Xenophon (1), Greek historian
Xenophon (1), Greek historian
- Christopher J. Tuplin
Summary
Xenophon (c. 430–c. 353 bce) came from a wealthy Athenian background and in his youth associated with Socrates. Participation in Cyrus’s unsuccessful rebellion in 401 and mercenary service with Spartan armies in Anatolia in 399–394 bce was followed by exile and prolonged residence near Olympia. Although there was a reconciliation with the Athenian state after 371, he may never have returned to live there permanently. In exile Xenophon became a writer, producing historical narratives, Socratic literature, technical treatises, an encomium of Agesilaus, a dialogue on tyranny, an analysis of Spartan success and failure, and a pamphlet on Athenian political economy. Many of these are the earliest (surviving) examples of particular genres or unusual variants on existing genres. Common to this extraordinarily diverse range of works are a didactic inclination, an intimate relationship with the author’s personal experiences combined with a variable authorial persona, use of the past as a way of talking about the present, a belief that purely practical pursuits have a moral component because they have social implications, and a style of exposition designed for engaged and informed readers who will ask questions of an apparently straightforward text while being prepared to be unsettled or wryly amused by the answers. The topic most persistently addressed by Xenophon’s oeuvre is leadership, broadly conceived—a task that demands special personal qualities, requires persistent careful effort, and, thanks to the unpredictability of events and of human behaviour, can rarely be pursued with prolonged and continuous success. One consequence of this sombre view is that the long-standing assessment of Xenophon as an uncomplicated Laconophile cannot be entertained: Xenophon finds things to admire in Sparta (as also in Athens or Persia or even Thebes), but in his discursive universe only Socrates approaches perfection.
Keywords
Subjects
- Greek History and Historiography
- Greek Literature
Updated in this version
Article updated to reflect current scholarship.
Life
Xenophon, son of Gryllus, from the Athenian deme of Erchia, was born into a wealthy but politically inactive family around 430 bce. He presumably served in the cavalry (see hippeis (2) and (4)) and certainly (like other affluent young men) associated with Socrates. This background did not encourage enthusiasm for democracy (see democracy, Athenian). He apparently stayed in Athens under the Thirty Tyrants and fought the democratic insurgents in the civil war (404–403 bce). The political amnesty of 403/2 theoretically protected him, and material in Hellenica and Memorabilia shows that (like Plato (1)) he was critical of the Thirty, but insecurity was surely one reason why he accepted the suggestion of a Boeotian friend, Proxenus, to enlist as a mercenary with the younger Cyrus (Cyrus (2)). He was thus among the 10,000 Greeks involved in Cyrus’s rebellion and defeat at Cunaxa (401 bce). When Tissaphernes liquidated the Greek generals, Xenophon emerged as one of the replacements and helped to lead the survivors through Mesopotamia, Armenia, and northern Anatolia to Byzantium and then into service with the Thracian prince Seuthes. He alleges a wish to go home at this stage but for various reasons neither did so nor availed himself of Seuthes’ offers of land and marriage-alliance. Consequently, when the Spartans under Thibron (1) arrived in Anatolia for a war of “liberation” (399 bce) and took over the Cyreans (i.e., Cyrus’s veterans), he became a Spartan mercenary. Nothing is known of his role in ensuing campaigns except that he self-defensively endorsed criticisms which led to Thibron’s dismissal. Subsequent Spartan commanders, Dercylidas and Agesilaus, were more effective and more to his taste, and he forged close associations with them. In 394 Agesilaus returned home to confront rebellion among Sparta’s allies and Xenophon fought for the Spartan cause at Coronea against, among others, his fellow Athenians. Exiled as a result (if not, as some think, earlier, either in an Athenian attempt to win the Persian king’s goodwill by distancing the city from association with the rebel Cyrus or as an expression of hostility to the Spartans, whom Cyrus had helped to win the Peloponnesian War), he was settled by the Spartans at Scillus (near Olympia) in the Triphylian state created after Sparta’s defeat of Elis in 400. (His estate and a small-scale copy of the Ephesian Artemisium funded by Asian booty are described in An. 5.3.5–13.) As a Spartan protégé (he was their proxenos at Olympia and his sons were allegedly educated in Sparta) he became vulnerable during the disturbances that followed Sparta’s defeat at Leuctra (371 bce), was expelled, and probably spent the rest of his life in Corinth. There was, however, a reconciliation with Athens. Works such as Cavalry Commander and Ways and Means disclose a sympathetic interest in the city, and in 362 his son Gryllus was killed fighting in the Athenian cavalry (see hippeis) at Mantinea. The posthumous eulogies this earned were in part a tribute to his father.
Works
Most famous in antiquity as a “philosopher” or mercenary leader—ostensibly regarded as a perfect model for the young by Dio Cocceianus of Prusa (Orationes 18), and systematically “imitated” by Arrian—Xenophon produced a large output, all known parts of which survive. The chronology is only vaguely established. Most works fall into three categories: long (quasi‑)historical narratives, Socratic texts (surely Athenocentric works, not mere by-products of contact with supposed Socratic “cells” in Elis or Phlius), and technical treatises. There are also monographs (encomium, non-Socratic political dialogue, politico-economic pamphlet, institutional analysis), though their secondary relation to the major categories is obvious. Many are the earliest (or earliest surviving) examples of particular genres.
