Conclusions

What sorts of conclusions follow about Xenophon’s historical writing from these readings? The narrative devices he uses show he is meeting the requirements of history for a record of achievements that have magnitude, and guiding the reader to this kind of reading. The more narrative devices he uses, the more magnitude he gives them, and those he does so enhance do seem truly to possess magnitude. Their magnitude reflects his intention to include ‘‘things worthy of remembrance’’ (axiom-nemoneuta, 4.8.1), and his definition of such things as expenditures, dangerous ventures and stratagems, as well as the ability to attract loyalty (5.1.4). He refers to their quality again at 5.1.1: ‘‘Of such a kind were the events in the Hellespont for Athenians and Spartans.’’ Non-military virtues also demonstrate the required magnitude, since the first achievement of any length in that section is the loyalty of the people of Abydus to the Spartans, which their harmost expressly describes as ‘‘memorable for all time’’ (4.8.4). The significance of the events examined in this chapter is not political in the sense of favoring poleis or policies since they encompass the successes and the failures of both Spartans and Athenians. They narrate what matters in the wider operation of warfare: successful stratagems, losses of whole armies, deaths of important commanders, smooth operations due to good relations between commanders and their men. Reading Xenophon requires knowledge, then, of the arsenal of devices he uses to mark magnitude in his narrative, and it can benefit from comparison with accounts of similar military episodes in other historians.

FURTHER READING

The methods of narratology that underpin this short chapter are among the tools we have to understand Xenophon’s historical and other narratives, and further reading is recommended in this. See de Jong et al. 2004, which applies narratology to a variety of authors including Xenophon. Xenophon’s narrative manner is ripe for further exploration, as is shown by recent publications, such as the collections on Xenophon’s historical works - Lane Fox 2004a and Tuplin 2004 - in which his manner is not often directly addressed.