in ancient china, a biography was one of the basic forms of a history book. in india, biographies of buddha and his reincarnated lives were written. in ancient greece, people wrote biographies of people that were not rulers too. xenophon wrote a biography of socrates and gave this book the name "memorabilia" (memories). during the roman empire, plutarch wrote "parallel lives" about ancient greek and roman politicians, and suetonius wrote biographies of the roman emperors. the gospels were also biographies of jesus christ.