The clearest common features of the works are (a) an intimate relationship with Xenophon’s personal experiences, (b) the importance of the past as a way of talking about the present, and (c) didactic discourse. Xenophon’s world view is underpinned by belief in the gods and the importance of omen and ritual: divine power (often anonymous and not infrequently singular) is everywhere in Xenophon’s writings, though not stultifyingly so—when consulting the oracle at Delphi (see Delphic oracle) about going to Asia he famously framed the question so as to get the “right” answer; and at the climactic moment in Anabasis where the Greeks reach the sea they are too excited to think of sacrificing to the gods. But it is not these things in their own right that engage Xenophon’s didactic muse so much as issues of military competence, personal interaction and leadership (by states as well as individuals)—and the value system (consistently present in both Socratic and non-Socratic works) that should inform them. That even purely practical pursuits have a moral component because they have social implications is a characteristic Xenophontic perception; and the would-be leader must, whatever else he does, earn his right to lead by superior wisdom and a capacity to match or outdo his subordinates in all the tasks which he demands of them.
In antiquity his style was judged to be simple, sweet, persuasive, graceful, poetic, and a model of Attic purity. This is understandable, though there are deviations from standard Attic and some find the style jejune and occasionally awkward. The overall effect (style and content) can seem naïve. A central question, therefore, and one that divides modern readers, is how far style and content are really faux-naïf. One should reflect that (a) Xenophon’s emergence as a leader in northern Mesopotamia in late summer 401 must disclose special qualities and (b) 4th-century Greece was full of men of “upper-class” origin and (ex‑)mercenaries, and possibly not short of men who were both, but only one of them produced five (modern) volumes of varied and innovatory writing. We should give Xenophon the benefit of the doubt, and conclude that there was more, not less, to him than there appears. That this is increasingly the trend in recent scholarship can be selectively illustrated from three angles.
The “Socratic question” (the search for the historical Socrates) has rightly been sidelined in favour of reading the Socratic works for what they actually are, not as a failed attempt to be something else—a principle applicable (and now more regularly applied) to the entire corpus. Xenophon’s Socrates emerges as a coherent figure in his own right: views may differ about the extent of consonance or contrast with Plato’s version or about the philosophical value of the Xenophontic one (in terms of modern definitions of philosophy), but Xenophon has a clear agenda, pursued in conscious dialogue with other authors of Socratic literature, and the literary outcome is neither frivolous nor unimportant. Moreover, the enterprise of constructing a specific past that speaks to the present is fundamentally at one with the rest of the oeuvre.
That leadership (broadly conceived) is the topic of the oeuvre becomes ever clearer, and this is hardly surprising given the personal experiences of the author and the collective experiences of his home city and of Greece in his time. In this respect he is line with much of the surviving literature of 4th-century Greece: his topic is one that many people thought mattered a great deal. The task of leadership is susceptible of rational analysis but calls for special, even charismatic, personal qualities and is vulnerable to events and the unpredictability of human behaviour (including that of the leader). No political system (democracy, oligarchy, monarchy, autocracy) provides an unproblematic solution—and none is wholly ruled out of court: everything turns on circumstances and on the characteristics and good judgement of those engaged in ruling. Success requires persistent effort and, even so, is unlikely to be prolonged and continuous. One consequence of this sombre but realistic analysis is that the long-standing view of Xenophon as an uncomplicated Laconophile can no longer be entertained: Xenophon can find things or people to admire in Sparta (as he can in Athens or Persia or even Thebes), but in his discursive universe only Socrates truly approaches perfection.
The view that Xenophon is a facile writer (in a bad sense) has yielded to appreciation of his expository skills, narratological subtlety, and generic inventiveness. Variety of genres brings a variety of styles—and of narrative voices: the texts of Xenophon’s works never name him as their author and the implicit authorial persona is no more identical than one might expect with texts as diverse as Anabasis and Ways and Means and On Horsemanship. This underlines the need to start by reading each work on its own terms, while being ready (as with any ancient text) to consider its intertextual links with other works both by Xenophon himself and by other authors. Keen awareness that, exile status notwithstanding, Xenophon operated within the literary world of contemporary and earlier authors characterizes current scholarship. His disinclination to name such authors is little different from that of most classical writers, though it matches a wider tendency for things unsaid to be important—not because there are esoteric messages hidden below the surface, but because Xenophon presumes engaged and informed readers who will ask questions of an apparently straightforward text and be prepared to be unsettled or wryly amused by the answers. Xenophon’s works have multiple purposes, but they are always a stimulus to thought, often much more than an invitation to certainty, and the style (plain but not smooth—far from that of a Lysias or Isocrates) and detached authorial pose are perfectly attuned to that outcome.
Hellenica
A seven-book history of Greek affairs, in two linguistically distinguishable parts perhaps created at widely differing times, the first possibly as early as the 380s, the second in the mid-350s. (a) 1.1–2.3.10 covers the Peloponnesian War from 411 to the destruction of Athens’ walls, the overthrow of democracy, and the surrender of Samos (404 bce). The opening narrative links imperfectly with Thucydides 8.109, but the intention can only be to “complete” the Thucydidean account (see Thucydides (2)), though this is achieved with only modest reproduction of Thucydides’ historiographical characteristics. (b) 2.3.11–7.5.27 continues the story, covering the Thirty Tyrants (404–403 bce), Sparta’s Asiatic campaigns (399–394 bce), the Corinthian War and King’s Peace (395–387/6 bce), Spartan imperialism in Greece (386–379 bce), the rise of Thebes (379–371 bce) and the Peloponnesian consequences of Leuctra (371–362 bce). The text ends at Mantinea (362 bce; see Mantinea, battles of), with Greece in an unabated state of uncertainty and confusion. The account is centred on Sparta and characterized by surprising omissions (e.g., the name of Epaminondas the architect of Leuctra is not given at all in Book 6 where the battle is described; the liberation of Messenia goes unmentioned, as do Athens’ Aegean policies in 378–362 bce), a tendency to expose the shortcomings of all states, including Sparta, and recurrent hostility to imperial aspirations. A selective and consciously slanted narrative that is in implicit dialogue with other perceptions of the events it covers, it was relatively little read in antiquity, and its modern reputation declined after the discovery of Hellenica Oxyrhynchia (see Oxyrhynchus, the historian from). But the tendency to regard the presumed qualities of that work as a reason for preferring alternative historical traditions should be questioned, and Hellenica remains an indispensable source, as well as a remarkable personal response to a crucial period.
