Plutarch was active in politics and traveled to Rome several times as a public servant. In Rome, he was a popular philosopher and public figure and traveled in circles that included the emperors Trajan and Hadrian. Plutarch is known to have written 227 works of various sorts. Of these, Parallel Lives, a collection of biographies about Greek and Roman figures, and Morals, a collection of works on ethical, political, religious, and literary topics.