proceeds to
the history of the Triumvirate formed after Caesar's death by his great
nephew Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus, Marcus Antonius, and Lepidus, the
quarrels of the Triumviri, the downfall of Lepidus, who was reduced to
the condition of a private person, and the death of Sextus Pompeius, the
last support of the party in whose cause his father, Cneius Pompeius,
lost his life. The remainder of this History, which is lost, carried the
narration down to the quarrels of Octavianus and Marcus Antonius, which
ended in the defeat of Antonius in the battle of Actium, B.C. 31, and
his death in Egypt, B.C. 30. The victory over Antonius placed all the
power in the hands of Octavianus, who, in the year B.C. 27, received
from the Roman Senate the title of Augustus, or the Sacred, by which
name he is commonly known as the first of the long series of Roman
Emperors. "He made himself," says Appian (_Civil Wars_, i. 5), "like
Caius Julius Caesar, and still more than Caesar, governor of his country
and of all the nations under it, without needing either election or the
popular votes, or any show of such things. After his government had
subsisted for a long time, and been maintained with vigour, fortunate in
all his measures, and feared, he left behind him descendants and
successors who kept the power that he transmitted to them. In this way,
after various civil commotions, the Roman State was restored to
tranquillity, and the government became a Monarchy. And how this came
about I have explained, and brought together all the events, which are
well worth the study of those who wish to become acquainted with
ambition of men unbounded, love of power excessive, endurance unwearied,
and forms of suffering infinite." Thus, the historian's object was to
trace the establishment of the Imperial power in Rome back to its
origin, to show that the contests of the rival heads of parties involved
the State in endless calamities, which resulted in a dissolution of all
the bonds that held society together, and rendered the assumption of
supreme power by one man a healing and a necessary event.

As already observed, it happens that thirteen of Plutarch's extant Lives
are the lives of the most distinguished of the Romans who lived during
this eventful period; and though Plutarch's Lives severally are not
histories of the times to which they respectively refer, nor
collectively form a History of any given time, yet they are valuable as
portraits of