Anabasis
An account (date uncertain, but probably 360s bce)—perhaps initially circulated under the name Themistogenes (cf. Hell. 3.1.2)—of Cyrus’s rebellion and the fate of his Greek mercenaries, dominated in Books 3–7 by Xenophon’s personal role in rescuing the army. The work’s motive is not overtly stated. Among features of the work that may cast light on the question three stand out: (a) apologia and self-advertisement, which can be construed as Xenophon’s response to any other, and different, accounts that may have been in circulation; (b) a somewhat sceptical engagement with the specific panhellenist thesis (see panhellenism) that Persia was vulnerable to concerted attack and with a more general view about Greek superiority over barbarians: the army is an emblematic polis on the move, but a revealingly fractious one; (c) a didactic interest in military strategy/tactics (though both at Cunaxa and elsewhere literary imperatives matter as much as staff-college analysis) and in leadership and the difficulties faced by its practitioners: in Books 5–7 Xenophon is often in conflict with other commanders and the rank and file, and the reader is invited to reflect critically on the problems he faces. Also very striking is the care taken to tell a varied and genuinely arresting story: the work’s modern reputation has suffered from traditional use in language learning (cf. Caesar’s Gallic War), but it is in truth a complex masterpiece of the narrator’s art.
Cypropaedia
This work investigates leadership technique by presenting the life story of Cyrus (1) I “the Great”. The institutional framework preserves useful Achaemenid (see Persia) information, though the oriental décor is muted (partly through a need to head off Greek suspicion of the east: see orientalism). The storyline differs flagrantly from those in other sources (e.g., Cyrus acquires Media through inheritance and dies in bed) and the narrative’s pace and texture are unlike those of ordinary Greek historiography. Storyline is subordinate to didactic agenda, but Xenophon perhaps drew opportunistically on current alternative versions of the story rather than pure imagination, and the result is fictive history, more analogous to Socratic literature than to the Greek novel (to which it is sometimes perceived as a precursor because of the romantic story of Panthea and Abradatas episode). Exceptionally effective leadership (explicitly established as the work’s topic by 1.1.1–5) is displayed by example and through passages of direct instruction (often involving dialogue), but Cyrus’s achievement (imperial autocracy) is not an unambiguous or readily transferable good, and the final chapter insists that, although Cyrus’s institutions had continued to be influential, Persia went wholly to the bad in the 4th century. (For Greeks, respectable barbarian achievements were best imagined as lying in the past.) Important in its own time (it prompted a reaction from Plato in Laws 3 and had an impact on Aristotle) and very popular throughout antiquity but often dismissed as dull and uninspiring in modern times, Cyropaedia is a particularly notable beneficiary of the recent revival of sympathetic interest in Xenophon’s work, and it is arguably the best litmus test for appreciation of Xenophon in general.
Apology
A brief (perhaps very early) work with a purported extract from the courtroom defence of Socrates against charges of religious deviance and corruption of the young, sandwiched between a preliminary dialogue with Hermogenes and various carefree observations made after the trial was over. The stated purpose is to explain the megalēgoria (“big-talking”) which previous writers agreed was a feature of Socrates’ reaction to prosecution and to show why he did not fear, and indeed opted for, death. (Opportunity is also found to note the prosecutor Anytus’s son’s history of alcohol abuse.)
Symposium
“In writing of great men it is proper to record not only their serious activities but their diversions” (1.1), and entertainment at Callias (4)’s party is a mixture of cabaret (music, song, dance, a sexually titillating tableau of Dionysus and Ariadne) and more or less serious conversation about the guests’ accounts of their most prized assets (e.g., beauty, wealth, poverty, making people better, recitation, joke telling, skill at procuring). There is much explicit or implicit reference to personal relationships (doubtless a feature of real sympotic conversation), so Socrates’ eventual discourse on common and celestial love is an unsurprising development, though the Platonic model is probably relevant. The unusually overt and persistent playfulness of Symposium is evidence that we should not ignore that quality elsewhere in the oeuvre or downplay its importance as an aspect of Xenophon’s character and literary enterprise. See symposium literature.
Socratic Memoirs
A collection of nearly fifty conversations between Socrates and a wide range of interlocutors. 1.1–2 explicitly addresses charges advanced at Socrates’ trial, but the whole work presents him as respecting the gods and helping (not corrupting) his fellow men. Broad thematic patterns are visible: Book 1 dwells on religion and moderate lifestyle, Book 2 on friendship and family, and Book 3 on Socrates’ help for “those ambitious of good things”, while Book 4 is more disparate (education, the existence of god, temperance, justice) and intellectually pretentious. But much of the pleasure of the work is in its individual vignettes and convincing (whether or not entirely authentic) picture of a down-to-earth Socrates equally happy debating with sophists, courtesans, and victims of the collapse of Athenian imperialism and concerned with practicalities (albeit ones with moral implications) as well as philosophy. As with Plato, drawing the line between genuine Socratic conversational subjects and Xenophontic ones is neither easy nor (probably) profitable.
