Briefly summarize Plutarch's Roman Lives.

Roman Lives is a collection of biographies of six prominent classical Roman figures. These profiles are Plutarch's attempt to inform and remind political leaders of his time of their historical predecessors' foibles and strengths, and the ways in which these characteristics influenced history. The collection covers the lives of Coriolanus (a general during the 5th century B.C.), Pompey (consul of the Roman Republic during the 1st century B.C.), Julius Caesar (Roman dictator also of the 1st century B.C.), Mark Antony (a military and political leader, and Julius Caesar's contemporary and associate), Cicero (a philosopher and politician of the same era), and Brutus (Roman senator, military leader, and conspirator in the assassination of Julius Caesar). Through these six biographies, Plutarch offers a view of the upper echelon of political power in the Roman Empire of the time, and the violence engendered by their struggles to maintain that power.