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Xenophon - Wikipedia

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1Life

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1.1Early years

1.2Anabasis

1.2.1Expedition with Cyrus the Younger

1.2.2Return

1.3Life after Anabasis

2Political philosophy

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2.1Cyropaedia

2.1.1Relations between Medes and Persians in the Cyropaedia

2.1.2Persians as centaurs

2.1.3Against empire/monarchy

2.1.4Against democracy

2.2Constitution of the Spartans

2.3Old Oligarch

3Socratic works and dialogues

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3.1Relationship with Socrates

3.2Socrates: Xenophon vs. Plato

3.3Historical reality

3.4Modern reception

4List of works

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4.1Historical and biographical works

4.2Socratic works and dialogues

4.2.1Defences of Socrates

4.2.2Other Socratic dialogues

4.2.3Tyrants

4.3Short treatises

4.4Spuria

5See also

6References

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6.1Citations

6.2Bibliography

7External links

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Xenophon

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Greek philosopher, historian, soldier (c. 430–355/354 BC)

For other uses, see Xenophon (disambiguation).

Xenophon of AthensBust of XenophonBornc. 430 BC[1]AthensDiedProbably 354 or 355 BC[2] (aged c. 74 or 75)likely Corinth[3]NationalityGreekOccupation(s)Military leader, mercenary, philosopher, historian, writerNotable work

Hellenica

Anabasis

Education of Cyrus

Memorabilia

Symposium

Oeconomicus

Hiero

Apology

Agesilaus

Constitution of the Lacedaemonians

ChildrenGryllus and DiodorusParentGryllus

Xenophon of Athens (/ˈzɛnəfən, zi-, -fɒn/; Ancient Greek: Ξενοφῶν [ksenopʰɔ̂ːn]; c. 430[1] – probably 355 or 354 BC[2]) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian, born in Athens. At the age of 30, Xenophon was elected commander of one of the biggest Greek mercenary armies of the Achaemenid Empire, the Ten Thousand, that marched on and came close to capturing Babylon in 401 BC. As the military historian Theodore Ayrault Dodge wrote, "the centuries since have devised nothing to surpass the genius of this warrior".[4] Xenophon established precedents for many logistical operations, and was among the first to describe strategic flanking maneuvers and feints in combat.

Xenophon's Anabasis recounts his adventures with the Ten Thousand while in the service of Cyrus the Younger, Cyrus's failed campaign to claim the Persian throne from Artaxerxes II of Persia, and the return of Greek mercenaries after Cyrus's death in the Battle of Cunaxa. Anabasis is a unique first-hand, humble, and self-reflective account of a military leader's experience in antiquity. On the topic of campaigns in Asia Minor and in Babylon, Xenophon wrote Cyropaedia outlining both military and political methods used by Cyrus the Great to conquer the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 539 BC. Anabasis and Cyropaedia inspired Alexander the Great and other Greeks to conquer Babylon and the Achaemenid Empire in 331 BC.[5]

A student and a friend of Socrates, Xenophon recounted several Socratic dialogues – Symposium, Oeconomicus, Hiero, a tribute to Socrates – Memorabilia, and a chronicle of the philosopher's trial in 399 BC – Apology of Socrates to the Jury. Reading Xenophon's Memorabilia inspired Zeno of Citium to change his life and start the Stoic school of philosophy.

For at least two millennia, Xenophon's many talents fueled the debate of whether to place Xenophon with generals, historians or philosophers. For the majority of time in the past two millennia, Xenophon was recognized as a philosopher. Quintilian in The Orator's Education discusses the most prominent historians, orators and philosophers as examples of eloquence and recognizes Xenophon's historical work, but ultimately places Xenophon next to Plato as a philosopher. Today, Xenophon is best known for his historical works. The Hellenica continues directly from the final sentence of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War covering the last seven years of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) and the subsequent forty-two years (404 BC–362 BC) ending with the Second Battle of Mantinea.

Despite being born an Athenian citizen, Xenophon came to be associated with Sparta, the traditional opponent of Athens. Experience as a mercenary and a military leader, service under Spartan commanders in Ionia, Asia Minor, Persia and elsewhere, exile from Athens, and friendship with King Agesilaus II endeared Xenophon to the Spartans. Much of what is known today about the Spartan society comes from Xenophon's works – the royal biography of the Spartan king Agesilaus and the Constitution of the Lacedaemonians.

Xenophon is recognized as one of the greatest writers of antiquity.[6] Xenophon's works span multiple genres and are written in plain Attic Greek, which is why they have often been used in translation exercises for contemporary students of the Ancient Greek language. In the Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, Diogenes Laërtius observed that Xenophon was known as the "Attic Muse" because of the sweetness of his diction.[7] Several centuries later, Roman philosopher and statesman Cicero described Xenophon's mastery of Greek composition in Orator with the following words: "the muses were said to speak with the voice of Xenophon". Roman orator, attorney and teacher of rhetoric Quintilian echoes Cicero in The Orator's Education saying "the Graces themselves seem to have molded his style and the goddess of persuasion sat upon his lips".

The sub-satrap Mania (satrap) is primarily known through Xenophon’s writings.

Life[edit]

Early years[edit]

Xenophon was born c. 430 BC, in the deme Erchia of Athens. Xenophon's father, Gryllus, was a member of a wealthy equestrian family.[8] Detailed accounts of events in Hellenica suggest that Xenophon personally witnessed the Return of Alcibiades in 407 BC, the Trial of the Generals in 406 BC, and the overthrow of the Thirty Tyrants in 403 BC. Detailed account of Xenophon's life starts 401 BC. Personally invited by Proxenus of Beotia (Anabasis 3.1.9), one of the captains in Cyrus's mercenary army, Xenophon sailed to Ephesus to meet Cyrus the Younger and participate in Cyrus's military campaign against Tissaphernes, the Persian satrap of Ionia. Xenophon describes his life in 401 BC and 400 BC in the memoir Anabasis.

Anabasis[edit]

Main article: Anabasis (Xenophon)

Route of Xenophon and the Ten Thousand (red line) in the Achaemenid Empire. The satrapy of Cyrus the Younger is delineated in green.

The Anabasis is a narrative of how "Xenophon rouses the despairing Greeks into action and leads them on their long march home; and the narrative of his successes has won him noteworthy if uneven admiration for over two millennia."[9]

Expedition with Cyrus the Younger[edit]

Written years after the events it recounts, Xenophon's book Anabasis (Greek: ἀνάβασις, literally "going up")[10] is his record of the expedition of Cyrus and the Greek mercenaries' journey home. Xenophon writes that he asked Socrates for advice on whether to go with Cyrus, and that Socrates referred him to the divinely inspired Pythia. Xenophon's query to the oracle, however, was not whether or not to accept Cyrus' invitation, but "to which of the gods he must pray and do sacrifice, so that he might best accomplish his intended journey and return in safety, with good fortune". The oracle answered his question and told him which gods to pray and sacrifice to. When Xenophon returned to Athens and told Socrates of the oracle's advice, Socrates chastised him for asking so disingenuous a question (Anabasis 3.1.5–7).

Under the pretext of fighting Tissaphernes, the Persian satrap of Ionia, Cyrus assembled a massive army composed of native Persian soldiers, but also a large number of Greeks. Prior to waging war against Artaxerxes, Cyrus proposed that the enemy was the Pisidians, and so the Greeks were unaware that they were to battle against the larger army of King Artaxerxes II (Anabasis 1.1.8–11). At Tarsus the soldiers became aware of Cyrus's plans to depose the king, and as a result, refused to continue (Anabasis 1.3.1). However, Clearchus, a Spartan general, convinced the Greeks to continue with the expedition. The army of Cyrus met the army of Artaxerxes II in the Battle of Cunaxa. Despite effective fighting by the Greeks, Cyrus was killed in the battle (Anabasis 1.8.27–1.9.1). Shortly thereafter, Clearchus was treacherously invited by Tissaphernes to a feast, where, alongside four other generals and many captains, including Xenophon's friend Proxenus, he was captured and executed (Anabasis 2.5.31–32).

Return[edit]

Xenophon leading his Ten Thousand through Persia to the Black Sea. 19th-century illustration

The mercenaries, known as the Ten Thousand, found themselves without leadership far from the sea, deep in hostile territory near the heart of Mesopotamia, with a hostile population and armies to deal with. They elected new leaders, including Xenophon himself.

Dodge says of Xenophon's generalship, "Xenophon is the father of the system of retreat, the originator of all that appertains to the science of rear-guard fighting. He reduced its management to a perfect method. More originality in tactics has come from the Anabasis than from any dozen other books. Every system of war looks to this as to the fountain-head when it comes to rearward movements, as it looks to Alexander for a pattern of resistless and intelligent advance. Necessity to Xenophon was truly the mother of invention, but the centuries since have devised nothing to surpass the genius of this warrior. No general ever possessed a grander moral ascendant over his men. None ever worked for the safety of his soldiers with greater ardor or to better effect."[11]

Xenophon and his men initially had to deal with volleys by a minor force of harassing Persian missile cavalry. Every day, these cavalry, finding no opposition from the Ten Thousand, moved cautiously closer and closer. One night, Xenophon formed a body of archers and light cavalry. When the Persian cavalry arrived the next day, now firing within several yards, Xenophon suddenly unleashed his new cavalry in a shock charge, smashing into the stunned and confused enemy, killing many and routing the rest.[12] Tissaphernes pursued Xenophon with a vast force, and when the Greeks reached the wide and deep Great Zab River, it seemed they were surrounded.

One of the men devised a plan: all goats, cows, sheep and donkeys were to be slaughtered and their bodies stuffed with hay, laid across the river and sewn up and covered with dirt so as not to be slippery. This would create a bridge across which Xenophon could lead his men before the Persians could get to them. However this plan was discarded as impractical.

That Xenophon was able to acquire the means of feeding his force in the heart of a vast empire with a hostile population was astonishing. Dodge notes, "On this retreat also was first shown the necessary, if cruel, means of arresting a pursuing enemy by the systematic devastation of the country traversed and the destruction of its villages to deprive him of food and shelter. And Xenophon is moreover the first who established in rear of the phalanx a reserve from which he could at will feed weak parts of his line. This was a superb first conception."[13]

Xenophon's Anabasis.[14]

The Ten Thousand eventually made their way into the land of the Carduchians, a wild tribe inhabiting the mountains of modern southeastern Turkey. The Carduchians were "a fierce, war-loving race, who had never been conquered. Once the Great King had sent into their country an army of 120,000 men, to subdue them, but of all that great host not one had ever seen his home again."[15] The Ten Thousand made their way in and were shot at with stones and arrows for several days before they reached a defile where the main Carduchian host sat.

In the Battle of the Carduchian Defile, Xenophon had 8,000 men feint at this host and marched the other 2,000 to a pass revealed by a prisoner under the cover of a rainstorm, and "having made their way to the rear of the main pass, at daylight, under cover of the morning mist, they boldly pushed in upon the astonished Carducians. The blare of their many trumpets gave notice of their successful detour to Xenophon, as well as added to the confusion of the enemy. The main army at once joined in the attack from the valley side, and the Carducians were driven from their stronghold."[16]

After heavy mountain fighting in which Xenophon showed the calm and patience needed for the situation, the Greeks made their way to the northern foothills of the mountains at the Centrites River, only to find a major Persian force blocking the route north. With the Carduchians surging toward the Greek rear, Xenophon again faced the threat of total destruction in battle.