Oeconomicus
A conversation with Critobulus (1–6) establishes the importance of agriculture. Socrates then reports a conversation with Ischomachus—itself containing a conversation between Ischomachus and his wife (7–10)—covering household organization, the daily pursuits of a rich Athenian, the role of bailiffs, and technical details of cereal and fruit cultivation. Much of it is effectively about leadership—a harder skill than agriculture, as Ischomachus remarks. The work is an important (though, given Socratic—and Xenophontic—unconventionality, slippery) source for social history. Particularly notable is Ischomachus’s wife, married young so that she will be a tabula rasa on which her husband can write what he will, but accorded a significant—if gender-stereotyped—role in the running of the household (see housework, women). The historical Ischomachus’s wife, Chrysilla, subsequently entered into a relationship (perhaps in due course a formal marriage) with her son-in-law Callias, the host of Symposium, a development that drove her daughter by Ischomachus to attempt suicide. In a courtroom clash with Callias, Andocides made this a full-blown sexual and financial scandal, but the situation was certainly peculiar. Callias’s continuing literary and social visibility as Socratic associate and notorious spendthrift makes it likely that the story was familiar to readers of Oeconomicus, and Xenophon surely expected it to colour their reaction to the work, whether they accepted Andocides’ interpretation or saw the situation as a distasteful product of Athenian inheritance laws.
Cavalry Commander deals with the management and improvement of the Athenian cavalry force (which ought to include foreign mercenaries: 9.3); see hippeis. After comments on recruitment (1.2, 9–13), securing good horses (1.3–4, 14–16), general horsemanship (1.5–6, 17–21), armament (1.7, 22–23), discipline (1.7, 24), the need for good phylarchs (brigade-commanders; cf. phylai) and political allies (1.8, 25–26), and tactical formations (2.1–9), Xenophon formally turns to the cavalry commander’s duties (3.1–9.9). There follow sections on festival performances (3), conduct of marches and intelligence gathering (4), deception (5), inducing the respect of subordinates by knowledge and example (6), the defence of Attica and more general tactical/strategic points (7, 8.17–25), horsemanship (8.1–8), and questions of numerical advantage (8.9–16). Treatment of topics is non-exhaustive, unsystematic, and inclined to repetition (e.g., issues related to the size of forces appear in 5.1–2, 7.5–6, and 8.9–10). Characteristically, Xenophon begins and ends with the gods (1.1-2, 9.8-9), asserts that no art should be practised more than warfare (8.7)—gymnastics are frivolous—and stresses the importance of leadership qualities. In contrast to Ways and Means, the authorial pose is that of an outsider. See war, art of, Greek.
On Horsemanship
“Instruction and exercises” for the private and apparently rather ignorant individual (the specific addressees are “younger friends”: 1.1). It is the earliest surviving such work (one by Simon is an acknowledged predecessor) and covers purchase, housing, and grooming (1–6); mounting, riding, galloping, and jumping (7–8); correction of vivacity and sluggishness (9); dressage and manipulation of appearance (10–11); and equestrian armour and weaponry (12). Its practical precepts (well regarded by modern equestrian experts) are also coloured by Xenophon’s persistent interest in leadership. See horses.
On Hunting
A technical treatise dealing with nets (2), dogs and their training (3, 4.11, 7) and the timing and conduct of the hunt (5–6, 8). The hunter is on foot, the normal prey a hare (an animal of notably good organic design: 5.29), though Xenophon also mentions deer, boar, and the wild cats of Macedonia, Mysia, and Syria (9–11). He disapproves of the hunting of foxes (6.3). The activity is non-utilitarian (quick capture shows you like hard work, but is not real hunting: 6.8), intensely pleasurable—the sight of a hare running is so charming that to see one tracked, found, pursued, and caught is enough to make a man forget all other passions (5.33)—and a divine invention which promotes military, mental, and moral excellence (1, 12). A contrast is drawn with the corrupt verbal wisdom of “sophists” (a group not treated elsewhere in Xenophon as a coherent evil), and the hunter beats the politician in point of ethical standing and social value (13). Practical instruction is thus framed by themes with wider resonance. Suspicions about the work’s authenticity are unfounded: nothing in its style or content sits ill with antiquity’s consistent attribution of the work to Xenophon. See hunting.
Agesilaus
Posthumous encomium of “a perfectly good man” (1.1). An uneven chronological account (long stretches in close verbal parallel to passages of Hellenica) is followed by a survey (with some anecdotal examples) of principal virtues (piety, justice, continence, courage, wisdom, patriotism, charm, dignity, austerity). Little solid information is offered that is not in Hellenica, but a new gloss (sometimes panhellenic, occasionally critical) is put on already familiar facts. The work (like Isocrates’ Evagoras; see Evagoras) is an important contribution to the development of biography, and it should be read as a conscious generic and substantive reaction to its Isocratean predecessor. See Agesilaus; biography, Greek.
