One significant secular example of a biography from this period is the life of Charlemagne by his courtier Einhard. Their works were meant to be inspirational to the people and vehicles for conversion to Christianity (see Hagiography). Their subjects were usually restricted to the church fathers, martyrs, popes, and saints. Hermits, monks, and priests used this historic period to write biographies. During this time, the only repositories of knowledge and records of the early history in Europe were those of the Roman Catholic Church. In the early Middle Ages (AD 400 to 1450), there was a decline in awareness of the classical culture in Europe.

Another well-known collection of ancient biographies is De vita Caesarum ('On the Lives of the Caesars') by Suetonius, written about AD 121 in the time of the emperor Hadrian. In this work famous Greeks are paired with famous Romans, for example the orators Demosthenes and Cicero, or the generals Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar some fifty biographies from the work survive. Longer and more extensive biographies were written in Greek by Plutarch, in his Parallel Lives, published about 80 A.D. One of the earliest biographers was Cornelius Nepos, who published his work Excellentium Imperatorum Vitae ('Lives of outstanding generals') in 44 BC. The independent genre of biography as distinct from general history writing, began to emerge in the 18th century and reached its contemporary form at the turn of the 20th century. At first, biographical writings were regarded merely as a subsection of history with a focus on a particular individual of historical importance.

Total war age of charlemagne