Xenophon's scouts quickly found another ford, but the Persians moved and blocked this as well. Xenophon sent a small force back toward the other ford, causing the anxious Persians to detach a major part of their force parallel. Xenophon stormed and completely overwhelmed the force at his ford, while the Greek detachment made a forced march to this bridgehead. This was among the first attacks in depth ever made, 23 years after Delium and 30 years before Epaminondas' more famous use of it at Leuctra.

Xenophon, Aphrodisias Museum.

Winter by now arrived as the Greeks marched through Armenia "absolutely unprovided with clothing suitable for such weather",[17] inflicting more casualties than they suffered during a skillful ambush of a local satrap's force and the flanking of another force in this period. At a period when the Greeks were in desperate need of food, they decided upon attacking a wooden castle known to have had storage. The castle, however, was stationed on a hill surrounded by forest.

Xenophon ordered small parties of his men to appear on the hill road, and when the defenders fired, one soldier would leap into the trees, and he "did this so often that at last there was quite a heap of stones lying in front of him, but he himself was untouched." Then, "the other men followed his example, and made it a sort of game, enjoying the sensation, pleasant alike to old and young, of courting danger for a moment, and then quickly escaping it. When the stones were almost exhausted, the soldiers raced one another over the exposed part of the road", storming the fortress, which, with most of the garrison now neutralized, barely put up a fight.[18]

Soon after, Xenophon's men reached Trapezus on the coast of the Black Sea (Anabasis 4.8.22). Before their departure, the Greeks made an alliance with the locals and fought one last battle against the Colchians, vassals of the Persians, in mountainous country. Xenophon ordered his men to deploy the line extremely thin so as to overlap the enemy, keeping a strong reserve. The Colchians, seeing they were being outflanked, divided their army to check the Greek deployment, opening a gap in their line through which Xenophon rushed in his reserves, scoring a brilliant Greek victory.[19]

They then made their way westward back to Greek territory via Chrysopolis (Anabasis 6.3.16). Once there, they helped Seuthes II make himself king of Thrace, before being recruited into the army of the Spartan general Thimbron (whom Xenophon refers to as Thibron). The Spartans were at war with Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus II, Persian satraps in Anatolia.

Filled with a plethora of originality and tactical genius, Xenophon's conduct of the retreat caused Dodge to name the Athenian knight the greatest general that preceded Alexander the Great.[20]

Life after Anabasis[edit]

Xenophon's Anabasis ends in 399 BC in the city of Pergamon with the arrival of the Spartan commander Thimbron. Thimbron's campaign is described in Hellenica.[21] The level of detail with which Xenophon describes Thimbron's campaign in Hellenica suggests first hand knowledge. After capturing Teuthrania and Halisarna, the Greeks led by Thimbron lay siege to Larissa. Failing to capture Larissa, the Greeks fall back to Caria. As a result of the failed siege of Larissa, the ephors of Sparta recall Thimbron and send Dercylidas to lead the Greek army. After facing the court at Sparta, Thimbron is banished. Xenophon describes Dercylidas as a significantly more experienced commander than Thimbron.

Led by Dercylidas, Xenophon and the Greek army march to Aeolis and capture nine cities in 8 days including Larissa, Hamaxitus, and Kolonai.[22] The Persians negotiated a temporary truce and the Greek army retired for a winter camp at Byzantium.

In 398 BC, Xenophon was likely a part of the Greek force capturing the city of Lampsacus. Also in 398, the Spartan ephors officially cleared the Ten Thousand of any previous wrongdoing (the Ten Thousand were likely a part of the investigation of Thimbron's failure at Larissa) and fully integrated the Ten Thousand into Dercylidas' army. Hellenica mentions the response of the commander of the Ten Thousand (likely Xenophon) "But men of Lacedaemon, we are the same men now as we were last year; but the commander now is one man (Dercylidas), and in the past was another (Thimbron). Therefore you are at once able to judge for yourselves the reason why we are not at fault now, although we were then."[22]

The truce between the Greeks and the Persians was fragile and in 397 BC Dercylidas' force mirrored the movement of Tissaphernes' and Pharnabazus' force near Ephesus, but did not engage in battle. The Persian army retreated to Tralles and the Greeks to Leucophrys. Dercylidas proposed the new terms of truce to Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus and the three parties submitted the truce proposal to Sparta and the Persian king for ratification. Under Dercylidas' proposal, the Persians abandoned claims to independent Greek cities in Ionia and the Spartans withdrew the army, leaving Spartan governors in the Greek cities.

In 396 BC, the newly appointed Spartan king, Agesilaus arrived at Ephesus and assumed the command of the army from Dercylidas. Xenophon and Agesilaus likely met for the first time and Xenophon joined Agesilaus' campaign for Ionian Greece independence of 396–394. In 394 BC, Agesilaus' army returned to Greece taking the route of the Persian invasion eighty years earlier and fought in the Battle of Coronea. Athens banished Xenophon for fighting on the Spartan side.

Xenophon probably followed Agesilaus' march to Sparta in 394 BC and finished his military journey after seven years. Xenophon received an estate in Scillus where he spent the next twenty three years. In 371 BC, after the Battle of Leuctra, Elians confiscated Xenophon's estate and, according to Diogenes Laërtius, Xenophon moved to Corinth.[23] Diogenes writes that Xenophon lived in Corinth until his death in 354 BC, at around the age of 74 or 75. Pausanias mentions Xenophon's tomb in Scillus.[24]

Political philosophy[edit]

Like Socrates and other students of Socrates (Plato, Alcibiades, Critias), Xenophon took a keen interest in political philosophy[25] and his work often examines leadership.

Cyropaedia[edit]

Main article: Cyropaedia

Relations between Medes and Persians in the Cyropaedia[edit]

Xenophon's Cyropaedia.[26]

Xenophon wrote the Cyropaedia to outline his political and moral philosophy. He did this by endowing a fictional version of the boyhood of Cyrus the Great, founder of the first Persian Empire, with the qualities of what Xenophon considered the ideal ruler. Historians have asked whether Xenophon's portrait of Cyrus was accurate or if Xenophon imbued Cyrus with events from Xenophon's own life. The consensus is that Cyrus's career is best outlined in the Histories of Herodotus. But Steven Hirsch writes, "Yet there are occasions when it can be confirmed from Oriental evidence that Xenophon is correct where Herodotus is wrong or lacks information. A case in point involves the ancestry of Cyrus."[27] Herodotus contradicts Xenophon at several other points, most notably in the matter of Cyrus's relationship with the Median Kingdom. Herodotus says that Cyrus led a rebellion against his maternal grandfather, Astyages king of Media, and defeated him, thereafter (improbably) keeping Astyages in his court for the remainder of his life (Histories 1.130). The Medes were thus "reduced to subjection" (1.130) and became "slaves" (1.129) to the Persians 20 years before the capture of Babylon in 539 BC.

The Cyropaedia relates instead that Astyages died and was succeeded by his son Cyaxares II, the maternal uncle of Cyrus (1.5.2). In the initial campaign against the Lydians, Babylonians and their allies, the Medians were led by Cyaxares and the Persians by Cyrus, who was crown prince of the Persians, since his father was still alive (4.5.17). Xenophon relates that at this time the Medes were the strongest of the kingdoms that opposed the Babylonians (1.5.2). There is an echo of this statement, verifying Xenophon and contradicting Herodotus, in the Harran Stele, a document from the court of Nabonidus.[28] In the entry for year 14 or 15 of his reign (542–540 BC), Nabonidus speaks of his enemies as the kings of Egypt, the Medes, and the Arabs. There is no mention of the Persians,

although according to Herodotus and the current consensus the Medians had been made "slaves" of the Persians several years previously. It does not seem that Nabonidus would be completely misled about who his enemies were, or who was really in control over the Medes and Persians just one to three years before his kingdom fell to their armies.

Other archaeological evidence supporting Xenophon's picture of a confederation of Medes and Persians, rather than a subjugation of the Medes by the Persians, comes from the bas-reliefs in the stairway at Persepolis. These show no distinction in official rank or status between the Persian and Median nobility. Although Olmstead followed the consensus view that Cyrus subjugated the Medes, he nevertheless wrote, "Medes were honored equally with Persians; they were employed in high office and were chosen to lead Persian armies."[29] A more extensive list of considerations related to the credibility of the Cyropaedia's picture of the relationship between the Medes and Persians is found on the Cyropaedia page.

Bas-reliefs of Persian soldiers together with Median soldiers are prevalent in Persepolis. The ones with rounded caps are Median.

Both Herodotus (1.123,214) and Xenophon (1.5.1,2,4, 8.5.20) present Cyrus as about 40 years old when his forces captured Babylon. In the Nabonidus Chronicle, there is mention of the death of the wife of the king (name not given) within a month after the capture of Babylon.[30] It has been conjectured that this was Cyrus's first wife, which lends credibility to the Cyropaedia's statement (8.5.19) that Cyaxares II gave his daughter in marriage to Cyrus soon (but not immediately) after the fall of the city, with the kingdom of Media as her dowry. When Cyaxares died about two years later the Median kingdom passed peaceably to Cyrus, so that this would be the true beginning of the Medo-Persian Empire under just one monarch.

Persians as centaurs[edit]

The Cyropaedia as a whole lavishes a great deal of praise on the first Persian emperor, Cyrus the Great, on account of his virtue and leadership quality, and it was through his greatness that the Persian Empire held together. Thus this book is normally read as a positive treatise about Cyrus. However, following the lead of Leo Strauss, David Johnson suggests that there is a subtle but strong layer to the book in which Xenophon conveys criticism of not only the Persians but the Spartans and Athenians as well.[31]

In section 4.3 of the Cyropaedia Cyrus makes clear his desire to institute cavalry. He even goes so far to say that he desires that no Persian kalokagathos ("noble and good man" literally, or simply "noble") ever be seen on foot but always on a horse, so much so that the Persians may actually seem to be centaurs (4.3.22–23). Centaurs were often thought of as creatures of ill repute, which makes even Cyrus' own advisors wary of the label. His minister Chrysantas admires the centaurs for their dual nature, but also warns that the dual nature does not allow centaurs to fully enjoy or act as either one of their aspects in full (4.3.19–20).

In labelling Persians as centaurs through the mouth of Cyrus, Xenophon plays upon the popular post-Persian-war propagandistic paradigm of using mythological imagery to represent the Greco-Persian conflict. Examples of this include the wedding of the Lapiths, Gigantomachy, Trojan War, and Amazonomachy on the Parthenon frieze. Johnson reads even more deeply into the centaur label. He believes that the unstable dichotomy of man and horse found in a centaur is indicative of the unstable and unnatural alliance of Persian and Mede formulated by Cyrus.[31] The Persian hardiness and austerity is combined with the luxuriousness of the Medes, two qualities that cannot coexist. He cites the regression of the Persians directly after the death of Cyrus as a result of this instability, a union made possible only through the impeccable character of Cyrus.[31] In a further analysis of the centaur model, Cyrus is likened to a centaur such as Chiron, a noble example from an ignoble race. Thus this entire paradigm seems to be a jab at the Persians and an indication of Xenophon's general distaste for the Persians.

