Xenŏphon
(
Ξενοφῶν). (1) An Athenian, the son of one Gryllus, born
about B.C. 444. In his early life he was a pupil of Socrates; but the turningpoint in his
career came when he decided to serve in the Greek contingent raised by Cyrus against
Artaxerxes in 401. Xenophon himself mentions (
Anab. iii. 1) the circumstances under which he joined this army.
Proxenus, a friend of Xenophon, was already with Cyrus, and he invited Xenophon to come to
Sardis, and promised to introduce him to the Persian prince. Xenophon
consulted his master, Socrates, who advised him to consult the oracle of Delphi, as it was a
hazardous matter for him to enter the service of Cyrus, who was considered to be the friend of
the Lacedaemonians and the enemy of Athens. Xenophon went to Delphi, but he did not ask the
god whether he should go or not: he probably had made up his mind. He merely inquired to what
gods he should sacrifice in order that he might be successful in his intended enterprise.
Socrates was not satisfied with his pupil's mode of consulting the oracle, but as he had got
an answer, he told him to go; and Xenophon went to Sardis, which Cyrus was just about to
leave. He accompanied Cyrus into Upper Asia. In the battle of Cunaxa (B.C. 401) Cyrus lost his
life, his barbarian troops were dispersed, and the Greeks were left alone on the wide plains
between the Tigris and the Euphrates. (See
Cyrus.) It
was after the treacherous massacre of Clearchus and others of the Greek commanders by the
Persian satrap
Tissaphernes (q.v.) that
Xenophon came forward. He had held no command in the army of Cyrus, nor had he, in fact,
served as a soldier, yet he was elected one of the generals, and took the principal part in
conducting the Greeks in their memorable retreat along the Tigris over the high table-lands of
Armenia to Trapezus (Trebizond) on the Black Sea. From Trapezus the troops were conducted to
Chrysopolis, which is opposite to Byzantium. The Greeks were in great distress, and some of
them under Xenophon entered the service of Seuthes, king of Thrace. As the Lacedaemonians
under Thimbron, or Thibron, were now at war with Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus, Xenophon and
his troops were invited to join the army of Thimbron, and Xenophon led them back out of Asia
to join Thimbron (399). Xenophon, who was very poor, made an expedition into the plain of the
Caïcus with his troops before they joined Thimbron, to plunder the house and property
of a Persian named Asidates. The Persian, with his women, children, and all his movables, was
seized, and Xenophon, by this robbery, replenished his empty pockets (
Anab. vii. 8 Anab., 23). He tells the
story himself, and is evidently not at all ashamed of it. In other ways also he showed himself
the prototype of an adventurous leader of
condottieri, with no ties of
country or preference of nationality. He formed a scheme for establishing a town with the Ten
Thousand on the shores of the Euxine; but it fell through. He joined the Spartans, as has been
seen, and he continued in their service even when they were at war with Athens.
Agesilaüs, the Spartan, was commanding the Lacedaemonian forces in Asia against the
Persians in 396, and Xenophon was with him at least during part of the campaign. When
Agesilaüs was recalled (394), Xenophon accompanied him, and he was on the side of the
Lacedaemonians in the battle which they fought at Coronea (394) against the Athenians. As a
natural consequence a decree of exile was passed against him at Athens. It seems that he went
to Sparta with Agesilaüs after the battle of Coronea, and soon after he settled at
Scillus in Elis, not far from Olympia, a spot of which he has given a description in the
Anabasis (v. 3, 7). Here he was joined by his wife, Philesia, and his
children. His children were educated in Sparta.
Xenophon was now a Lacedaemonian so far as he could become one. His time during his
long residence at Scillus was employed in hunting, writing, and entertaining his friends; and
perhaps the
Anabasis and part of the
Hellenica were composed
here. The treatise on hunting and that on the horse were probably also written during this
time, when amusement and exercise of this kind formed part of his occupation. On the downfall
of the Spartan supremacy, at Leuctra in 371, Xenophon was at last expelled from his quiet
retreat at Scillus by the Eleans, after remaining there about twenty years. The sentence of
banishment from Athens was repealed on the motion of Eubulus, but it is uncertain in what
year. There is no evidence that Xenophon ever returned to Athens. He is said to have retired
to Corinth after his expulsion from Scillus, and as we know nothing more, we assume that he
died there. In the battle of Mantinea (B.C. 362) the Spartans and the Athenians were opposed
to the Thebans, and Xenophon's two sons, Gryllus and Diodorus, fought on the side of the
allies. Gryllus fell in the same battle in which Epaminondas lost his life. The events alluded
to in the epilogue to the
Cyropaedia (viii. 8, 4) show that the epilogue at
least was written after 362. The time of his death, for reasons given above, seems to have
been later than 357.