Hieron
A dialogue version of the “wise man meets autocrat” scenario (cf. Herodotus (1) on Solon and Croesus: Hdt. 1.29–33) in which, contrary to expectation, the 5th-century Syracusan Hieron (1) refutes Simonides’ claim that it is pleasant to be a tyrant while Simonides supplies suggestions for improving the situation, not least (appropriately for a praise poet) by manipulation of public opinion. Xenophon’s readers will inevitably have thought of 4th-century Syracusan tyranny, a piquant resonance given Plato’s dealings with Dionysius (1) I and Dionysius (2) II, but Isocrates’ engagement with Cypriot tyrants may also be relevant to Xenophon’s decision to explore leadership in this particular form.
Ways and Means
Politicians claim that poverty compels Athens to treat other cities unjustly. So Xenophon advises alleviation of that poverty through innocent means, particularly (a) attracting revenue-creating foreign residents and (b) using state-owned slaves in the Laurium silver mines to increase income and generate a dole (trophē) for citizens. Although far from casual, the economic plan (a curious mixture of the apparently familiar and completely alien) has been much (perhaps too much) criticized; but the primary imperative is arguably political and philosophical—to devise a new imperialism based on peace and consensual hegemony and consonant with Xenophontic-Socratic principles.
Constitution of the Spartans
An account of the Spartan system (attributed to a single lawgiver, Lycurgus (2)) which demonstrates the rationality of its consistent contradiction of normal Greek practices. The tone is apparently laudatory, except in a final chapter (misplaced in the manuscripts) which notes the decline from Lycurgan values associated with 4th-century imperialism, but some believe there are also implicit elements of criticism elsewhere in the text. However extensive the element of criticism, neither it nor anything about the style in which the work is written justifies the view that Xenophon was not the author. If Demetrius (16) meant to suggest otherwise, he was wrong.
The non-Xenophontic Constitution of the Athenians, conceding that democracy, though repellent, was rational in Athenian circumstances, was allowed into the corpus by a later editor as a companion piece. The treatise is often called the “Old Oligarch” (see Old Oligarch).
Primary Texts
- Marchant, Edgar Cardew. Xenophontis Opera omnia. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900–1920.
- Dakyns, Henry Graham. The Works of Xenophon. London: Macmillan, 1890–1897.
- Hatzfeld, Jean. Xénophon: Helléniques. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1936–1939.
- Hude, Karl. Xenophontis Historia graeca. Leipzig: Teubner, 1940.
- Underhill, George Edward. A Commentary with Introduction and Appendix on the Hellenica of Xenophon. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900.
- Krentz, Peter. Hellenika 1–2.3.10. Warminster, UK: Aris & Phillips, 1989.
- Krentz, Peter. Hellenika 2.3.11–4.2.8. Warminster, UK: Aris & Phillips, 1995.
- Brownson, Carleton L. Xenophon: Hellenica. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1918–1921.
- Warner, Rex. Xenophon: A History of my Times. 2nd ed. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1977.
- Marincola, John. The Landmark Xenophon’s Hellenika. New York: Pantheon Books, 2009.
- Masqueray, Paul. Xénophon: Anabase. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1930–1931.
- Hude, Karl. Xenophontis Expeditio Cyri. 2nd ed. Revised by Jean Peters. Leipzig: Teubner, 1972.
- Lendle, Otto. Kommentar zu Xenophons Anabasis. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1995.
- Stronk, Jan Pieter. The Ten Thousand in Thrace: An Archaeological and Historical Commentary on Xenophon's Anabasis, Books VI.iii–v, VII. Amsterdam: Gieben, 1995.
- Huitink, Luuk, and Tim Rood. Xenophon Anabasis III. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
- Brownson, Carleton L. Xenophon: Anabasis. Revised by John Dillery. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998.
- Warner, Rex. Xenophon: The Persian Expedition. 2nd ed. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1972.
- Waterfield, Robin. Xenophon: The Expedition of Cyrus. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2005.
- Ambler, Wayne. The Anabasis of Xenophon. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008.
- Brennan, Shane, and David Thomas. The Landmark Xenophon’s Anabasis. New York: Pantheon Books, 2021.
- Bizos, Marcel. Xénophon: Cyropédie I–V. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1971–1973.
- Delebecque, Édouard. Xénophon: Cyropédie VI–VIII. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1978.
- Gemoll, Wilhelm. Xenophontis Institutio Cyri. 2nd ed. Revised by Jean Peters. Leipzig: Teubner, 2013.
- Miller, Walter. Xenophon: Cyropaedia. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1914.
- Ambler, Wayne. Xenophon: The Education of Cyrus. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001.
- Badini, Michele, and Louis-André Dorion. Xénophon: Mémorables. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2010–2014.
- Hude, Karl. Xenophontis Commentarii. Leipzig: Teubner, 1934.
- Todd, Otis Johnson, and Edgar Cardew Marchant. Xenophon: Memorabilia, Oeconomicus, Symposium, Apology. Revised by Jeffrey Henderson. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013.
- Waterfield, Robin. Xenophon: Conversations of Socrates. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1990.
- Bonnette, Amy L. Xenophon: Memorabilia. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001.
- Ollier, Francois. Xénophon: Le Banquet, Apologie. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1961.
- Bowen, Anthony. Xenophon: Symposium. Warminster, UK: Aris & Phillips, 1998.
- Huss, Bernhard. Xenophons Symposion: Ein Kommentar. Stuttgart and Leipzig: Teubner, 1999.
- Todd, Otis Johnson, and Edgar Cardew Marchant. Xenophon: Memorabilia, Oeconomicus, Symposium, Apology. Revised by Jeffrey Henderson. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013.
- Waterfield, Robin. Xenophon: Conversations of Socrates. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1990.
- Bartlett, Robert C. Xenophon: The Shorter Socratic Writings. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996.