Against empire/monarchy[edit]

Fragments of Xenophon's Hellenica, Papyrus PSI 1197, Laurentian Library, Florence.

The strength of Cyrus in holding the empire together is praiseworthy according to Xenophon. However, the empire began to decline upon the death of Cyrus. By this example Xenophon sought to show that empires lacked stability and could only be maintained by a person of remarkable prowess, such as Cyrus.[31] Cyrus is idealized greatly in the narrative. Xenophon displays Cyrus as a lofty, temperate man. This is not to say that he was not a good ruler, but he is depicted as surreal and not subject to the foibles of other men. By showing that only someone who is almost beyond human could conduct such an enterprise as empire, Xenophon indirectly censures imperial design. Thus he also reflects on the state of his own reality in an even more indirect fashion, using the example of the Persians to decry the attempts at empire made by Athens and Sparta.[32] Although partially graced with hindsight, having written the Cyropaedia after the downfall of Athens in the Peloponnesian War, this work criticizes the Greek attempts at empire and "monarchy", dooming them to failure.

Against democracy[edit]

Another passage that Johnson cites as criticism of monarchy and empire concerns the devaluation of the homotīmoi. The manner in which this occurs seems also to be a subtle jab at democracy. Homotīmoi were highly and thoroughly educated and thus became the core of the soldiery as heavy infantry. As the name homotīmoi ("equal", or "same honours" i.e. "peers") suggests, their small band (1000 when Cyrus fought the Assyrians) shared equally in the spoils of war.[31] However, in the face of overwhelming numbers in a campaign against the Assyrians, Cyrus armed the commoners with similar arms instead of their normal light ranged armament (Cyropaedia 2.1.9).

Argument ensued as to how the spoils would now be split, and Cyrus enforced a meritocracy. Many homotīmoi found this unfair because their military training was no better than the commoners, only their education, and hand-to-hand combat was less a matter of skill than strength and bravery. As Johnson asserts, this passage decries imperial meritocracy and corruption, for the homotīmoi now had to ingratiate themselves to the emperor for positions and honours;[31] from this point they were referred to as entīmoi, no longer of the "same honours" but having to be "in" to get the honour. On the other hand, the passage seems to be critical of democracy, or at least sympathetic to aristocrats within democracy, for the homotīmoi (aristocracy/oligarchs) are devalued upon the empowerment of the commoners (demos). Although empire emerges in this case, this is also a sequence of events associated with democracy. Through his dual critique of empire and democracy, Xenophon subtly relates his support of oligarchy.

Constitution of the Spartans[edit]

Main article: Polity of the Lacedaemonians

The Spartans wrote nothing about themselves, or if they did it is lost. Therefore, what we know about them comes exclusively from outsiders such as Xenophon. Xenophon's affinity for the Spartans is clear in the Constitution of the Spartans, as well as his penchant for oligarchy. The opening line reads:

It occurred to me one day that Sparta, though among the most thinly populated of states, was evidently the most powerful and most celebrated city in Greece; and I fell to wondering how this could have happened. But when I considered the institutions of the Spartans, I wondered no longer.[33]

Xenophon goes on to describe in detail the main aspects of Laconia, handing to us the most comprehensive extant analysis of the institutions of Sparta.

Old Oligarch[edit]

A short treatise on the Constitution of the Athenians exists that was once thought to be by Xenophon, but which was probably written when Xenophon was about five years old. The author, often called in English the "Old Oligarch" or Pseudo-Xenophon,[34] detests the democracy of Athens and the poorer classes, but he argues that the Periclean institutions are well designed for their deplorable purposes. Although the real Xenophon seems to prefer oligarchy over democracy, none of his works so ardently decry democracy as does the Constitution of the Athenians. However, this treatise makes evident that anti-democratic sentiments were extant in Athens in the late 5th century BC and were only increased after its shortcomings were exploited and made apparent during the Peloponnesian War.

Socratic works and dialogues[edit]

Xenophon's Agesilaus

Xenophon's works include a selection of Socratic dialogues; these writings are completely preserved. Except for the dialogues of Plato, they are the only surviving representatives of the genre of Socratic dialogue. These works include Xenophon's Apology, Memorabilia, Symposium and Oeconomicus. The Symposium outlines the character of Socrates as he and his companions discuss what attribute they take pride in. One of the main plots of the Symposium is about the type of loving relationship (noble or base) a rich aristocrat will be able to establish with a young boy (present at the banquet alongside his own father). In Oeconomicus, Socrates explains how to manage a household. Both the Apology and the Memorabilia defend Socrates' character and teachings. The former is set during the trial of Socrates, essentially defending Socrates' loss and death, while the latter explains his moral principles and that he was not a corrupter of the youth.

Relationship with Socrates[edit]

Xenophon was a student of Socrates, and their personal relationship is evident through a conversation between the two in Xenophon's Anabasis. In his Lives of Eminent Philosophers, the Greek biographer Diogenes Laërtius (who writes many centuries later) reports how Xenophon met Socrates. "They say that Socrates met [Xenophon] in a narrow lane, and put his stick across it and prevented him from passing by, asking him where all kinds of necessary things were sold. And when he had answered him, he asked him again where men were made good and virtuous. And as he did not know, he said, 'Follow me, then, and learn.' And from this time forth, Xenophon became a follower of Socrates."[35] Diogenes Laërtius also relates an incident "when in the battle of Delium Xenophon had fallen from his horse" and Socrates reputedly "stepped in and saved his life."[36]

Xenophon's admiration for his teacher is clear in writings such as Symposium, Apology, and Memorabilia. Xenophon was away on his Persian campaign during the trial and death of Socrates. Nevertheless, much of Xenophon's Socratic writing, especially Apology, concerns that very trial and the defence Socrates put forward.

Socrates: Xenophon vs. Plato[edit]

Both Plato and Xenophon wrote an Apology concerning the death of Socrates. The two writers seem more concerned about answering questions that arose after the trial than about the actual charges. In particular, Xenophon and Plato are concerned with the failures of Socrates to defend himself. The Socrates that Xenophon portrayed was different from Plato's in multiple respects. Xenophon asserts that Socrates dealt with his prosecution in an exceedingly arrogant manner, or at least was perceived to have spoken arrogantly. Conversely, while not omitting it completely, Plato worked to temper that arrogance in his own Apology. Xenophon framed Socrates' defense, which both men admit was not prepared at all, not as a failure to effectively argue his side, but as striving for death even in the light of unconvincing charges. As Danzig interprets it, convincing the jury to condemn him even on unconvincing charges would be a rhetorical challenge worthy of the great persuader.[37] Xenophon uses this interpretation as justification for Socrates' arrogant stance and conventional failure. By contrast, Plato does not go so far as to claim that Socrates actually desired death but seems to argue that Socrates was attempting to demonstrate a higher moral standard and teach a lesson. This places Socrates in a higher moral position than his prosecutors, a typical Platonic example of absolving "Socrates from blame in every conceivable way."[37]

Historical reality[edit]

Although Xenophon claims to have been present at the Symposium, this is impossible as he was only a young boy at the date which he proposes it occurred. And again, Xenophon was not present at the trial of Socrates, having been on campaign in Anatolia and Mesopotamia. Thus he puts into the latter's mouth what he would have thought him to say. It seems that Xenophon wrote his Apology and Memorabilia as defences of his former teacher, and to further the philosophic project, not to present a literal transcript of Socrates' response to the historical charges incurred.[37]

Modern reception[edit]

Statue of Xenophon in front of the Austrian parliament

Xenophon's standing as a political philosopher has been defended in recent times by Leo Strauss, who devoted a considerable part of his philosophic analysis to the works of Xenophon, returning to the high judgment of Xenophon as a thinker expressed by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, Michel de Montaigne, Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Johann Joachim Winckelmann, Niccolò Machiavelli, Francis Bacon, John Milton, Jonathan Swift, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams.

Xenophon's lessons on leadership have been reconsidered for their modern-day value. Jennifer O'Flannery holds that "discussions of leadership and civic virtue should include the work of Xenophon ... on public education for public service."[38] The Cyropaedia, in outlining Cyrus as an ideal leader having mastered the qualities of "education, equality, consensus, justice and service to state," is the work that she suggests be used as a guide or example for those striving to be leaders (see mirrors for princes). The linking of moral code and education is an especially pertinent quality subscribed to Cyrus that O'Flannery believes is in line with modern perceptions of leadership.[38]

List of works[edit]

Xenophon dictating his history, illustration from 'Hutchinson's History of the Nations', 1915

King's Peace, promulgated by Artaxerxes II, 387 BC, as reported by Xenophon.

Xenophon's entire classical corpus is extant.[39] The following list of his works exhibits the extensive breadth of genres in which Xenophon wrote.

Historical and biographical works[edit]

Anabasis (also: The Persian Expedition or The March Up Country or The Expedition of Cyrus): Provides an early life biography of Xenophon. Anabasis was used as a field guide by Alexander the Great during the early phases of his expedition into the Achaemenid Empire.

Cyropaedia (also: The Education of Cyrus): Sometimes seen as the archetype of the European "mirror of princes" genre.

Hellenica: His Hellenica is a major primary source for events in Greece from 411 to 362 BC, and is the continuation of the History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, going so far as to begin with the phrase "Following these events...". The Hellenica recounts the last seven years of the Peloponnesian War, as well as its aftermath, and is a detailed and direct account (however partial to Sparta) of the history of Greece until 362 BC.

Agesilaus: The biography of Agesilaus II, king of Sparta and companion of Xenophon.

Polity of the Lacedaemonians: Xenophon's history and description of the Spartan government and institutions.

Socratic works and dialogues[edit]

Defences of Socrates[edit]

Memorabilia: Collection of Socratic dialogues serving as a defense of Socrates outside of court.

Apology: Xenophon's defence of Socrates in court.

Other Socratic dialogues[edit]

Oeconomicus: Socratic dialogue of a different sort, pertaining to household management and agriculture.

Symposium: Symposic literature in which Socrates and his companions discuss what they take pride in with respect to themselves.

Tyrants[edit]

Hiero: Dialogue about happiness between Hiero, the tyrant of Syracuse, and the lyric poet Simonides of Ceos.

Short treatises[edit]

These works were probably written by Xenophon when he was living in Scillus. His days were likely spent in relative leisure here, and he wrote these treatises about the sorts of activities he spent time on.

On Horsemanship: Treatise on how to break, train, and care for horses.

Hipparchikos: Outlines the duties of a cavalry officer.

Hunting with Dogs: Treatise on the proper methods of hunting with dogs and the advantages of hunting.

Ways and Means: Describes how Athens should deal with financial and economic crisis.

Spuria[edit]

Constitution of the Athenians: Describes and criticizes Athenian democracy; now thought not to be by Xenophon.

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Xenophon | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

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Xenophon (430—354 B.C.E.)

