The Rise And Fall of AthensBy: Plutarch Plutarch traces the fortunes of Athens through nine lives from Theseus, its founder, to Lysander, its Spartan conqueror in this seminal work What makes a leader? For Plutarch the answer lay not in great victories, but in moral strengths. In these nine biographies, taken from his Parallel Lives, Plutarch illustrates the rise and fall of Athens through nine lives, from the legendary days of Theseus, the city's founder, through Solon,