- Chantraine, Pierre. Xénophon: Économique. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1949.
- Pomeroy, Sarah B. Xenophon, Oeconomicus: A Social and Historical Commentary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994.
- Todd, Otis Johnson, and Edgar Cardew Marchant. Xenophon: Memorabilia, Oeconomicus, Symposium, Apology. Revised by Jeffrey Henderson. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013.
- Waterfield, Robin. Xenophon: Conversations of Socrates. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1990.
- Bartlett, Robert C. Xenophon: The Shorter Socratic Writings. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996.
- Ollier, Francois. Xénophon: Le Banquet, Apologie. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1961.
- Macleod, Matthew Donald. Xenophon: Apology and Memorabilia I, 40–57. Warminster, UK: Aris & Phillips, 2008.
- Todd, Otis Johnson, and Edgar Cardew Marchant. Xenophon: Memorabilia, Oeconomicus, Symposium, Apology. Revised by Jeffrey Henderson. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013.
- Waterfield, Robin. Xenophon: Conversations of Socrates. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1990.
- Bartlett, Robert C. Xenophon: The Shorter Socratic Writings. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996.
- Gray, Vivienne. Xenophon on Government, 106–145. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
- Waterfield, Robin. Hiero the Tyrant and Other Treatises. 2nd ed. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 2006.
- Marchant, Edgar Cardew. Xenophon: Hiero, Agesilaus, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians, Ways and Means, Cavalry Commander, Art of Horsemanship, On Hunting. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925.
- Lipka, Michael. Xenophon's Spartan Constitution. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2002.
- Gray, Vivienne. Xenophon on Government, 146–186. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
- Waterfield, Robin. Hiero the Tyrant and Other Treatises. 2nd ed. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 2006.
- Marchant, Edgar Cardew. Xenophon: Hiero, Agesilaus, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians, Ways and Means, Cavalry Commander, Art of Horsemanship, On Hunting. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925.
- Gauthier, Philippe. Un commentaire historique des Poroi de Xénophon. Geneva, Switzerland: Droz, 1976.
- Whitehead, David. Xenophon Poroi (Revenue-Sources). Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2019.
- Waterfield, Robin. Hiero the Tyrant and other Treatises. 2nd ed. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 2006.
- Marchant, Edgar Cardew. Xenophon: Hiero, Agesilaus, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians, Ways and Means, Cavalry Commander, Art of Horsemanship, On Hunting. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925.
- Widdra, Klaus. Xenophon: De re equestri. Leipzig: Teubner, 1964.
- Delebecque, Edouard. Xénophon: De l’art équestre. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1978.
- Waterfield, Robin. Hiero the Tyrant and Other Treatises. 2nd ed. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 2006.
- Marchant, Edgar Cardew. Xenophon: Hiero, Agesilaus, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians, Ways and Means, Cavalry Commander, Art of Horsemanship, On Hunting. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925.
- Delebecque, Édouard. Xénophon: Le Commandant de la Cavalerie. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1973.
- Petrocelli, Corrado. Ipparchico. Bari, Italy: Edipuglia, 2001.
- Waterfield, Robin. Hiero the Tyrant and Other Treatises. 2nd ed. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 2006.
- Marchant, Edgar Cardew. Xenophon: Hiero, Agesilaus, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians, Ways and Means, Cavalry Commander, Art of Horsemanship, On Hunting. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925.
- Delebecque, Édouard. Xénophon: L’art de la Chasse. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1970.
- Phillips, A. A., and Malcolm M. Willcock. Xenophon and Arrian On Hunting, 129–166. Warminster, UK: Aris & Phillips, 2008.
- Waterfield, Robin. Hiero the Tyrant and Other Treatises. 2nd ed. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 2006.
- Marchant, Edgar Cardew. Xenophon: Hiero, Agesilaus, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians, Ways and Means, Cavalry Commander, Art of Horsemanship, On Hunting. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925.
Complete Corpus
Hellenica
Anabasis
Cyropaedia
Socratic Memoirs
Symposium
Oeconomicus
Apology
Hieron
Constitution of the Spartans
Ways and Means
On Horsemanship
Cavalry Commander
On Hunting
Bibliography
Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, s.v. “Xenophon 6”.
General
- Dillery, John. Xenophon and the History of His Times. London: Routledge, 1995.
- Flower, Michael A. ed. The Cambridge Companion to Xenophon. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
- Gray, Vivienne. Oxford Readings in Classical Studies: Xenophon. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010.
- Higgins, William Edward. Xenophon the Athenian. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1977.
- Hobden, Fiona. Xenophon. London: Bloomsbury, 2020.
- Hobden, Fiona, and Christopher J. Tuplin, eds. Xenophon: Ethical Principles and Historical Enquiry. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2012.
- Tuplin, Christopher J., ed. Xenophon and his World. Stuttgart: Steiner, 2004.
- Powell, Anton, and Nicolas Richer, eds. Xenophon and Sparta. Swansea, UK: Classical Press of Wales, 2020.
- Azoulay, Vincent. Xenophon and the Graces of Power: A Greek Guide to Political Manipulation. Swansea, UK: Classical Press of Wales, 2018.
- Buxton, Richard F., ed. Aspects of Leadership in Xenophon. Histos Supplement 5. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK: Histos, 2016.
- Christ, Matthew R. Xenophon and Athenian Democracy: The Education of an Elite Citizenry. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2020.
- Gish, Dustin, and Wayne Ambler, eds. The Political Thought of Xenophon. Exeter, UK: Imprint-Academic, 2009.