Xenophon was a Greek philosopher, soldier, historian, memoirist, and the author of numerous practical treatises on subjects ranging from horsemanship to taxation. While best known in the contemporary philosophical world as the author of a series of sketches of Socrates in conversation, known by their Latin title Memorabilia, Xenophon also wrote a Symposium and an Apology which present a set of vivid and intriguing portraits of Socrates and display some sharp contrasts to the better known portraits in the works of Xenophon’s contemporary, Plato. Xenophon’s influence in Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and in Early Modern intellectual circles was considerable; he was a pioneer in several literary genres including the first-person military memoir (Anabasis), the biographical novel (Education of Cyrus), and the continued history (Hellenica). The range of his areas of expertise and the glancing charm of his down-to-earth writing style continue to fascinate and repay our study. For one example of his work in moral philosophy, he emphasized the importance of self-control, which comprises one of the cardinal virtues of Greek popular morality. This is highlighted by Xenophon in many ways. Socrates is often said by Xenophon to have exemplified it in the very highest degree. Cyrus displays it when he is invited to look upon the most beautiful woman in Asia, who happens to be his prisoner of war. He firmly declines this temptation; but his general Araspas stares at her endlessly, falls in lust, insults her honor, and ignites a chain of events described by Xenophon that ends in her suicide over her husband’s corpse.

Table of Contents

Life and Times

Xenophon’s Socrates

Political Philosophy

Moral Philosophy

Practical Treatises

References and Further Reading

1. Life and Times

Xenophon was born during the early years of the Peloponnesian War, in the outlying deme (suburb) of Athens called Erchia. Located in the fertile plain known as “Mesogeia” (literally “middle earth”) and overlooked by the beautiful mountains Hymettus and Penteli, Erchia was about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the bustling center of Athens–about a three hour walk or one hour brisk horseback ride. His father Gryllus owned and supervised an estate whose income derived chiefly from farming. Thus, Xenophon grew up surrounded by a combination of small hold-farming and urban influences. Coming of an age in turbulent political times, Xenophon is thought to have been in Athens and personally present at the return of Alcibiades (408), the trial of the Generals, and the overthrow of the 30 Tyrants, all signal events in the rough history of Athenian civic life.

Little else is known about Xenophon’s earliest years. From his later writings it can be safely inferred that he received a good basic education and military training as befitted a young member of the Equestrian class, that he was able to ride and hunt extensively, and that in his formative years he observed the careful work needed to keep a modest farm maintained and productive.

In 401. B.C.E at the age of 29, Xenophon was invited by his friend Proxenus to join him on a mercenary military venture to Persia, ostensibly to protect the territory of a minor satrap who was under threat. In fact, though this was not known to Xenophon or Proxenus, the campaign was rather more ambitious than that: it was a game of thrones, nothing less than an assault on the claim of the Persian king Artaxerxes II, by his brother Cyrus the Younger. The unfolding of this journey into foreign territory, with its adventures and mortal hazards, was a formative event in Xenophon’s life. In the very first engagement, Cyrus was himself killed. In a peace parley that followed, the generals of the expeditionary force were executed by treachery, leaving the army stranded, leaderless and surrounded by hostile peoples whose languages they did not speak, and winter was coming. Xenophon eventually assumed leadership of this stranded and confused army, and led the survivors to safety. The book which Xenophon later wrote about their harrowing travels ‘up country’, Anabasis, is a hair-raising and brutally graphic soldier’s journal, of which more is said below.

Upon his return to Greece, Xenophon continued his mercenary work under a Spartan general named Agesilaus. He even went fighting, with Agesilaus’ “10,000” soldiers who returned from the battle of Coroneia in Persia, against a combined Athenian and Theban force. Athens issued a decree of exile against Xenophon as a result. . Even though it is possible that his banishment was revoked in later years, Xenophon never returned to Athens.

In gratitude for his service in this decisive Lacedaimonian victory, the Spartans gave Xenophon an estate in Elis, about 2 miles from Olympia—a region of the Peloponnese which was known for its unparalleled beauty and richness. Here in Elis over the next 23 years, Xenophon would live a life of semi-retirement and quiet rural pursuits. Here also he would write the bulk of his works, raise a family, and keep a distanced and reflective historical eye on the political fortunes of Athens. Nothing is known of his wife beyond her name: Philesia. He had two sons, Gryllus and Diodorus. The Former was killed in the battle of Mantinea in 362 B.C., and Xenophon received many carefully written eulogies, a testament to his prominence in his own time.

When his adoptive city of Sparta was defeated in the Battle of Leuctra in 371 B.C., Elians drove Xenophon from his rural retreat and confiscated it. Xenophon then moved to “flowery Corinth” where he ended his days.

2. Xenophon’s Socrates

Xenophon’s portrait of Socrates in four loosely topic-organized books is known as Memorabilia. Any reader who comes across of this work after even a minimal exposure to the better-known Socrates of Plato’s dialogues is in for a shock. One rare reader who encountered Xenophon’s Socrates first was John Stuart Mill, who refers to it in the context of a description of Mill’s own father:

My father’s moral convictions, wholly dissevered from religion, were very much of the character of those of the Greek philosophers; and were delivered with the force and decision which characterized all that came from him. Even at the very early age at which I read with him the Memorabilia of Xenophon, I imbibed from that work and from his comments a deep respect for the character of Socrates; who stood in my mind as a model of ideal excellence: and I well remember how my father at that time impressed upon me the lesson of the “Choice of Hercules.” At a somewhat later period the lofty moral standard exhibited in the writings of Plato operated upon me with great force. (Autobiography, ch.2.)

Xenophon’s Socrates is shown in conversation with various people from a wide variety of walks of life and with quite starkly different moral characters; one of his conversation partners is a famous prostitute, another is an aspiring young politician who knows little about life, another is a son of Pericles, and yet another is a grump; the colorful list goes on. The individual books of the “Memorabilia” each contain many different conversational vignettes and set pieces, yet they consistently show a Socrates who is above all committed to helping people improve their lives in all practical dimensions; “Socrates was so useful in all circumstances and in all ways…” Memorabilia IV.i.1). In contrast to Plato’s Socrates, who is committed to “follow the argument wherever, like a wind, it may lead us” (Plato, Republic 394D), Xenophon’s Socrates strives always to send his conversation partners away with some nuggets of practical advice which they may put to use right away.

A brief and selective thematic summary of each book follows:

Memorabilia I: The book begins with a defense of Socrates against the legal charges which led to his execution, in a long initial section narrated by the author in his own voice. Socrates enjoined piety and respect for divination, which should be consulted before every momentous life-choice. He avoided speculation about the nature of the cosmos; “…(h)is own conversation was ever of human things. The problems he discussed were: what is godly; what is ungodly; what is just, what is unjust; what is prudence; what is madness; what is courage, what is cowardice; what is a state, what is a statesman; what is government, and what is a governor;—these, and others like them…” (Memorabilia.I.1.16). In a conversation with Aristodemus, Socrates presents an extended ‘argument from design’ to strengthen religious faith; the concept of God here manifested is strikingly monotheistic and is also woven throughout the natural world (Memorabilia I.iv.3-19). To the charge of corrupting the youth, Xenophon writes, “…in control of his own passions and appetites he was the strictest of men” (Memorabilia II.ii.1). (The theme of self-control, both in the sense of restraint of the appetites and in that of autonomy, is strong throughout the Memorabilia.) Socrates “led men up” to self-control, motivated by his love of humanity (Memorabilia I.v, I.2.60).

Memorabilia II: The theme of self-control is here pursued, and the famous set-piece called “Choice of Herakles” (Memorabilia II.i.21-33) is presented in a version ascribed to Prodicus. Here, while meditating in a quiet place, the young Herakles is approached by two women who represent the lives of Virtue and Vice respectively. Each lady tries to persuade Herakles to choose her way, with Vice offering a life of pleasures and self-indulgence, and Virtue offering the rigors of self-control which she argues will lead to true happiness. (Oddly, the anecdote ends before Herakles chooses.) There then follows a series of forays into the topic of human relationships as components of the good life; parents give selflessly to their children (a poignant passage describes the tireless work of mothers in particular in Memorabilia II.ii.5); friends are “more useful than any possession”, and are humorously described as being ‘hunted’ and ‘seduced by Siren song’ into one’s life, but the bottom line is that friendship is a good thing based on goodness (Memorabilia II.ii.x). The value of work as a component of the good life is underscored by a lengthy discussion between Socrates and Aristarchus (Memorabilia II.vii), who has 14 female relatives living under his roof. Socrates advises him to start a home textile business putting these ladies to work. They’ll be happier, and work makes for virtue. This scheme is represented as successful. (The importance of toil, work, even rough manual labor, to virtue is a continuing theme for Xenophon, and a topic on which his views run counter to the aristocratic mentality of his time.)

Memorabilia III: Here Socrates offers practical advice to several different individuals concerning military leadership and what it takes to become a successful general. The end goal, he maintains, is to make the soldiers better human beings. Thus the type of knowledge and expertise required is rather generally found in many different pursuits; even in business (for which one conversation partner has expressed contempt), the goal is the betterment of all individuals concerned; “Don’t look down on business”, Socrates warns (Memorabilia III.iv). (The idea that there are very general skills which lead to success in a huge variety of human endeavors is a strong theme in Xenophon’s works elsewhere as well.) Socrates says general knowledge about human nature and how to be a good leader should combine with the requisite practical knowledge about one’s chosen field, and in all fields moderation and self-control are crucially valuable traits. Eupraxia, being a good and good-oriented practitioner, is valuable in every field, whether one is a farmer, physician, or politician (Memorabilia III.ix). In a long set-piece, Socrates is shown visiting a beautiful and famous prostitute named Theodote, and conversing with her about friendship and how to treat one’s friends. This highly interesting passage, unique in ancient philosophy in presenting a conversation between a working woman (of dubious social standing even!) and a well-known male philosopher, is full of humor and double-entendre but ends with Socrates inviting Theodote to come philosophize with him and his ‘girlfriends’ any time (Memorabilia III.xi). Finally, Socrates is here something of a fitness guru, advising Epigenes to get out and get some exercise; “…(t)here is no kind of struggle, apart from war, and no undertaking in which you will be worse off by keeping your body in better fettle” (Memorabilia III.xii.5). (An emphasis on physical fitness achieved through vigorous exercise is a very significant theme throughout Xenophon’s works.)

Memorabilia IV: The importance of self-control to success in every field of endeavor is again underscored and argued for; talented youths and high-bred horses alike need careful training and structure in order to avoid running off the rails with maturity. The moral quality of sophrosyne, moderation, prudence, and good habits combined, is said to be most needful in our behavior toward the gods. For the gods are such benefactors to us that it is asked: How is it possible to be grateful enough? Socrates offers a translation of the Delphic oracle’s inscription, “Know thyself”, as follows: a person should “…consider what sort of a creature he is for human use and get to know his own powers” (Memorabilia IV.ii.25). Socrates is described as having the mission of making his companions more law-abiding, more efficacious in their chosen work, more prudent or moderate, and more self-controlled. Self-control is integral to that precious quality freedom, because no one is free who is ruled by bodily pleasure (Memorabilia IV.v). This book ends with a beautiful encomium to Socrates spoken in what seems to be Xenophon’s own most authentic voice (Memorabilia IV.viii.11):

All who knew what manner of man Socrates was and who seek after virtue continue to this day to miss him beyond all others, as the chief of helpers in the quest for virtue. For myself, I have described him as he was: so religious that he did nothing without counsel from the gods; so just that he did no injury, however small, to any man, but conferred the greatest benefits on all who dealt with him…To me then he seemed to be all that a truly good and happy man must be.

