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XENOPHON
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XENOPHON , See also:Greek historian and philosophical essayist, the son of Gryllus, was See also:born at See also:Athens about 430 B.C.' He belonged to an equestrian See also:family of the deme of Erchia. It may be inferred from passages in the Hellenica that he fought at Arginusae (406), and that he was See also:present at the return of See also:Alcibiades (408), the trial of the Generals and the overthrow of the See also:Thirty. See also:Early in See also:life he came under the See also:influence of See also:Socrates, but an active life had more attraction for him. In 401, being invited by his friend Proxenus to join the expedition of the younger See also:Cyrus against his See also:brother, See also:Artaxerxes II. of See also:Persia, he at once accepted the offer. It held out the prospect of riches and See also:honour, while he was little likely to find favour in democratic Athens, where the knights were regarded with suspicion as having supported the Thirty. At the See also:suggestion of Socrates, Xenophon went to See also:Delphi to consult the See also:oracle; but his mind was already made up, and he at once proceeded to See also:Sardis, the See also:place of See also:rendezvous. Of the expedition itself he has given a full and detailed See also:account in his See also:Anabasis, or the " Up-See also:Country See also: At Cotyora he aspired to found a new See also:colony; but the See also:idea, not being unanimously accepted, was abandoned, and ultimately Xenophon with his Greeks arrived at Chrysopolis [See also:Scutari] on the See also:Bosporus, opposite See also:Byzantium. After a brief See also:period of service under a Thracian See also:chief, Seuthes, they were finally incorporated in a Lacedaemonian army which
I As the description of the Ionian See also:campaign of Thrasyllus in 410 (Hellenica, i. 2) is clearly derived from Xenophon's own reminiscences, he must have taken part in this campaign, and cannot therefore have been less than twenty years of See also:age at the See also:time.
See also:bad crossed over into See also:Asia to wage See also:war against the Persian satraps Tissaphernes and See also:Pharnabazus. Xenophon, who accompanied them, captured a wealthy Persian nobleman, with his family, near See also:Pergamum, and the See also:ransom paid for his recovery secured Xenophon a competency for life.
On his return to See also:Greece Xenophon served under Agesilaus, See also: According to See also:Diogenes Laertius, he made his home at See also:Corinth. The See also:year of his See also:death is not known; all that can be said is that it was later than 355, the date of his See also:work on the Revenues of Athens. The Anabasis (composed at Scillus between 379 and 371) is a work of singular See also:interest, and is brightly and pleasantly written. Xenophon, like See also:Caesar, tells the See also:story in the third See also:person, and there is a straightforward manliness about the See also:style, with a distinct flavour of a cheerful lightheartedness, which at once enlists our sympathies. His description of places and of relative distances is very See also:minute and painstaking. The researches of See also:modern travellers attest his feneral accuracy. It is expressly stated by See also:Plutarch and Diogenes arrtius that the Anabasis was the work of Xenophon, and the evidence from style is conclusive. The allusion (Hellenica,' iii. 1, 2) to :Themistogenes of See also:Syracuse as the author shows that Xenophon published it under an assumed name. The Cyropaedia, a See also:political and philosophical See also:romance, which describes the boyhood and training of Cyrus, hardly answers to its name, being for the most part an account of the beginnings of the Persian See also:empire and of the victorious career of Cyrus its founder. The Cyropaedia contains in fact the author's own ideas of training and See also:education, as derived conjointly from the teachings of Socrates and his favourite Spartan institutions. It was said to have been written in opposition to the See also:Republic of See also:Plato. A distinct moral purpose, to which literal truth is sacrificed, runs through the work. For instance, Cyrus is represented as dying peacefully in his See also:bed, whereas, according to See also:Herodotus, he See also:fell in a campaign against the See also:Massagetae. The Ilellenica written at Corinth, after 362, is the only contemporary account of the period covered by it (411-362) that has come down to us. It consists of two distinct parts; books i. and ii., which are intended to See also:form a continuation of the work of See also:Thucydides, and bring the See also:history down to the fall of the Thirty, and books iii.-vii., the Heltenica proper, which See also:deal with the period from 401 to 362, and give the history of the Spartan and Theban hegemonies, down to the death of See also:Epaminondas. There is, however, no ground for the view that these two parts were written and published as See also:separate See also:works. There is probably no See also:justification for the See also:charge of deliberate falsification. It must be admitted, however, that he had strong political prejudices, and that these prejudices have influenced his narrative. He was a See also:partisan of the reactionary See also:movement which triumphed 'after the fall of Athens; Sparta is his ideal, and Agesilaus his See also:hero. At the same time, he was a believer in a divine overruling See also:providence. He is compelled, therefore, to see in the fall of Sparta the See also:punishment inflicted by See also:heaven on the treacherous policy which had prompted the seizure of the Cadmea and the See also:raid of Sphodrias. Hardly less serious defects than his political See also:bias are his omissions, his want of the sense of proportion and his failure to grasp the meaning of See also:historical See also:criticism. The most that can be said in his favour is that as a See also:witness he is at once honest and well-informed. For this period of Greek history he is, at any See also:rate, an indispensable witness. The Memorabilia, or " Recollections of Socrates," in four books, was written to defend Socrates against the charges of impiety and corrupting the youth, repeated after his death by the sophist See also:Polycrates. The work is not a See also:literary masterpiece; it lacks coherence and unify, and the picture it gives of