded.

R. notes the difficulties involved in making excisions, recognising that the process entails the removal of much of what is most distinctively Plutarchan about the discourse of the Parallel Lives (p. viii). He is right to remark that it is sad to see this material excised, the more so since it arguably excludes material which is also of great historical significance. As a series, Plutarch's Parallel Lives provide a history of a considerable period, from mythical times to the end of the Roman Republic. What sets them apart from other historical works is their biographical approach, and their particular contribution is their focus upon the characters of the individuals who shaped the course of history. Here, then, we lose much of what is distinctive about the Parallel Lives, not only in terms of their literary style, but also of their historical contribution.

This volume is to be commended for its attempt to widen the readership of Plutarch's Parallel Lives, and for offering well-translated excerpts, which demonstrate something of Plutarch's historical approach. It is perhaps a topic for another place to discuss the value of approaching the Parallel Lives, or indeed any ancient texts, simply as historical sources, thereby disregarding their individual nature and genre in the pursuit of historical information. It seems worth concluding, however, by drawing attention to the English translations of Plutarch's Parallel Lives in the Penguin Classics and Oxford World's Classics series. Both provide very good translations of entire Lives, and the Penguin series is currently being revised and extended to include all the extant Lives. The Oxford editions (P.A. Stadter [ed.] and R. Waterfield [trans.], Plutarch: Greek Lives [2008] and Plutarch: Roman Lives [2008]), in addition to translations of selected Lives, provide very helpful introductions, notes and bibliographies. Two of the revised Penguin volumes which have already appeared (T.E. Duff [ed., trans.] and I. Scott-Kilvert [trans.], Plutarch: The Age of Alexander [2012]; C.B.R. Pelling [ed., trans.] and I. Scott-Kilvert [trans.], Plutarch: Rome in Crisis [2010]) are invaluable new resources: they offer revised translations and new translations of Lives which were previously excluded from the series, accompanied by excellent new introductions, notes and bibliographies, and both volumes have been produced by leading experts on Plutarch and the Parallel Lives.