Xenophon's works
1. The
Anabasis
(Ἀνάβασις)
a history of the expedition of the Younger Cyrus, and of the retreat of the Greeks who
formed part of his army. It is divided into seven books. As regards the title it will be
noticed that under the name “The March
Up” (
ἀνά, i. e. inland from the coast of Cunaxa) is included also the
much longer account of the return march
down to the Euxine. This work
has immortalized Xenophon's name. It is a clear and fascinating narrative, written in a
simple style, free from affectation, and giving a great deal of curious information on the
country which was traversed by the retreating Greeks, and on the manners of the people. It
was the first work which made the Greeks acquainted with some portions of the Persian
Empire, and it showed the weakness of that extensive monarchy. The skirmishes of the
retreating Greeks with their enemies, and the battles with some of the barbarian tribes, are
not such events as elevate the work to the character of a military history, nor can it as
such be compared with Caesar's
Commentarii. There is no weight whatever in
the argument that, because Xenophon (
Hellen. iii. 1, 2) speaks of the
expedition of Cyrus as having been related by Themistogenes, the
Anabasis is
therefore not Xenophon's work. The statement can be explained either on the theory that
Xenophon speaks of his own work under a fictitious name (which was possibly the case also
with the
Oeconomicus), or, more simply, by supposing that another account was
actually written by Themistogenes. It is known that a separate account was written by
Sophaenetus, and there may have been others. If the latter theory be correct, it would be a
natural inference that Xenophon's
Anabasis was written after the third book
of the
Hellenica.
2. The
Hellenica
(Ἑλληνικά)
The Hellenica of Xenophon is divided into seven books, and covers the forty-eight years
from the time when the History of Thucydides ends (see
Thucydides) to the battle of Mantinea (B.C. 362). The
Hellenica is generally a dry narrative of events, and there is nothing in the treatment of them which gives a special interest to the work. Some
events of importance are briefly treated, but a few striking incidents are presented with
some particularity. The
Hellenica was not written at one time. Differences
are traced between the first two and the later books as regards the arrangement, which in
the earlier books is year by year, while, in the later, events growing out of one another
are grouped together; and, as regards political sentiment, in the diminished admiration for
Sparta which appears in the last three books. It is clear that book vi. was written after
357, since it mentions the death of Alexander of Pherae (vi. 4, 35); but the first four
books were probably written a good deal earlier.
The Cyropaedia, in eight books, is a kind of political romance, the basis of which is the
history of the Elder Cyrus, the founder of the Persian monarchy. It shows how citizens are
to be made virtuous and brave; and Cyrus is the model of a wise and good ruler. As a history
it has no authority at all. Xenophon adopted the current stories as to Cyrus and the chief
events of his reign, without any intention of subjecting them to a critical examination; nor
have we any reason to suppose that his picture of Persian morals and Persian discipline is
anything more than a fiction. Xenophon's object was to represent what a State might be, and
he placed the scene of his fiction far enough off to give it the colour of possibility. His
own philosophical notions and the usages of Sparta were the real materials out of which he
constructed his political system. The
Cyropaedia is evidence enough that
Xenophon did not like the political constitution of his own country, and that a wellordered
monarchy or kingdom appeared to him preferable to a democracy like Athens.
4. The
Agesilaüs
(Ἀγησίλαος)
This is a panegyric on Agesilaüs II., king of Sparta, the friend of Xenophon. The
genuineness is disputed, not without reason, and a recent critic holds it to be the work of
a young rhetorician of the school of Isocrates.
5. The
Hipparchicus
(Ἱππαρχικός)
is a treatise on the duties of a commander of cavalry, and it contains many military
precepts.
6. The
De Re Equestri
A treatise on the horse (
Ἱππική), was written after the
Hipparchicus, to which treatise he refers at the end of the treatise on the
horse. This essay is not limited to horsemanship as regards the rider: it shows how a man is
to avoid being cheated in buying a horse, how a horse is to be trained, and the like.
is a treatise on hunting; and on the dog, and the breeding and training of dogs; on the
various kinds of game, and the mode of taking them. It is a treatise written by a genuine
sportsman who loved the exercise and excitement of the chase, and it may be read with
pleasure by a sportsman of the present day.
8, 9. The
Respublica Lacedaemoniorum
and Respublica
Atheniensium
The two treatises on the Spartan and Athenian States (
Λακεδαιμονίων Πολιτεία and
Ἀθηναίων
Πολιτεία), were both ascribed to Xenophon, but the
Respublica
Atheniensium is certainly not by his hand. It was written by some one of the
oligarchical party, and possibly it is right to date it as early as 420, and therefore to
regard it as the earliest Attic prose work. On the other hand, a modern critic of Xenophon
(Hartmann) believes it to be by a later writer compiling from Xenophon, Aristophanes, and
other sources of information. The same critic denies the genuineness of the
Resp. Laced., which is more generally accepted.