- Gray, Vivienne. Xenophon’s Mirror of Princes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
- Danzig, Gabriel, David Johnson, and Donald Morrison, eds. Plato and Xenophon: Comparative Studies. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2018.
- Tamiolaki, Melina, ed. Xenophon and Isocrates: Political Affinities and Literary Interactions. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2018.
- Grethlein, Jonas. “Xenophon’s Anabasis from Character to Narrator.” Journal of Hellenic Studies 132 (2012): 23–40.
- Huitink, Luuk. “‘There Was a River on their Left-Hand Side’: Xenophon’s Anabasis, Arrival Scenes, Reflector Narratives and the Evolving Language of Greek Historiography.” Entretiens sur l’Antiquité Classique 65 (2019): 186–226.
- McCloskey, Benjamin. “Xenophon the Philosopher: E pluribus plura.” American Journal of Philology 138 (2017): 605–640.
- McCloskey, Benjamin. “Xenophon’s Democratic Pedagogy.” Phoenix 71 (2017): 230–249.
- McCloskey, Benjamin. “On Xenophontic Friendship.” Transactions of the American Philological Association 149 (2019): 261–286.
- Pontier, Pierre, ed. Xénophon et la rhétorique. Paris: Presses de l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 2014.
- Rood, Tim. “The Plupast in Xenophon’s Hellenika.” In Time and Narrative in Ancient Historiography. Edited by Jonas Grethlein and Christopher B. Krebs, 76–94. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
- Gish, Dustin, and Christopher Farrell, eds. Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Xenophon. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, forthcoming.
- Münscher, Karl. Xenophon in der griechisch-römischen Literatur. Leipzig: Dieterich, 1920.
- Rood, Tim. The Sea! The Sea! The Shout of the Ten Thousand in the Modern Imagination. London: Duckworth, 2004.
- Rood, Tim. American Anabasis: Xenophon and the Idea of America from the Mexican War to Iraq. London: Duckworth, 2010.
Broad Focus
Politics and Leadership
Literary Connections
Rhetoric, Narrative, and Authorial Voice
Reception
Particular Works
- Cawkwell, George L. “Introduction.” In Xenophon: A History of My Times. Edited and translated by Rex Warner, 7–48. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1978.
- Gray, Vivienne. The Character of Xenophon's Hellenica. London: Duckworth, 1989.
- Kapellos, Aggelos. Xenophon’s Peloponnesian War. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2019.
- Thomas, David H. “Introduction.” In The Landmark Xenophon’s Hellenika, Edited by Robert B. Strassler, ix–lxvi. New York: Pantheon Books, 2009.
- Tuplin, Christopher J. The Failings of Empire. Stuttgart: Steiner, 1993.
- Briant, Pierre, ed. Dans les pas des Dix-Mille: Peuples et pays du Proche-Orient vus par un grec. Toulouse, France: Presses Universitaires du Mirail, 1996.
- Cawkwell, George L. “Introduction.” In Xenophon: The Persian Expedition. Edited and translated by Rex Warner, 9–48. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1972.
- Flower, Michael A. Xenophon’s Anabasis or The Expedition of Cyrus. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
- Lane Fox, Robin, ed. The Long March. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004.
- Lee, John W. I. A Greek Army on the March: Soldiers and Survival in Xenophon’s Anabasis. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
- Rood, Tim, and Melina Tamiolaki, eds. Xenophon’s Anabasis and Its Reception: A Companion. Berlin: De Gruyer, 2022.
- Azoulay, Vincent. “Sparta and the Cyropaedia: The Correct Use of Analogies.” In Xenophon and Sparta. Edited by Anton Powell and Nicolas Richer, 129–160. Swansea, UK: Classical Press of Wales, 2020.
- Danzig, Gabriel, “The Best of the Achaemenids: Benevolence, Self-Interest and the ‘Ironic’ Reading of Cyropaedia.” In Xenophon: Ethical Principles and Historical Enquiry. Edited by Fiona Hobden and Christopher J. Tuplin, 499–540. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2012.
- Due, Bodil. The Cyropaedia: Xenophon’s Aims and Methods. Copenhagen: Aarhus University Press, 1989.
- Gera, Deborah. Xenophon’s Cyropaedia. Oxford: Clarendon Press: 1994.
- Jacobs, Bruno, ed. Ancient Information on Persia Re-assessed: Xenophon’s Cyropaedia. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2020.
- Johnson, David M., Rodrigo Illarraga, and Gabriel Danzig, eds. Debating Cyrus: Leadership and Empire in Xenophon’s Cyropaedia.
- Nadon, Christopher. Xenophon’s Prince: Republic and Empire in the Cyropaedia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.
- Tatum, James. Xenophon’s Imperial Fiction. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989.
- Dorion, Louis-André. L’Autre Socrate: Études sur les écrits socratiques de Xénophon. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2013.
- Johnson, David M. Xenophon’s Socratic Works. London: Routledge, 2021.
- Bevilacqua, Fiorenza. Memorabili di Senofonte. Turin, Italy: Unione Tipografico–Editrice Torinese, 2010.
- Dorion, Louis-André. Xénophon: Mémorables I, vii-cclii. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2010.
- Gray, Vivienne. The Framing of Socrates. Stuttgart: Steiner, 1998.
- Danzig, Gabriel. “Apologetic Elements in Xenophon’s Symposium.” Classica et Mediaevalia 55 (2004): 17–48.