In addition to the Memorabilia, Xenophon also wrote a Symposium and an Apology.

Xenophon’s Symposium depicts an avowedly lighthearted group of friends attending a spontaneous dinner-party in honor of young Autolycus’ victory in an Olympic event. Entertainment is provided by young talent dancing, singing, and performing feats of agility, while the conversation turns on each guest explaining what he values most about himself: beauty, wealth, poverty, friends, and traits of character are all offered and discussed. Socrates presents his central attribute as the ability to be a “procurer” (essentially, a pimp); he explains that he is able to improve people and make them better, more useful, more valuable to the city, and is in this analogous to a successful pimp who is able to bring out the best in his stable of prostitutes. In a more serious vein, Socrates explains the superior value of spiritual love over physical love, and the centrality of virtue to genuine love. “(T)he greatest blessing that befalls the man who yearns to render his favorite a good friend is the necessity of himself making virtue his habitual practice” (Symposium viii.27). Weirdly, the evening ends with a demonstration of smooching between two of the young musicians which is so hot that everyone rushes off home to his wife (if he has one) or professes the intention to acquire a wife as soon as possible, if he is still single.

Xenophon’s Apology begins with Socrates explaining to his friend Hermogenes why he has not been working on his defense speech: he has been hindered by his divine sign, and moreover is quite ready to die. Socrates justifies his readiness by noting the evils of old age that he will avoid, and the blamelessness of his life. When at trial, he defends himself from the charge of impiety by noting his regular participation in all sacrifices and other public religious rituals. Against the charge of corrupting the youth, he notes that through the oracle at Delphi, “…Apollo answered that no man was more free than I, or more just, or more prudent” (Apology 14). After his condemnation to death, Socrates comforts his tearful friends with a Stoic-sounding thought: “Have you not known all along that, from the moment of my birth, nature had condemned me to death?” (Apology 27). Xenophon concludes in his own voice (Apology 34):

And so, in contemplating the man’s wisdom and nobility of character, I find it beyond my power to forget him or, in remembering him, to refrain from praising him. And, if among those who make virtue their aim any one has ever been brought into contact with a person more helpful than Socrates, I count that man worthy to be called most blessed.

3. Political Philosophy

Xenophon’s political philosophy is a matter of interpretation and some controversy. Did his relationship with Sparta incline him away from Athenian democratic values? Was his evident admiration for Persian kings indicative of an allegiance to absolute monarchy? The main works examined in an effort to reconstruct this aspect of his thought are The Education of Cyrus (also known as Cyropaedia;) a partial biography of a Persian king building an empire, the Anabasis (account of the ill-fated Greek mercenary expedition in Persia), Hiero (a conversation about tyranny), Agesilaus (biography of a Spartan general), the Constitution of the Lacedaimonians (description of the system of laws and social practices of Sparta), and Hellenica (history of Greece from 411 to 362 B.C.E., taking up where Thucydides ends). One thing is clear and beyond controversy: Xenophon has an abiding interest in describing leadership, the constellation of qualities that enables a person to function as a leader in groups, whether military, civic, or familial.

That Xenophon admires the Spartan system and the individuals it produces is evident from both the portrait of Agesilaus and the description of the Spartan political system developed by the legendary Lycurgus (Constitution of the Lacedaimonians). Agesilaus is a ferocious military tactician and fighter who waged campaigns in Persia and on Greek soil. Xenophon gives minute descriptions of the strategies Ageilaus used against the deceptive Persian general Tissaphernes, the successes of which resulted in the latter losing his head (literally). It is thought that Xenophon was among the soldiers serving under Agesilaus at the battle of Coronea, judging from the immediacy of descriptions like the following word picture of the aftermath of this particularly gruesome clash (Agesilaus II.14):

Now that the fighting was at an end, a weird spectacle met the eye, as one surveyed the scene of the conflict—the earth stained with blood, friend and foe lying dead side by side, shields smashed to pieces, spears snapped in two, daggers bared of their sheaths, some on the ground, some embedded in the bodies, some yet gripped by the hand.

What Xenophon admires most about Agesilaus though is the way his character shines through in his leadership (Agesliaus II. 8).

(H)e took care to render his men capable of meeting all calls on their endurance; he filled their hearts with confidence that they were able to withstand any and every enemy; he inspired them all with an eager determination to out-do one another in valour; and lastly he filled all with anticipation that many good things would befall them, if only they proved good men. For he believed that men so prepared fight with all their might; nor in point of fact did he deceive himself.

Here is a general who eats with the common soldiers, fights as hard as they do or harder, sleeps on the rudest bed in the battalion, and is tireless in care for their welfare. Here, too, we find Xenophon noting the Spartan’ general’s “love of toil” (he is philoponos, AgesilausIX.3), and the fact that he had fortified his soul “against all the assaults of lucre, of pleasure, and of fear” (Agesilaus VIII.8). Thanks to all of this and more, the Spartan remained a formidable and gnarly opponent into his eighties, and left behind him the best type of monument: the admiration of all who had known him or known of him.

The Constitution of the Lacedaimonians draws a mostly admiring portrait of the creation of distinctively Spartan social customs and military might, by a (probably mythical) genius social engineer named Lycurgus. Like the inscription over the ant-colony entrance in T. H. White’s The Sword in the Stone, (White 1938, ch.13) “EVERYTHING NOT FORBIDDEN IS COMPULSORY,” Spartan society is legislated down to the most personal details (where men are allowed to eat supper, how much female children get fed, whether an unused horse can be borrowed, and so forth) to produce an efficient warrior-making machine in which accumulations of wealth and private property were rendered impossible and the famous “equality’ which made Sparta so stable (in Xenophon’s apparent view at any rate) was forged. Spartan soldiers were required by law to practice gymnastics while out on campaign, “…and the result is that they take more pride in themselves and have a more dignified appearance than other men” (Constitution of the Lacedaimonians XII.5). Extreme measures are taken with young boys, to ensure that they will develop the proper level of discipline and collectivist thinking that will produce obedient and happily equal adult citizens: they are taken from their homes at age 7 and from thenceforth live in military-like barracks, subject to discipline by any adult male who might see them transgress in any way.

Should we infer that Xenophon endorses this radical social engineering program and its collectivist political philosophy, or only that he finds it a fascinating and impressive experiment which did in fact make Sparta the most feared military force in the Greek world of its time? Whichever interpretation we choose, it is clear at the end of the treatise that the experiment was not a lasting and unambiguous success; Xenophon writes that Spartan citizens have in fact gone over to the accumulation of individual wealth, have grown fond of wielding power over remote cities, and have lost that unanimity which was Lycurgus’ energetically-sought goal.

Did Xenophon provide an answer to the question about an Ideal Polis, a most desirable form of political organization? Some scholars have argued that we can look for glimmerings of this in the Anabasis, where the Greek army in its struggle to reach the sea can be viewed as a “polis on the move” (Waterfield 2006, p.147). As the shattered mercenary troops struggle to stay organized and to survive their pitiless march through the foodless deserts of Assyria and the freezing mountains of Armenia, various forms of political organization surface at various times. While an army is most naturally understood as an oligarchy, with orders coming from a few and being followed by the many, there are also moments of democracy: soldiers hold general assemblies and agree upon resolutions which they will represent to their commanding officers. Xenophon himself is elected by popular acclaim early in the march. As leader, he keeps his eye on the welfare of the troops: defusing anarchy, strategically seeking out food and safety, and making the tough decisions necessary for the good of all, such as abandoning the camp followers and horses in deep mountain snow when it became clear they were a mortal liability. During its course, Xenophon emphasizes the importance of piety and ritual which bind a polis together in homonoia or like-mindedness. At the climactic moment when the lead troops crest a rise and spot the sea, immediately after dancing for joy and famously shouting, “Thalatta! Thalatta!” (the sea, the sea), they build a cairn of stones to honor the gods.

The political philosophies which can be discerned in Xenophon’s largest and perhaps strangest work, The Education of Cyrus, are a matter of great controversy. Some paradoxical aspects of the work fuel the arguments about how it should be interpreted. Cyrus is undoubtedly a terrific leader and a daunting empire-builder, but he is seen to have some off-putting traits such as arrogance, a tendency to fear his own sensuality, and questionable judgment from time to time. Does this mean Xenophon is implicitly criticizing the Persian model of monarchy? Yet he takes pains, in this massive book, to show Cyrus’ uncanny ability to mobilize support and suppress resistance, and his dedication to both recognizing and rewarding nobility and virtue. Cyrus is repeatedly seen to emphasize that the best army consists of soldiers serving of their own free will, being rewarded for their merits, and feeling respect and gratitude to their leaders.

They came not from compulsion but from their own free will, and out of gratitude. (Cyropaedia IV.iii.11)

Perhaps we should conclude that Xenophon’s political theory is flexible, and that the most key element of any polis revolves around the leadership skills of those in charge, alongside their self-control and devotion to the good of the whole.

4. Moral Philosophy

As seen above in the discussion of Xenophon’s Socrates and of the ideal leader, certain themes recur in Xenophon’s moral reflections. Some of the most frequently recurring ideas are:

The importance of self-control: Sophrosyne, self-control, moderation, restraint of appetite, and balance, comprises one of the cardinal virtues of Greek popular morality, and it is highlighted by Xenophon in many ways. Socrates is often said to have exemplified it in the highest degree. Cyrus displays it when (Cyropaedia V.i-VII.iii) he is invited to look upon the most beautiful woman in Asia, who happens to be his prisoner of war. He firmly declines this temptation; his general Araspas by contrast stares at her endlessly, falls in lust, insults her honor and ignites a chain of events that ends in her suicide over her husband’s corpse.

A demanding work-ethic: Hard work makes for virtue in several ways. It conduces to health, it results in earned rewards, it keeps us off the streets of temptation, and builds character. In the Oeconomicus, a treatise on household management, Xenophon tells the story of a visit paid by a Greek ambassador to Cyrus the Persian king in his royal gardens. Cyrus astounds the Greek by stating that he himself laid out the garden plan and works in it regularly. Cyrus continues (Oeconomicus IV.24),” I never yet sat down to dinner when in sound health, without first working hard at some task of war or agriculture, or exerting myself somehow.”

The Greek replies, “I think you deserve your happiness, Cyrus, for you earn it by your virtue”.

