Plutarch’s Lives or The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans by Plutarch

Plutarch's Lives (ISBN 978-0375756764) is an excellent reference book and a very worthwhile reading as he describes the lives of prominent Greeks and Romans individually and draws parallels between them according to their status or function.

This translation by John Dryden (revised by Arthur Hugh Clough) may seem old-fashioned and in a way it is. Yet it somehow adds an extra flavor to the antique texts. It is not as easy to read as any other contemporary translation of Plutarch's work but it has a feel of being close to the original script and the original way of understanding what Plutarch meant. A native English speaker will not find it so difficult to read as a foreigner, yet it is definitely worth the effort.

As far as Alexander the Great is concerned, Plutarch is the only author from antiquity to tell us something about Alexander’s youth – all the others start right away with his conquests and generally at his crossing to Asia Minor, leaving out the fierce campaign he had to lead at home before crossing the Hellespont. 

It is rather obvious that Plutarch compares him with Julius Caesar ...