Xenophon (c. 430 to 355/354 BC) wrote the biography of Cyrus, the founder of the Persian Empire.

One of the earliest Roman biographers was Cornelius Nepos, who published his work Excellentium Imperatorum Vitae ("Lives of outstanding generals") in 44 BC. Longer and more extensive biographies were written in Greek by Plutarch, in his Parallel Lives, published