Socrates fails to do him See also:justice. Still, as far as it goes, it no doubt faithfully describes the philosopher's manner of life and style of conversation. It was the moral and See also:practical See also:side of Socrates's teaching which most interested Xenophon ; into his abstruse metaphysical speculations he seems to have made no See also:attempt to enter: for these indeed he had neither See also:taste nor See also:genius. Moving within a limited range of ideas, he doubtless gives us " considerably less than the real Socrates, while Plato gives us something more." It is probable that the work in its present form is an abridgment. Xenophon has See also:left several See also:minor works, some of which are very interesting and give an insight into the home life of the Greeks. The ()See also:economics (to some extent a continuation of the Memorabilia, and sometimes regarded as the fifth See also:book of the same) deals with the management of the See also:house and of the See also:farm, and presents a pleasant and amusing picture of the Greek wife and of her home duties. There are some See also:good practical remarks on See also:matrimony and on the respective duties of See also:husband and wife. The See also:treatise, which is in the form of a See also:dialogue between Socrates and a certain Ischomachus, was translated into Latin by See also:Cicero. In the essays on See also:horsemanship (Hippike) and See also:hunting (Cynegeticus), Xenophon deals with matters of which he had a thorough practical knowledge. In the first he gives rules how to choose a See also:horse, and then tells how it is to be groomed and ridden and generally managed. The Cynegeticus deals chiefly with the See also:hare, though the author speaks also of See also:boar-hunting and describes the hounds, tells how they are to be bred and trained, and gives specimens of suitable names for them. On all this he writes with the zest of an enthusiastic sportsman, and he observes that those nations whose upper classes have a taste for See also: He is represented as " improving the occasion," which is that of a lively Athenian supper-party, at which there is much drinking, with See also:flute-playing, and a dancing-girl from Syracuse, who amuses the guests with the feats of a professional conjuror. Socrates's table-talk runs through a variety of topics, and winds up with a philosophical disquisition on the superiority of true heavenly love to its earthly or sensual counterfeit, and with an See also:earnest exhortation to one of the party, who had just won a victory in the public See also:games, to See also:lead a See also:noble life and do his See also:duty to his country. There are also two See also:short essays, attributed to him, on the political constitution of Sparta and Athens, written with a decided bias in favour of the former, which he praises without attempting to criticize. Sparta seems to have presented to Xenophon the best conceivable mixture of See also:monarchy and See also:aristocracy. The second is certainly not by Xenophon, but was probably written by a member of the oligarchical party shortly after the beginning of the Peloponnesian War. In the See also:essay on the Revenues of Athens (written in 355) he offers suggestions for making Athens less dependent on See also:tribute received from its allies. Above all, he would have Athens use its influence for the See also:maintenance of See also:peace in the Greek world and for the See also:settlement of questions by See also:diplomacy, the See also:temple at Delphi being for this purpose an See also:independent centre and supplying a divine See also:sanction. The See also:Apology, Socrates's See also:defence before his See also:judges, is rather a feeble See also:production, and in the general See also:opinion of modern critics is not a genuine work of Xenophon, but belongs to a much later period. Xenophon was a man of See also:great See also:personal beauty and considerable intellectual gifts; but he was of too practical a nature to take an interest in abstruse philosophical See also:speculation. His dislike of the See also:democracy of Athens induced such lack of patriotism that he even fought on the side of Sparta against his own country. In religious matters he was narrow minded, a believer in the efficacy of See also:sacrifice and in the prophetic art. His See also:plain and See also:simple style, which at times becomes wearisome, was greatly admired and procured him many imitators. The See also:editions of Xenophon's works, both See also:complete and of separate portions, are very numerous, especially of the Anabasis; only a selection can be given here. Editio princes (1516, incomplete); J. G. See also:Schneider (1790-1849) ; G. Sauppe ((1865-66) ; L. See also:Dindorf (1875); E. C. Marchant (1900- , in the See also:Clarendon See also:Press Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca). ANABAS1S: R. Kuhner (1852); J. F. Macmichael (1883); F. Vollbrecht (1887); A. Pretor (1888); C. W. See also:Kruger and W. Pokel (1888) ; W.W. See also:Goodwin and J. W. See also: Goodwin (vi.-viii., r88o) ; F. Hertlein and W. Nitsche (1886); H. A. See also:Holden (1887-9o). HELLENICA: L. Breitenbach (1874-84); R. Buchsenschiitz (188o-91) ; J. I. Manatt (i.-iv., 1888); L. D. Dowdall (i., 11., 1890). MEMORABILIA: P. See also:Frost (1867); A. R. Cliler (188o); R. Kuhner (1882); L. Breitenbach (1889); J. See also:Marshall (189o). OEcoxoMrcus: H. A. Holden (1895); C. Graux and A. See also:Jacob (1886). HIERO: H. A. Holden (1888). AGESILAUS: R. W. See also: See also:Kirchhoff (1874); E. Belot (188o); H. See also: Dakyns (189o-94), and of the Art of Horsemanship by M. H. See also:Morgan (U.S.A., 1890). Of general works bearing on the subject may be mentioned: G. Sauppe, Lexilogus Xenophonteus (1869); A. Croiset, X., son caractere et son See also:talent (1873); Roquette, De Xenophontis Vita (1884); I. See also:Hartmann, Analecta Xenophontea (1887) and Analecta Xenophontea Nova (1889); C. See also:Joel, Der echte and der Xenophonteische Socrates (1892); See also:Lange, X., sein Leben, See also:seine Geistesart and seine Werke (1900). See also GREECE: See also:Ancient History, § " Authorities," and works quoted; J. B. See also:Bury, Ancient Greek Historians (1909); See also:Mare's History of Greek Literature and See also: See also:Bursian's Jahresbericht (c., 1900) by E. See also:Richter. (E. M. W.; J. H. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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