- Danzig, Gabriel. “Intra-Socratic Polemics: The Symposia of Plato and Xenophon.” Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 45 (2005): 331–357.
- Hobden, Fiona. “How to Be a Good Symposiast and Other Lessons from Xenophon’s Symposium.” Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 50 (2004): 121–140.
- Hobden, Fiona. “Reading Xenophon’s Symposium.” Ramus 34 (2005): 93–111.
- Huss, Bernhard. “The Dancing Sokrates and the Laughing Xenophon, or the Other ‘Symposium’.” American Journal of Philosophy 120 (1999): 381–410.
- Danzig, Gabriel. “Why Socrates Was Not a Farmer: Xenophon’s Oeconomicus as a Philosophical Dialogue.” Greece and Rome 50 (2003): 57–76.
- Glazebrook, Allison. “Cosmetics and Sôphrosunê: Ischomachus’ Wife in Xenophon’s Oikonomikos.” Classical World 102 (2009): 231–246.
- Nee, Laurence D. “The City on Trial: Socrates’ Indictment of the Gentleman in Xenophon’s Oeconomicus.” In The Political Thought of Xenophon. Edited by Dustin Gish and Wayne Ambler, 246–270. Exeter, UK: Imprint-Academic, 2009.
- Too, Yun Lee. “The Economies of Pedagogy: Xenophon’s Wifely Didactics.” Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 47 (2001): 65–80.
- Danzig, Gabriel. “The Best Way to Die: Wisdom, Boasting and Strength of Spirit in Xenophon’s Apology.” Classica et Mediaevalia 65 (2014): 155–189.
- Waterfield, Robin. “Xenophon on Socrates’ Trial and Death.” In Xenophon: Ethical Principles and Historical Enquiry. Edited by Fiona Hobden and Christopher J. Tuplin, 269–306. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2012.
- Harman, Rosie. “A Spectacle of Greekness: Panhellenism and the Visual in Xenophon’s Agesilaus.” In Xenophon: Ethical Principles and Historical Enquiry. Edited by Fiona Hobden and Christopher J. Tuplin, 427–454. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2012.
- Humble, Noreen. “True History: Xenophon’s Agesilaus and the Encomiastic Genre.” In Xenophon and Sparta. Edited by Anton Powell and Nicolas Richer, 291–317. Swansea, UK: Classical Press of Wales, 2020.
- Noel, Marie-Pierre. “Ἐγκώμιον ou ἔπαινος? Définitions et usages de l’éloge dans l’Évagoras d’Isocrate et l’Agésilas de Xénophon.” In Xénophon et la rhétorique. Edited by Pierre Pontier, 253–268. Paris: Presses de l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 2014.
- Pontier, Pierre. “L’Agésilas de Xénophon: Comment on réécrit l’histoire.” Cahiers d’Études Anciennes 48 (2010): 359–383.
- Fertik, Harriet. “The Absent Landscape in Xenophon’s Hiero.” Mnemosyne 71 (2018): 384–393.
- Gray, Vivienne. “Xenophon’s Hiero and the Meeting of the Wise Man and Tyrant in Greek Literature.” Classical Quarterly 36 (1986): 115–123.
- Parks, Mitchell H. “If You’ll Be My Bodyguard: Simonides the Mercenary in Xenophon’s Hiero.” Classical Journal 113 (2018): 385–410.
- Sevieri, Roberta, “The Imperfect Hero: Xenophon’s Hiero and the (Self‑)Taming of the Tyrant.” In Xenophon and His World. Edited by Christopher J. Tuplin, 277–287. Stuttgart: Steiner, 2004.
- Humble, Noreen. “L’innovation générique dans la Constitution des Lacédémoniens.” In Xénophon et la rhétorique. Edited by Pierre Pontier, 213–234. Paris: Presses de l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 2014.
- Humble, Noreen. Xenophon of Athens: A Socratic on Sparta. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2021.
- Blaineau, Alexandre. “Comment dire la technique? Procédés d’écriture et variations énonciatives dans l’Hipparque et l’Art équestre de Xénophon.” In Xénophon et la rhétorique. Edited by Pierre Pontier, 235–252. Paris: Presses de l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 2014.
- Gray, Vivienne. “Xenophon’s Cynegeticus.” Hermes 113 (1985): 156–171.
- Kidd, Stephen. “Xenophon’s Cynegeticus and Its Defense of Liberal Education.” Philologus 58 (2014): 76–96.
- L’Allier, Louis. “Why Did Xenophon Write the Last Chapter of Cynegeticus?” In Xenophon: Ethical Principles and Historical Enquiry. Edited by Fiona Hobden and Christopher J. Tuplin, 477–498. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2012.
- Thomas, David H. “The Enemies of Hunting in Xenophon’s Cynegeticus.” In Plato and Xenophon: Comparative Studies. Edited by Gabriel Danzig, David Johnson, and Donald Morrison, 612–639. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2018.
- Jansen, Joseph. “Strangers Incorporated: Outsiders in Xenophon’s Poroi.” In Xenophon: Ethical Principles and Historical Enquiry. Edited by Fiona Hobden and Christopher J. Tuplin, 725–760. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2012.
- Powell, Janet. “‘An Obol a Day Net’: Problematising Numbers in Xenophon’s Poroi.” Historia 70 (2021): 2–28.
- Schorn, Stefan. “The Philosophical Background of Xenophon’s Poroi.” In Xenophon: Ethical Principles and Historical Enquiry. Edited by Fiona Hobden and Christopher J. Tuplin, 689–723. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2012.
