Xenophon

Xenophon a Greek historian, soldier and pupil of Socrates (c. 430–354 BC), whose many writings on history, biography, political theory and practical affairs made him one of the most widely read authors of antiquity. He is best known for the Anabasis, his eyewitness account of the march of the Ten Thousand, and for his portraits of Socrates and of the ideal leader.

Life and Military Career

Xenophon was born into a wealthy Athenian family around 430 BC and received the education of a gentleman, including cavalry service and the study of philosophy. He became a follower of Socrates, whose conversation and character he later recorded in the Memorabilia and the Apology. Unlike Plato, he presented Socrates as a practical moral teacher rather than a metaphysician.

In 401 BC he joined the expedition of Cyrus the Younger, a Persian prince who sought to seize the throne from his brother Artaxerxes II. Xenophon was not a commander but a volunteer, and he was present when the Greek mercenaries won the battle of Cunaxa only for Cyrus to be killed. The Greek generals were then treacherously murdered at a parley, leaving the army stranded deep in hostile territory.

Xenophon was elected one of the new generals and played a leading part in the retreat of the Ten Thousand to the sea, a march of some fifteen hundred kilometres through hostile country. His account of the expedition, the Anabasis, describes the hardship, the discipline and the occasional panic of the march with a soldier's eye for detail. The cry of the advance guard, the sea, the sea, as the survivors reached the Black Sea became one of the most famous moments in Greek literature.

History and the Anabasis

The Anabasis is one of the earliest and most vivid works of military memoir in the Western tradition. Written in the third person, it combines a plain narrative of events with reflections on leadership, morale and the management of a democratic army. Xenophon presents himself modestly as one among many, but the work as a whole is a study of how authority is won and exercised in a crisis.

Xenophon also wrote the Hellenica, a continuation of Thucydides's history of the Peloponnesian War that carries the story down to 362 BC. The work is an important source for the turbulent politics of the Greek city-states in the fourth century, although its judgments are coloured by his admiration for Sparta and for strong leaders. It lacks the analytical depth of Thucydides but supplies a detailed record of events.

His biographical and didactic works include the Agesilaus, a praise of the Spartan king he served and admired, and the Cyropaedia, a partly fictionalised account of the education and rule of Cyrus the Great. The Cyropaedia is a treatise on leadership in the form of a romance and was read as a manual of statecraft by later generations, including Renaissance humanists and the founders of modern political thought.

Socratic Writings and Ethics

Xenophon's Socratic works present the philosopher as a model of practical wisdom and self-control. The Memorabilia records conversations in which Socrates advises friends on everything from household management to military duty, always emphasising self-discipline, usefulness and the service of the community. This portrait differs from Plato's in its emphasis on the ordinary and the practical rather than on abstract argument.

He shared with Socrates a conviction that virtue can be taught and that it consists in knowledge of how to live well. His ethical writings stress the value of moderation, endurance and the control of the appetites, and they present the good life as one of active usefulness rather than contemplation. These themes made him congenial to the Roman moralists and to later educators.

The dispute over whether Xenophon or Plato gives the more faithful picture of Socrates is ancient and probably insoluble. Most scholars believe Plato's dialogues are richer philosophically while Xenophon's reminiscences may preserve genuine details of the historical Socrates. The two portraits together shaped the popular image of the philosopher as a man of practical virtue.

Practical and Technical Works

Xenophon wrote on horsemanship, on hunting and on the duties of a cavalry commander, works that combine technical instruction with moral reflection. The treatise On Horsemanship describes the selection, care and training of horses with the precision of an experienced rider, while the Hipparchicus advises a cavalry commander on the organisation of his unit and on winning the goodwill of his men.

His Oeconomicus is a dialogue on household and estate management in which Socrates discusses with a gentleman farmer the orderly running of a property. The work treats management as an art that can be learned and applies to the running of a city as well as a household. It influenced the later tradition of writing on agriculture, economy and administration.

He also wrote the Poroi, or Ways and Means, a proposal for improving the finances of Athens by exploiting the silver mines and by encouraging trade and the residence of foreign merchants. The tract shows a practical interest in economic policy unusual for a Greek author and reveals his continuing attachment to the city that had exiled him.

Exile and Reputation

Xenophon's association with Sparta cost him his Athenian citizenship, and he was formally exiled, probably because of his service under Cyrus and his friendship with the Spartan king Agesilaus. He settled on an estate at Scillus in the Peloponnese, where he wrote and hunted, and later moved to Corinth. The decree of exile was eventually rescinded, though the details are uncertain.

As a writer he was admired for his clear and unaffected style, and his works were studied in schools for their language as well as their content. His practical wisdom and his gift for narrative made him a favourite of military men and statesmen, and the Anabasis was used as a textbook of leadership and of Greek prose for centuries.

Modern historians are more critical of his biases, especially his partiality for Sparta and his tendency to moralise. Yet his value as a source is secure: he is the principal witness to the march of the Ten Thousand and an important source for the history of Greece in the fourth century. He is remembered as the soldier-historian who made the Greek world intelligible to later ages.

See also

• Socrates
• Anabasis
• Thucydides
• Sparta