A treatise on the Revenues of Athens (
Πόροι ἢ περὶ
Προσόδων), is designed to show how the public revenue of Athens may be
improved.
The Memorabilia, in four books (
Ἀπομνημονεύματα
Σωκράτους), was written by Xenophon to defend the memory of his master against
the charge of irreligion and of corrupting the Athenian youth. Socrates is represented as
holding a series of conversations, in which he develops and inculcates his moral doctrines.
It is entirely a practical work, such as we might expect from the practical nature of
Xenophon's mind, and it professes to exhibit Socrates as he taught. It is true that it may
exhibit only one side of the Socratic argumentation, and that it does not deal in subtleties
of philosophy. Xenophon was a hearer of Socrates, an admirer of his master, and anxious to
defend his memory. The charges against Socrates for which he suffered were, that
“Socrates was guilty of not believing in the gods which the State believed in, and
introducing other new daemons (
δαιμόνια): he was also
guilty of corrupting the youth.” Xenophon replies to these two charges
specifically, and he then goes on to show what Socrates' mode of life was. The whole
treatise is intended to be an answer to the charge for which Socrates was executed, and it
is therefore, in its nature, not intended to be a complete exhibition of Socrates. That it
is a genuine picture of the man is indisputable, and its value therefore is very great.
is a short speech, containing the reasons which induced Socrates to prefer death to life.
It is not one of the author's best works, and was possibly a rhetorical exercise much later
than Xenophon.
13. The
Symposium
(Συμπόσιον)
The Symposium, or Banquet of Philosophers, in which Xenophon delineates the character of
Socrates. The speakers are supposed to meet at the house of Callias, a rich Athenian, at the
celebration of the Great Panathenaea. Socrates and others are the speakers. The piece is
interesting as a picture of an Athenian drinking-party, and of the amusement and
conversation with which it was diversified. The nature of love and friendship is discussed.
It is probable that Plato wrote his
Symposium later, to some extent as a
corrective.
is a dialogue between King Hiero and Simonides, in which the king speaks of the dangers
and difficulties incident to an exalted station, and the superior happiness of a private
man. The poet, on the other hand, enumerates the advantages which the possession of power
gives, and the means which it offers of obliging and doing services.
is an excellent treatise in the form of a dialogue between Socrates and Critobulus, in
which Socrates gives instruction in the art called economic, which relates to the
administration of a household and of a man's property.
Assessment
In language as well as in politics, Xenophon was a cosmopolitan. His long residence in
other lands resulted in his losing or abandoning pure Attic: he admits words from all
dialects; hence he cannot be adduced as an authority for strict Attic usage, and it has been
well shown by abundant instances that his diction is in many respects an anticipation of the
common dialect of the Macedonian period.
Manuscripts.
Of each of Xenophon's treatises there are from thirty to forty manuscripts. Of the
Anabasis, the best is a Codex Parisinus
(No. 1640), and dating
from the fourteenth century. Of the
Cyropaedia, the most esteemed is also in
Paris
(No. 1635), of the fifteenth century, though a copy at
Wolfenbüttel (Codex Guelferbytanus) of about the twelfth century is also valuable.
Of the twenty-one manuscripts of the
Hellenica, the best are two Codices
Parisini
(Nos. 1642 and 1738) of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
Bibliography
Editions of the whole of Xenophon are those of Dindorf, 5 vols.
(1875),
Henning
(1863), and Sauppe
(1867). The
editio
princeps was by Boninus, printed by P. Giunta at Florence in 1516. Good separate
editions, with notes, are the following: of the
Anabasis by Macmichael
(1883), Cobet
(1873), bks. i.-iv. by Goodwin and White
(1886), Stone
(1890); of the
Cyropaedia by Holden
(1887); of the
Hellenica by Breitenbach
(1873);
Keller
(1890); bks. i.-iv. by Manath
(1888), bks. i.-ii. by Dowdall
(1890); of the
Memorabilia by Winans
(1878), and
Marshall
(1891); of the
Hiero by Holden
(1885); of
the
Oeconomicus by Holden
(1888); of the
De Re
Equestri by Morgan
(1893); of the
Agesilaüs by
Güthling
(1887); of the
Symposium by Hug
(1880). There is a good English translation of Xenophon by Dakyns, 2 vols.
(New York, 1890-93). There is a good lexicon to Xenophon by Sturz
(1801), and
Sauppe's Lexilogus Xenophonteus (1865)
is also recommended. There is a special
Wörterbuch zur Xenophon's
Anabasis by Vollbrecht
(1876). See also
Taylor's Syntax to
the Anabasis (1880); and on Xenophon the studies by Roquette
(1884) and Croiset
(1873).