Diogenes Laertius was a Greek writer who probably lived in the first half of the third century AD. Nothing is known about his life, apart from his authorship of the Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. He also wrote poems, most of them now lost.

Pamela Mensch is a translator of ancient Greek whose works include The Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander, Herodotus' Histories, and Plutarch's The Age of Caesar: Five Roman Lives.

James Miller is Professor of Liberal Studies and Politics and Faculty Director of Creative Publishing & Critical Journalism at the New School for Social Research. He has authored and edited an array of works, including Examined Lives: From Socrates to Nietzsche, The Passion of Michel Foucault, and History and Human Existence: From Marx to Merleau-Ponty.