Xenophon

Historian and essayist

Born: c. 431 b. c.e.; Athens, Greece Died: c. 354 b. c.e.; Corinth, Greece Category: Historiography

Life Born in Athens about 431 b. c.e., Xenophon (ZEHN-uh-fuhn), son of Gryllus of the Attic deme Erchia, belonged to a well-to-do family and was a disciple of Socrates, though not a member of his intimate circle. He grew up at a time of oligarchic revolution in Athens, and he probably left Athens in 401 b. c.e. because of political precariousness. That same year, he joined in an adventurous expedition to overthrow the king of Persia. He then spent a few years in Asia Minor with mercenary troops under Spartan command. Exiled from Athens around 399, he eventually settled in the Pel-oponnese, where he lived with his two sons and wife, Philesia, as a country gentleman on an estate granted him by the Spartans at Scillus near Olympia. He lost this estate around 371 when the Eleans recovered Scillus from the Spartans. In 368 the decree of exile was rescinded, after Athens entered into an alliance with Sparta. Thereafter he occasionally visited Athens and sent his sons to serve in the Athenian cavalry. In 366-365 Athenians were expelled from Corinth, so Xenophon returned to Athens permanently. He died about 354 b. c.e. while on a visit to Corinth.

Xenophon’s most famous work is the Kyrou anabasis (Anabasis, 1623), an account of the expedition of ten thousand mercenaries hired by Cyrus, the younger brother of King Artaxerxes, to win for himself the throne of Persia. Though Cyrus’s army defeated the king’s, Cyrus was killed. The Greek generals having been treacherously captured and slain, Xenophon found himself in command of the hazardous retreat of the mercenaries to Trebizond on the Black Sea. After making contact with the Spartan general Thibron, Xenophon turned the mercenaries over to him and remained in Asia with the Spartans for some years. The Anabasis is a thrilling adventure story, written in good, if somewhat uninspired, Greek.

In the Ellenika (History of the Affairs of Greece, 1685), Xenophon completed the unfinished Historia tou Peloponnesiacou polemou (431-404 b. c.e.; History of the Peloponnesian War, 1550) of Thucydides and continued the history of Greek war and politics down to the Battle of Mantinea in 362 b. c.e. The work is inferior to that of Thucydides both in style and in historical understanding, but it is a primary source for the history of the period it covers.

Association with Socrates supplied the material and motive for several works: The Apomnemoneumata (Xenophon’s Memorable Things of Socrates, 1712; also known as Memorabilia of Socrates) is a defense of Socrates, with illustrative anecdotes and many short dialogues between Socrates and his friends, usually on moral questions. Xenophon lacked Plato’s interest in speculative philosophy. The Apologia Sokratous (Apology of Socrates, 1762) purports to explain why Socrates did not defend himself any better than he did.

The Symposion (Symposium, 1710; also known as The Banquet ofXeno-phon) consists of an imagined dinner party conversation at the house of

Xenophon.

(Library of Congress)

Principal Works of Xenophon

Logos eis AgTsilaon Basilea (Agesilaus, 1832)

Kyrou anabasis (Anabasis, 1623; also known as Expedition of Cyrus and The March Up Country)

Apologia Sfkratous, (Apology of Socrates, 1762)

KynTgetikos (also known as Cynegeticus; On Hunting, 1832)

Poroi, (On Ways and Means, 1832)

EllTnika (also known as Helenica; History of the Affairs of Greece, 1685)

Hipparchikos (On the Cavalry General, 1832)

Peri hippikTs (The Art of Riding, 1584; also known as On Horsemanship)

ApomnTmoneumata (Xenophon’sMemorable Things of Socrates, 1712; also known as Memorabilia of Socrates)

Oikonomikos (Xenophon’s Treatise of Household, 1532)

Lakedaimonifn politeia (Polity of the Lacedaemonians, 1832; also known as Constitution of Sparta)

Hierfn T tyrannikos (Hiero, 1713; also known as On Tyranny)

Symposion (Symposium, 1710; also known as The Banquet of Xenophon)

Kyrou paideia (The Cyropaedia: Or, Education of Cyrus, 1560-1567)

Callias, with some serious philosophizing by Socrates. In general these works portray a more matter-of-fact Socrates than the protagonist of Plato’s dialogues but one probably no nearer the historical truth. Another dialogue, Oikonomikos (Xenophon’s Treatise of Household, 1532), between Socrates and Critobulos, sets forth Xenophon’s views on the management of an estate. It reflects the life at Scillus and is a valuable document for the economy of the period.

A work of a different sort, Kyrou paideia (The Cyropaedia, 1560-1567)

Is a romanticized account of the youth and education of Cyrus the Great of Persia. It is intended to lay down the ideals of education for political leadership. It is unfavorably remarked on by Plato in Politeia (c. 388-368 b. c.e.; Republic, 1701). Xenophon’s political interests were also expressed in the laudatory Lakedaimonion politeia (Polity of the Lacedaemonians, 1832; also known as Constitution of Sparta) and in Hieron T tyrannikos (Hiero, 1713; also known as On Tyranny). The latter is a dialogue between the king of Syracuse and the poet Simonides, dealing with the relative happiness of the despot and the private citizen and with the question of how a despot should rule in order to win the affection of his people.

Four technical treatises were also written by Xenophon: Hipparchikos (On the Cavalry General, 1832), on the duties of a cavalry commander; Peri hippikTs (The Art of Riding, 1584; also known as On Horsemanship), an authoritative manual, the first of its kind to come down to us from antiquity; Poroi (On Ways and Means, 1832), suggestions for improving the finances of Athens; and KynTgetikos (On Hunting, 1832), a treatise that includes, oddly enough, an attack on the Sophists.

Influence It is as a writer that Xenophon is best known. He wrote history, romance, and essays of practical and moral import. As a man of affairs, with intelligence and wide interests, Xenophon wrote plainly and with a taste for platitude. His works reflect the attitudes of a Greek gentleman of his time.

Further Reading

Dillery, John. Xenophon and the History of His Times. New York: Rout-ledge, 1995.

Fox, Robin Lane. The Long March: Xenophon and the Ten Thousand. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2004.

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

O’Sullivan, JamesN. Xenophon of Ephesus: His Compositional Technique and the Birth of the Novel. New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1995.

Pomeroy, Sarah B. Xenophon “Oeconomicus”: A Social and Historical Commentary. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Prevas, John. Xenophon’s March: Into the Lair of the Persian Lion. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2002.

Schmeling, Gareth L. Xenophon of Ephesus. Boston: Twayne, 1980. Strauss, Leo. On Tyranny: Including the Strauss-Kojeve Correspondence. Rev. and expanded ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

_. Xenophon’s Socratic Discourse: An Interpretation of the Oecon-

Omicus. 1970. Reprint. South Bend, Ind.: St. Augustine’s Press, 1998.

Alan Cottrell

See also: Historiography; Literature; Mantinea, Battles of; Plato; Simonides; Socrates; Thucydides.