An ideal of service: It is impossible to miss this emphasis in Xenophon’s remembrances of Socrates, “…so useful in all circumstances and in all ways” (Memorabilia IV.i.1). Socrates can frequently be seen offering practical help, life advice, and moral guidance to friends and total strangers. Indeed Xenophon’s Socrates resembles an uncompensated life-coach in marked ways. Do you have lots of ‘friends’ but suspect they just want something from you? Be more discerning and take better care of your real friends; then friendships will be on a more solid footing (advice to a prostitute; MemorabiliaII.xi). Do you over-react to other peoples’ rudeness? Adjust your attitude; it’s not always about you (MemorabiliaIII.xiii). Feuding with your brother? Study the natural world and observe that animals reared together feel a yearning for each other’s company; love between brothers is more natural than discord (Memorabilia II.iii.4).

A certain utilitarianism: The best actions are the most practically beneficial for all. In Xenophon there is nothing of the soul’s solitary winged journey toward fulfillment in transcendence. Goodness is good for the here and now, and good for the city, or the army, or the whole farm. Eupraxia, doing well and doing things beneficially, is of the highest value.

A certain egalitarianism: Although Xenophon was no feminist, he does present the idea that the wife who is a full partner in household management contributes as much to the welfare of the estate as does her husband (Oeconomicus III.15). Wives and husbands should be co-workers in the household (Oeconomicus III.x). And he gives to Socrates these memorable lines about how hard it is to be a mother of small children, a passage unique in classical literature (Memorabilia II.ii.5):

The woman conceives and bears her burden in travail, risking her life, and giving of her own food; and, with much labor, having endured to the end and brought forth her child, she rears and cares for it, although she has not received any good thing, and the babe neither recognizes its benefactress nor can make its wants known to her; still she guesses what is good for it, and what it likes, and seeks to supply these things, and rears it for a long season, enduring toil day and night, not knowing what return she will get.

He writes admiringly of the general who eats with his men and eats the same food, of the king who works in his garden, of Socrates chatting with a prostitute, and of the virtue of Panthea and her noble death (Cyropaedia VII.iii.14). He admires the Spartan ideal of equality and laments its erosion.

5. Practical Treatises

Xenophon’s collected works include several shorter dialogues and essays in which he (like his Socrates) provides useful and practically applicable advice on topics such as choosing and training a war-horse (On Horsemanship), being a cavalry commander (The Cavalry Commander), hunting (On Hunting), taxation (Ways and Means), and home economics (Oeconomicus). These treatises are not flatly how-to manuals but also are infused with a distinctive world-view and a definite value-scheme.

So, for example, in the treatise on horsemanship, Xenophon presents a definite equine psychology and a training ethic; the training should not be harsh, because “…nothing forced can ever be beautiful”. The horse:

must follow the indication of the aids to display of his own free will all the most beautiful and brilliant qualities (On Horsemanship XI.6).

Xenophon stresses commonalities between horses and humans. Old maxims apply equally to horses and to humans, as in the following text concerning the length of galloping sets: “In excess of the proper limit, nothing whatsoever is enjoyable, either to a horse or a man” (X.14). It is noticeable that Xenophon does not simply say that running a horse ragged is counterproductive in training. His point differs from this claim in two ways: he stresses again the commonality between horse and human; and he places the emphasis of the training advice upon what is pleasing (‘edu) to the horse. Thus the horse is conceived as a partner, rather than an object, in the training project, and a partner whose willing and appreciative participation in the project is essential to its success.

So, also, in the Oeconomicus, there is not simply practical instruction about running a successful small farm, but a general theme of praise for engagement, orderliness, and system that has sometimes a definite political ring, as in the following passage (Oeconomicus V.i):

For the pursuit of (farming) is in some sense a luxury as well as a means of increasing one’s estate and of training the body in all that a free man should be able to do.

Sometimes however it just sounds quaint; “What a beautiful sight is afforded by boots of all sorts arranged in rows!” (Oeconomicus VIII.19).

Thus, Xenophon’s philosophical projects were infused with a commitment to practical usefulness just as his practical treatises convey a philosophy that is still of interest today, with its emphasis on engagement in the world, on knowing who we are and how we can help. Recall Socrates’ translation of the Delphic oracle’s inscription, “Know thyself”: a person should “…consider what sort of a creature he is for human use and get to know his own powers” (Memorabilia IV.ii.25).

6. References and Further Reading

Anderson, J.K., 2001, Xenophon, Bristol, U.K.: Bristol Classical.

Brickhouse, T., 2002, The Trial and Execution of Socrates: Sources and Controversies, New York : Oxford University Press.

Bruell, C., “Xenophon”, in History of Political Philosophy, ed. L. Strauss and J. Cropsey, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987, 89-117.

Buzzetti, E., 2001, “The Rhetoric of Xenophon and the Treatment of Justice in the Memorabilia”, in Interpretation 29.1: 3-35.

Cooper, J., 1999, “Notes on Xenophon’s Socrates”, in Cooper, J., Reason and Emotion: Essays on Ancient Moral Psychology and Ethical Theory, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press: 3-28.

Danzig, G. 2005, “Intra-Socratic Polemics: The Symposia of Plato and Xenophon”, in Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 45: 331-357.

Dillery, John, 1995, Xenophon and the History of his Times, New York: Routledge.

Dorion, Louis-Andre, 2010, “The Straussian Exegesis of Xenophon: The Paradigmatic Case of Memorabilia IV 4”, in V. Gray. (ed.) Xenophon: Oxford Readings in Classical Studies, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 283-323.

Fox, R.L. (ed.), 2004, The Long March: Xenophon and the Ten Thousand, New Haven: Yale University Press.

Gray, V., 1998, The Framing of Socrates: The Literary Interpretation of Xenophon’s Memorabilia, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.

Gray, V. (ed.), 2010, Xenophon: Oxford Readings in Classical Studies, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Higgins, W. 1977, Xenophon the Athenian: the problem of the individual and the society of the polis, Albany: State University of New York Press.

Howland, J., 2000, “Xenophon’s Philosophical Odyssey: On the Anabasis and Plato’s Republic”, in American Political Science Review, 94.4: 875-889.

Johnson, D. , 2003, “Xenophon’s Socrates on Justice and the Law”, in Ancient Philosophy, 23: 255-281.

Judson, L. and Karasmanis, V. (edd.), 2006, Remembering Socrates, Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York : Oxford University Press

Nadon, C., 2001, Xenophon’s Prince: Republic and Empire in the Cyropaedia, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

O’Connor, David K., 1994, “The Erotic Self-Sufficiency of Socrates: A Reading of Xenophon’s Memorabilia”, in The Socratic Movement ed. P. A. Vander Waerdt; Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 150-180.

Pangle, T.L., 1994, “Socrates in the Context of Xenophon’s Political Writings”, in P. A. Van Der Waerdt (ed.) , The Socratic Movement, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2004: 127-150.

Pomeroy, S. 1994, Xenophon: Oeconomicus, A Social and Historical Commentary, Oxford: Clarendon.

Sandridge, Norman B., 2012, Loving Humanity, Learning, and Being Honored: The Foundations of Leadership in Xenophon’s Education of Cyrus, Washington D.C.: Center for Hellenic Studies.

Sandridge, Norman B., 2012: webmaster for an online commentary on Cyropaedia (an international and ongoing collaborative scholarly project) at www.cyropaedia.org

Seager, R., 2001, “Xenophon and Athenian Democratic Ideology”, in Classical Quarterly, 51.2: 385-397.

Strauss, L., 1948, On Tyranny, Glencoe, IL: The Free Press.

Tatum, J., 1989, Xenophon’s Imperial Fiction, Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.

Tuplin, C. (ed.), 2004, Xenophon and his World, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.

Van Der Waerdt, P. A. ed.1994, The Socratic Movement, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.

Vlastos, G, 1991, “The Evidence of Aristotle and Xenophon” In Vlastos, Socrates: Ironist and Moral Philosopher, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 81-106.

Waterfield, R. , 2006, Xenophon’s Retreat: Greece, Persia, and the End of the Golden Age, London: Faber and Faber.

Waterfield, R., 2004, “Xenophon’s Socratic Mission” in Chirstopher Tuplin (ed.) Xenophon and His World, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 79-113.

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Eve A. Browning

Email: ebrownin@d.umn.edu

University of Minnesota Duluth

U. S. A.

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Xenophon

Contents

Definition

by Joshua J. Mark

published on 27 September 2022

Available in other languages: Arabic, French, Serbian, Spanish, Turkish

Bust of XenophonCarole Raddato (CC BY-NC-SA)

Xenophon of Athens (l. 430 to c. 354 BCE) was a contemporary of Plato and a fellow student of Socrates. He is best known for his Anabasis (The March Up Country) detailing the retreat of the Ten Thousand Greek mercenaries after the defeat of Cyrus the Younger (d. 401 BCE) as well as for his works on Socrates.

Xenophon was highly regarded in his time for his written works including Anabasis, Hellenica, The Cyropaedia, Symposium, Memorabilia, and his Apology, the latter three dealing with Socrates of Athens (l. 470/469-399 BCE). Along with the works of Plato (l. 424/423-348/347 BCE), these three form the basis of what is known of Socrates' life and teachings, as he never wrote anything himself. The historian Diogenes Laertius (l. c. 3rd century CE) claims Xenophon wrote over 40 books, including an important treatise on training dogs. Although Laertius is understood as an often-unreliable source, in this he seems to be correct, as Xenophon is mentioned by others as a prolific writer.

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His Anabasis has been widely read and admired for centuries. So precise are Xenophon's descriptions of terrain, distances, cities, and weather conditions that the work was used by Alexander the Great as a field guide for his conquest of Persia in 334 BCE. Anabasis was also later used as a textbook for instruction in Greek in Victorian England and elsewhere because of Xenophon's clear and accessible style.

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He is remembered today as one of the greatest writers of ancient Greece, whose Anabasis has inspired many other works.

After his return from the Persian expedition described in the Anabasis, he fought for the Spartan king Agesilaus II (r. 399-358 BCE) as a mercenary against an Athenian coalition and was afterwards exiled from Athens. He lived in Scillus, district of Elis, near Olympia, where he had a farm and wrote his works until 371 BCE when his land was taken by the Elians and he moved to Corinth, where he died c. 354 BCE of natural causes. He is remembered today as one of the greatest writers of ancient Greece, whose Anabasis has inspired many other works including modern-day films.

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Early Life & Socrates

Xenophon was born in 430 BCE (though some scholars favor a later date of sometime in the 420s) in Erchia, a suburb of Athens. His father, Gryllus, owned an estate there and was well off but, unlike other wealthy Athenians, played no part in the political life of the city. Nothing is known of Xenophon's mother or whether he had any siblings. He was educated according to the model of any other upper-class Athenian youth and given training in martial arts and horsemanship as befitting a member of the Equestrian class. His later works do not provide much autobiographical information on his youth, but it is known he was an avid hunter and trained his own dogs. According to scholar Robin Waterfield:

Little is known about Xenophon's early life. We do know, however, that [he] was among the well-off young men who associated with the philosopher Socrates, and it is likely that he remained in Athens during the reign of the Thirty Tyrants (404-403 BCE), the junta imposed by the Spartans after Athens' defeat in the Peloponnesian War, and that he fought against the exiled democrats as a cavalryman. (xiii)

Xenophon's own works attest to a close relationship with Socrates, and Diogenes Laertius provides a tale, uncorroborated elsewhere, of their first meeting:

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Xenophon, the son of Gryllus, a citizen of Athens, was of the borough of Erchia; and he was a man of great modesty, and as handsome as can be imagined. They say that Socrates met him in a narrow lane and put his stick across it and prevented him from passing by, asking him where all kinds of necessary things were sold. And when he had answered him, he asked him again where men were made good and virtuous. And as he did not know, he said, "Follow me, then, and learn." And from this time forth, Xenophon became a follower of Socrates. And he was the first person who took down conversations as they occurred, and published them among men, calling them Memorabilia. He was also the first man who wrote a history of philosophers. (Book II.6.48)

Xenophon's depiction of Socrates contrasts with Plato's in that the latter presents Socrates as an idealistic philosopher who engaged with others to lead them to an apprehension of ultimate truth. Xenophon's Socrates, conversely, is eminently practical and seeks to improve the lives of others by offering advice on moderation, self-control, and the importance of regular exercise and physical fitness. One can still see something of Plato's philosopher in Xenophon's depiction, but the two are hardly identical.

