We find these examples in the actions of good men, which implant an eager rivalry and a keen desire to imitate them in the minds of those who have sought them out…. …. Fortune we prize for the good things that we may possess and enjoy from her, but virtue for the good deeds we can perform: the former we are content to receive at the hands of others, but the latter we desire others to experience from ourselves. Moral good, in a word, has the power to attract towards itself. It is no sooner seen than it rouses the spectator to action, and yet it does not form his character by mere imitation, but by promoting the understanding of virtuous deeds it provides him with a dominating purpose. …. These, then, are the reasons which have impelled me to persevere in my biographical writings… Plutarch, “Pericles” (Scott-Kilvert translation, Penguin Classics edition) During my reading of Herodotus and Thucydides, I sometimes had trouble keeping track of who was who. Miltiades and Histiaeus showed up…
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