Xenophon
Greek historian,
essayist, and soldier, the author of Anabasis Kyrou (The Persian
Expedition), a tale of Greek mercenaries who fought their way back from
the gates of Babylon to the Euxine (Black Sea). Among Xenophon's other
works are Hellenica, a continuation of Thucydides' history of the Greeks
from 411 to 362 B.C., the Memorabilia of Socrates, and the Cyropedia
(Education of Cyrus), a historical novel about Cyrus the Elder, the
founder of the Persian empire.
Xenophon records the
first known description of the advantages of the
division of labor when
he describes an ancient Greek Shoe Factory.
With a number of extant writings, Xenophon
is noted for his accounts of life in Greece, both in ancient times and
during the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. Formally a young student of
Socrates, he would later record a number of Socratic dialogues as well
as personal accounts of Socrates, whom he admired greatly. As a young
adult, Xenophon informally served in the army under the Persian prince
Cyrus the Younger, helping to lead his contingent over land back to the
Black Sea after Cyrus' death in battle. His account of this journey,
recorded in his Anabasis, is read in academia today, though more for its
language than its testimony. Later joining the Spartan army, Xenophon,
not at all a nationalist, was exiled from Athens after fighting against
them in their war with Sparta. Eventually settling in Scillus in
southern Greece, Xenophon began a long trajectory of writing--historical
tracts, generalized works of instruction (specifically on training and
rearing animals), essays on the military, politics and economics, as
well as the aforementioned Socratic works. These latter works were both
a recording of some of Socrates' dialogues, as well as a general history
of Socrates' methods of teaching. Though Xenophon's Socratic tracts are
largely disregarded, Xenophon's Memorabilia is often referenced as an
account of Socrates' religious views.
Life of
Xenophon
An Athenian, the son of
Gryllus, Xenophon was born about 444 BCE. In his early life he was a
pupil of Socrates; but the turning point in his career came when he
decided to serve in the Greek contingent raised by Cyrus against
Artaxerxes in 401. Xenophon himself mentions the circumstances under
which he joined this army (Anab. 3:1). 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. He
accompanied Cyrus into Upper Asia. In the battle of Cunaxa (401 BCE.)
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.
It was after the treacherous massacre of Clearchus and others of the
Greek commanders by the Persian satrap Tissaphernes 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 Thimbrou
(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 Caicus with his troops
before they joined Thimbrou, 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. 7:8, 23). He tells the story himself, and is
evidently not ashamed of it.
In other ways he also
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. Agesilaus, 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 Agesilaus 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 Agesilaus 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.
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. 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 Elans, 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 some time around 357.
Writings of
Xenophon
The following is a list
of Xenophon's works.
-
The Anabasis,
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" (ana, 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. 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 to elevate the work to the character of a military
history.
-
The Hellenica
is divided into seven books, and covers the forty-eight years from
the time when the History of Thucydides ends to the battle of
Mantinea.
-
The Cyropadia,
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.
-
The Agesilaus
is a panegyric on Agesilaus II, king of Sparta, the friend of
Xenophon.
-
The
Hipparchicus is a treatise on the duties of a commander of
cavalry, containing military precepts.
-
De Re
Equestri is a treatise on the horse; it is not limited to
horsemanship, but also shows how to avoid being cheated in buying a
horse, and how to train a horse.
-
The
Cynegeticus is a treatise on hunting, and on the breeding
and training of hunting dogs.
-
The
Respublica Lacedaemoniorum is a treatise on the Spartan
states, and (9) the Atheniensium on the Athenian States.
-
The De
Vectigalibus, a treatise on the revenues of Athens, is
designed to show how the public revenue of Athens may be improved.
-
The
Memorabilia of Socrates, in four books, 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, and it professes to show Socrates as he taught.
-
The Apology
of Socrates is a short speech, containing the reasons which
induced Socrates to prefer death to life.
-
The Symposium,
or Banquet of Philosophers, 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. It is possible that Plato wrote his
Symposium later, to some extent as a corrective.
-
The Hiero
is a dialogue between King Hiero and Simonides, in which the king
speaks of the dangers and difficulties inherent in 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.
-
The
Oeconomicus ("The Complete Householder") is a treatise in
the form of a dialogue between Socrates and Critobulus, in which
Socrates gives instruction in the administration of a household and
property.
Xenophon's Account
of Socrates
Four of Xenophon's
works listed above purport to record actual conversations of
Socrates, whom he had known as a young man.
In the Anabasis, Xenophon consulted Socrates on his decision to
join Cyrus. Socrates 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 so 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. He tells us frankly that Socrates
rebuked him for this evasion, and that is all we know of their
discussion. If there had been more to tell, Xenophon would have told it,
for he was not averse to talking about himself. At this time Xenophon
was under thirty, and Socrates had passed away before his return from
Asia. Several of the Socratic conversations he records are on subjects
we know Xenophon was specially interested in, and the views he offers in
them are just those he elsewhere expresses in his own name or through
the mouth of Cyrus in the Cyropadia. Accordingly, no one appeals
to such works as Oeconomicus for evidence regarding the
historical Socrates. His Apology and Symposium are
similarly disregarded as sources of information on Socrates.
Since the eighteenth
century, however, it has been customary to make an exception in favor of
a single work, the Memorabilia, composed by the exiled Xenophon
with the professed intention of showing that Socrates was not
irreligious, and that, so far from corrupting the young, he did them a
great deal of good by his conversations. It makes sense that the
eighteenth-century should have preferred the Socrates of the
Memorabilia to that of the Platonic dialogues, for he comes nearer
to their idea of what a philosopher ought to be. In other respects it is
hard to see what there is to recommend Xenophon. It is recognized that
he is far from being a trustworthy historian, and the Cyropaedia
shows his turn for philosophical romance. It is methodologically unsound
to isolate the Memorabilia from Xenophon's other Socratic
writings, unless there are strong reasons to do so. Thus, since it is
impossible to get anything like a complete picture of Socrates from the
Memorabilia alone, Xenophon supporters fill their outline with
Plato's account.
Nevertheless, one of
the Memorabilia's chief arguments for the soundness of Socrates'
religious attitude is that he refused to busy himself with natural
science and dissuaded others from studying it. What Plato tells us of
the disappointment of Socrates with Anaxagoras, and his renunciation of
physical speculations at an early age is enough to explain Xenophon's
contention. Xenophon continues, though, maintaining that Socrates was
not unversed in mathematical and astronomical subjects. Further, he knew
that what Aristophanes burlesqued in the Clouds was true, since
Xenophon makes Socrates tell the Sophist Antophon, who was trying to rob
him of his disciples, that he does in fact study the writings of the
older philosophers "unrolling the treasures... which they have written
down in books and left behind them" (Mem 1:6:14). Admissions like
these are more important than the words put into Socrates' mouth denying
scientific study. It would be possible to find other admissions of this
sort in Xenophon, but it is not clear how far the Memorabilia can
be regarded as independent testimony at all. In fact, it is likely that
Xenophon relied on Plato's dialogues for his information about Socrates.
Otherwise, it would be significant that he has heard of the importance
of "hypothesis" in Socrates' dialectic system.
References
Classics of Organization Theory, Shafritz,
J.M. and Ott J.S.
http://www.iep.utm.edu/x/xenophon.htm
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/xenophon.htm |