An example of Socrates' practical advice is given by Xenophon in Anabasis 3.I.5-7 when he discusses the invitation to join the expedition in support of Cyrus the Younger. Xenophon asked Socrates' advice on whether he should join the mercenaries, and Socrates sent him to ask the question of the Oracle at Delphi. Instead of asking the direct question of "should I go?", however, Xenophon asked which of the gods were best prayed to for the desired end of a successful journey and safe return. The Oracle answered him with the names of the gods, Xenophon prayed and sacrificed accordingly, and, when he returned to Athens and told Socrates what he had done, the latter scolded him for laziness before telling him that, if the gods had encouraged his participation, he had better go.

Socrates Bust, Palazzo MassimoMark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA)

This story adds to the portrait of the man as recorded in other ancient accounts of Xenophon. All seem to agree that he was a unique combination of the man of action and the man of letters who chose practicality over abstract philosophy. While it is reported that he tried to emulate Socrates throughout his life, he seems to have done so in his own unique way. Interestingly, this is in keeping with all of Socrates' students, each of whom set up schools and promoted often radically different philosophies from each other while claiming that each was accurately representing Socrates' teachings.

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Xenophon never set up such a school himself but is better known than many who did, owing to his Memorabilia depicting Socrates as what scholar Odysseus Makridis refers to as a philosopher who "offers advice that ranges from persuasive marshaling of arguments to practical how-to, nuts-and-bolts instructions" (xiii). Makridis continues:

Those who are familiar with Plato's Socrates might find the Socrates of the [Memorabilia] to be rather unphilosophical. If Plato's Socrates sounds like one of those professors whose class you failed in college, Xenophon's Socrates is the next-door neighbor whose advice you always avidly seek out – from how to make and keep friends, to how to be in good standing with the local sheriff and handle unruly, pestering relatives. This homespun aspect of Socrates is not altogether missing from Plato's writings, but in Xenophon it seems to have absorbed almost everything else. A theory is presented, mantra-like: be smart enough to understand that doing the right thing will keep you out of trouble and might even yield benefits. (xvi)

The Socrates of both Plato and Xenophon reflect the authors' own values, concerns, and upbringing. Xenophon himself seems to have always been more interested in practical matters than idealistic conversation, and so his Socrates is more concerned with offering advice on how to live peacefully with others rather than, as with Plato's Socrates, defining what "peacefully" and "living" truly mean. This same practicality is seen throughout Xenophon's masterpiece, the Anabasis.

Anabasis & Other Works

Although he was later widely admired as a writer, Xenophon initially won fame as a soldier and, especially, as one of the commanders who led the Ten Thousand Greek mercenaries back to Greece through hostile territory, constant hardship, and daily threats.

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Anabasis (translated as Up Country, The Expedition of Cyrus, The March Up Country, or March of the Ten Thousand) is Xenophon's narrative of the 401 BCE expedition in support of the Persian prince Cyrus the Younger against Cyrus' brother Artaxerxes II (r. 404-358 BCE) for control of the Achaemenid Empire (c. 550-330 BCE). Cyrus' goal was to overthrow his brother and take the throne. Xenophon served as a mercenary in Cyrus' army, but at the Battle of Cunaxa in 401 BCE, Cyrus was killed, and he was left stranded with his troops in enemy territory. The Spartan General Clearchus and the Athenian Proxenus (who had invited Xenophon on the expedition) were betrayed and murdered by the Persians under Tissaphernes who had brokered a truce with them, and Xenophon found himself one of the newly elected leaders of the ten-thousand-man mercenary army.

Retreat of the Ten Thousand, Battle of CunaxaJean-Adrien Guignet (Public Domain)

Xenophon, with fellow commander Chirisophus, helped lead his men through hostile country, fighting their way back home to Greece against the Persians, the Armenians, the Chalybians, Medes, and many others. They endured daily hardships on their way home including enemy attacks, lack of provisions, snowstorms, and the constant threat of betrayal by the local guides they were forced to trust.

Xenophon continued to lead his men until he heard what has become the most famous line from the book, "The Sea! The Sea!" shouted by the men when they reached the Greek territory of Asia Minor and then found welcome at Pergamon. This heroic journey through hostile territory has inspired countless similar works through the years and, in the modern age, the plot for films such as The Warriors (1979) and many science fiction and speculative fiction novels. Waterfield comments on the significance of Anabasis as well as Xenophon's other works:

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The [Anabasis] has been admired as much as the march it describes. Xenophon wrote an extraordinarily wide variety of works besides [the Anabasis]: The Cyropaedia, a pseudo-historical account of the upbringing and leadership of the founder of the Persian empire, Cyrus the Great, after whom the prince Xenophon served was named; the Hellenica, a work on contemporary Greek history; the Apology, a version of the defense speech of his one-time mentor Socrates, as well as other philosophical conversations involving Socrates (Memorabilia, Symposium) and the poet Simonides (Hiero); the treatises On Hunting and On Horsemanship, and others on household management, military leadership, and politics; an encomium of the Spartan king Agesilaus; and an economic pamphlet (Ways and Means). At some periods of history, his more didactic and philosophical works have been more popular but, for the last two centuries, the Anabasis has generally been regarded as his masterpiece. (viii)

The appeal of the Anabasis rests on Xenophon's power as a storyteller, his ability to maintain suspense, and his careful use of dialogue, but as Waterfield notes, it is also an engaging – and accurate – historical text:

It can be enjoyed in its own right as a gripping narrative that offers a glimpse of Greek soldiers encountering a foreign world – hunting gazelle in the desert, stumbling on the almost deserted cities of Nimrud and Nineveh, confronting wild mountain tribes who block their way by rolling rocks down steep slopes, sheltering against the harsh Armenian winter in underground homes while restoring their spirits with the local 'barley wine'. Xenophon's narrative also offers a unique insight into the character of a Greek army on the march. We see at first hand the soldiers at leisure, holding athletic competitions amongst themselves. We meet a world marked by the particular forms of Greek religion: vows and sacrifices are frequently made to the gods, seers are constantly consulted, a sneeze is thought to be a favorable omen…Xenophon's account tells us much about the character of Greek soldiers and Greek political life, but it also offers insight into a broader human experience. (viii-iv)

That broader human experience is chiefly characterized in the work by the determination of the Ten Thousand to survive and reach their homes again. Against almost overwhelming odds, and with little hope, Xenophon brought the men back in a heroic journey, which has resonated with audiences since it was first published over 2,000 years ago. Even scholars who have questioned the accuracy of Xenophon's depiction of himself as a heroic leader have admired the work itself.

Map of Persia and the March of the Ten ThousandUS Military Academy (Public Domain)

In addressing critics who claim Xenophon's account is largely self-serving, Waterfield notes that he later refers to the book as having been written by one Themistogenes of Syracuse (Hellenica 3.1.2), which appears to have been a pseudonym and suggests he first published Anabasis under this name "to make his rosy account of his own actions more acceptable" (xix). However that may be, and whatever Xenophon's reasons for writing the work, the return of the Ten Thousand to their homeland is understood as historical fact, and Xenophon's leadership in accomplishing this has never been seriously questioned.

Conclusion

After his return to Greece, Xenophon joined the forces of the Spartan general Thimbron (d. 391 BCE), who was replaced after his failure to capture Larissa by the general Dercylidas c. 399 BCE, a much more experienced leader who took Larissa and eight other cities from the Persians until command was taken by the Spartan king Agesilaus. Initially, Xenophon and his men had been fighting as mercenaries in the Spartan army, but under Dercylidas, they had been commissioned as soldiers so that, by the time Agesilaus arrived, Xenophon, an Athenian, was an officer in the army of Athens' old rival.

At first, this might not have made much difference as Agesilaus was fighting the Persians for the liberation of Ionian Greek Colonies in Asia Minor, but in 395 BCE, the Corinthian War broke out in which an Athenian coalition opposed Sparta in response to its policies regarding two regions in Greece, Locris and Phocis. Agesilaus marched back from Ionia to deal with this situation and met the coalition of Argos, Athens, Corinth, and Thebes at the Battle of Coronea in 394 BCE. The Spartan victory allowed them to take both Phocis and Locris, and so the campaign was regarded by the Spartans as a great success, but for Xenophon, the consequences were less pleasant.

Statue of Xenophon, ViennaMrPanyGoff (CC BY-SA)

For fighting against his own city-state as a Spartan officer, he was exiled from Athens and lived on a farm in Scillus (in Elis) near Olympia on a property granted to him by the Spartans. He was wealthy enough at this point to have purchased land for a temple to Artemis and paid for its construction. He also seems to have funded the annual festival, including the communal feast and hunting expeditions in which his two sons, Gryllus and Diodorus, participated. Nothing is known of his wife, Philesia, except her name. At his farm in Scillus, he wrote Anabasis, the Socratic works, and others, and it seems to have been the most peaceful and comfortable time of his life.

In 371 BCE, after the Spartans were defeated at the Battle of Leuctra, they no longer had the authority to maintain Xenophon's claim to his estate, and it was taken by the Elians for their own uses, even though it seems clear that Xenophon had hosted the people of the region annually, at his own expense, at the Festival of Artemis and treated them well.

He left Elis for Corinth where, according to Diogenes Laertius, he died c. 354 BCE and was buried. According to other ancient writers, however, his body was returned to Elis, and he was buried in Scillus. His son, Gryllus, a member of the Athenian cavalry, had been killed at the Battle of Mantinea in 362 BCE, and at that time, Athens revoked Xenophon's banishment in honor of his son, but there is no evidence to suggest he ever returned home.

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An Introduction to the Work of Xenohon

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An Introduction to the Work of Xenophon

In his Lives of Eminent Philosophers, the Greek biographer Diogenes Laertius reports how Xenophon came to be associated with Socrates.

“They say that Socrates met him in a narrow lane, and put his stick across it and prevented him from passing by, asking him where all kinds of necessary things were sold. And when he had answered him, he asked him again where men were made good and virtuous. And as he did not know, he said, ‘Follow me, then, and learn.’ And from this time forth, Xenophon became a follower of Socrates.”

Born around 430 BCE and dying around 354 BCE, Xenophon did indeed become a “follower” of Socrates. It is primarily from the writings of Xenophon and Plato that we learn of the speeches and deeds of Socrates. Yet, unlike Plato, who stayed in Athens and founded a philosophical academy, Xenophon chose a more active life, political and military. Apparently against the advice of Socrates, Xenophon became a mercenary, joining a Persian army led by Cyrus the Younger, an experience he would later memorialize in the Anabasis.

How, then, was Xenophon a follower of Socrates? Socrates enjoyed leisurely discussions with philosophic or potentially philosophic men. The generals and common soldiers with whom Xenophon had to deal were not philosophic. Does Xenophon offer us an example of the brilliant but wayward student, someone who, because of some character flaw, was unable himself to pursue the kind of life he nonetheless divined to be best? Or perhaps Xenophon, like Plato, concluded that the way of Socrates, however much an example of the best kind of life, could not and perhaps should not be perfectly imitated—and that there might be a variety of ways to be “Socratic.”

Whatever the case may be, philosophic and Socratic themes are never absent from Xenophon’s writings. With supreme artfulness and taste, Xenophon’s writings reveal how philosophic questions emerge directly from life. Whether a wayward Socratic or not, for us Xenophon provides a great example of how to be philosophic while “out in the world.”

Socratic Writings

Xenophon wrote four works about Socrates: the Memorabilia, the Oeconomicus, the Symposium, and the Apology of Socrates. What immediately distinguishes these Socratic writings from those of Plato is the more plebian character of their interlocutors. While the Platonic Socrates usually (though not always) converses with the best and the brightest, Xenophon’s Socrates almost always talks with ordinary folk. One example must suffice here. Xenophon’s only explicit portrayal of Socratic education occurs not in a dialogue between Socrates and a promising young student, but between Socrates and the slow-witted, easy-going Euthydemus. But Xenophon uses this conversation, in the last book of the Memorabilia, to point to a kind of common denominator shared by all students, at least at the beginning of their education. Euthydemus, we see, wishes to learn things in order to engage in politics. And he further believes that one cannot be good at political things without being just. The easy-going Euthydemus accepts that he knows enough about justice to engage in political action. It is doubtful that better students, and better readers, would be as easily satisfied. Euthydemus’ complacency helps to stimulate thought in the less complacent. Still, Xenophon implies that the starting point for all Socratic education is this political ambition—the desire to know for the sake of political action.

The treatment of Euthydemus in the Memorabilia is a prominent example of how Xenophon elicits essential philosophic themes from surprising, or counterintuitive sources. The conversation between Socrates and Euthydemus makes us wonder: Must political action always proceed on an incomplete sense of justice? Is the hallmark of a philosophic nature the extent to which one accepts such partial information? Is education—the replacement of partial with correct understanding—necessarily unending, and what are the consequences for political action?

In Socrates’ conversation with a know-it-all gentleman-farmer in the Oeconomicus, the farmer’s description of his wife’s talented management of the family’s pantry calls to mind, for philosophic readers, the act of dividing, separating, and ranking things scientifically. Even when philosophy is not mentioned, philosophy is present.

The Education of Cyrus

The Cyropaedia, or The Education of Cyrus, may very well be the most profound meditation on political ambition ever written. It is a literary account of the education and career of the founder of the Persian Empire, who died in 530 BCE. Xenophon’s works abound in political characters with varying degrees of talent. But, for Xenophon, Cyrus represents by far the most impressive political type. In his writings, Xenophon thus presents “Socrates” on the one hand and “Cyrus” on the other, and invites his readers to compare the two. In a kind of preface to the Education of Cyrus, Xenophon writes that he remembered the case of Cyrus when he wondered why all political regimes seemed to be so unstable and often overthrown. The career of Cyrus seems to demonstrate, says Xenophon, that political rule is not difficult provided one does it with virtue.

Xenophon invites readers to judge the extent of Cyrus’ virtue and how he acquired it. The narration covers the transformation of the “old Persia” (which bears some important resemblance to old Sparta) into the empire that Cyrus creates, with undeniable political mastery. Still, it is not an easy task to discern exactly what the “education” of Cyrus might be. Xenophon’s presentation of Cyrus’ education has important lacunae. For instance, Xenophon states that the years between eighteen and twenty-eight are the most important for the education of a man—but he tells us absolutely nothing of what Cyrus did or learned during those years.

Xenophon’s work is perhaps not a straightforward unfolding of how Cyrus himself was educated, but rather a study of what education is and what it can accomplish, and, perhaps, what might have been missing in Cyrus’ own education. The possible double meaning in the title is to be noted. The Education of Cyrus is not merely what Cyrus learns, but what we learn from watching Cyrus.

As Cyrus develops his empire, he continues to appear moderate and restrained in his personal habits. But we see how the appetites of his Persians grow, and the virtue of moderation that seemed to characterize old Persia falls away with the possibilities and temptations of empire. This is not necessarily an indictment of Cyrus. If one accepts Xenophon’s statement at the outset of the work regarding the cyclical character of regimes, one recognizes that a certain degree of corruption becomes inevitable in political life. The corruption in Persian manners was perhaps a necessary consequence, however regrettable, of the Persian Empire. After all, Cyrus embarked on empire in the first place for reasons of self-defense: it was a response to necessity and therefore just. Cyrus himself, it seems, was not unaware of this dilemma. Still, the growth of the Persian Empire is not altogether unproblematic. Though Cyrus pretty much succeeds in everything he sets out to do, Xenophon tells us that his empire begins to collapse swiftly immediately after his death. The obvious defect of empire is the requirement of someone of superior virtue like Cyrus, and such men are not always at the helm. The collapse of Cyrus’ empire has given rise to multiple interpretations. Is this Xenophon’s way of indicating his preference for philosophy? Cyrus’ political ambition, however noble, is still subject to fortune, and thus to decay. Only ideas defy this fate. Or is Xenophon rather joking at the expense of the philosophers, inviting them, as they sometimes do, to speak proudly of the ultimate futility of all politics? In causing us to raise such questions, Xenophon’s Cyrus allows us to consider political action at its peak.

Xenophon’s Ascent

Of all Xenophon’s writings, the Anabasis (literally Ascent), sometimes called the Anabasis of Cyrus, has had the most enduring hold on the imagination of Western civilization. For one thing, the narrative is indisputably gripping. The story recounts the attempt of Cyrus the Younger, a Persian contemporary of Xenophon, to dislodge his elder brother from the Persian throne, with the help of 10,000 Greek mercenaries, including Xenophon himself. After the disastrous failure of Cyrus’ campaign, Xenophon realizes he must take charge of the Greeks, and through brilliant leadership he leads the Greeks through Persian territory back to safety. Also, Xenophon’s Attic Greek prose in this text is so clear that it became a standard text for the instruction of Greek over the centuries. Indeed, the deceptively “straightforward” character of this and other Xenophontic writings has led too-clever-by-half pedants to conclude that Xenophon was philosophically uninteresting.

A careful reading, however, reveals that it is a work of immense subtlety and sophistication. In this work, too, philosophic questions emerge from “action” as well as speeches. To take one somewhat less well-known example, one can consider the case of Xenophon’s treatment of a character called Meno in the Anabasis. Like Xenophon, Meno was a mercenary general in Cyrus’ army. Also like Xenophon, Meno had been an associate of Socrates. We possess a Platonic dialogue by that name. What seems clear is that in the Anabasis we see Meno, as a general, acting very much in line with what we learn about him from his conversation with Socrates in Plato, in which he denies the unity of virtue. While clever at manoeuvers and a competent trickster, Meno is unable to muster any doctrine or policy that might unify the divergent strains of his army. His inability to think of “unity” or the “whole” proves to be a remarkable weakness when in command of an army. We are stimulated to reflect on the doctrine of “parts and wholes” by witnessing it at work in the realm of politics.

On Tyranny

Xenophon’s dialogue the Hiero, also known as On Tyranny, had been nearly forgotten until Leo Strauss rediscovered it in the first half of the twentieth century. Strauss’ interpretation of that dialogue, and a counter-interpretation offered by Alexandre Kojève, form the basis for what has come to be known as the “Strauss-Kojève debate” on the nature of modernity and the possibility of translating “philosophy” understood as the unending search for clarity about our situation, into “wisdom,” understood as the fruits of philosophy that can then be used politically to resolve the tensions of human life.

In the dialogue, Xenophon stages a conversation between a poet, Simonides, and a tyrant, Hiero. Over the course of the dialogue, Simonides tries to persuade Hiero not to abandon tyranny, but to practice a gentler version of it. Better treatment of the people by the tyrant would spell happiness for the tyrant, Simonides claims. The poet does not ask whether the tyrant loves to rule or what his political ambitions are, but only about how he experiences the senses and sensual passions. Simonides uses Hiero’s sometimes-dishonest account of his passions to construct a kind of tyranny that would enable him to be less miserable and happier. (The tyrant tells Simonides that he hates his life.) Would such a tyrant ever listen to a poet in this way? Was Hiero honest about the grounds of tyranny? Were Simonides’ goals actually practical? Xenophon offers many indications that he does not view the goal of “enlightened” tyranny as possible or desirable.

The Hellenica and Other Writings

Xenophon’s Hellenica narrates the aftermath of the Peloponnesian War, picking up where the history of Thucydides leaves off. It is the only work in the history of philosophy to begin with the word “afterwards.” Like Xenophon’s statement on the rise and fall of regimes at the outset of the Cyropaedia, this introduction indicates a key theme of the work: the things of the world are in continual motion.

Xenophon’s Sentimental Education

Xenophon offers us playful and ironic characterizations of the whole range of human types. But does the substance of Xenophon’s political philosophy differ much from that of Plato? This question must here remain open. Whatever the answer, it is clear that Xenophon’s writings, through their extremely subtle presentations of the widest range of human character and motivations, offer us a unique education in taste; at the very least they should supplement any reading of Plato. As has been the case throughout history, Xenophon’s writings are perhaps most exciting for those who choose to spend their lives outside academia in politics, the military, and business. For Xenophon, while indisputably a Socratic, chose the most active, most political life. But his writings show us how even in the practical world one can glimpse the fundamental philosophic problems.

For further introductory reading, see:

Christopher Bruell, “Xenophon” in History of Political Philosophy, ed. Leo Strauss & Joseph Cropsey, Chicago: 1987.

Leo Strauss, The Spirit of Sparta or The Taste of Xenophon, Social Research, 6: 502-36, 1939.

(Photo from Thomas Stanley’s History of Philosophy).

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Xenophon - Wikipedia

Xenophon | Ancient Greek Historian & Military Strategist | Britannica

Xenophon | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Xenophon - World History Encyclopedia

Xenophon - Greek Historian, Military Strategist | Britannica

Xenophon summary | Britannica

An Introduction to the Work of Xenohon

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imtoken钱包下载美国|xenophon

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Xenophon - Wikipedia

Xenophon | Ancient Greek Historian & Military Strategist | Britannica

Xenophon | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Xenophon - World History Encyclopedia

Xenophon - Greek Historian, Military Strategist | Britannica

Xenophon summary | Britannica

An Introduction to the Work of Xenohon

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