had crossed over into Asia to wage war against the Persiansatraps Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus. Xenophon, whoaccompanied them, captured a wealthy Persian nobleman, withhis family, near Pergamum, and the ransom paid for his recovery,secured Xenophon a competency for life.
On his return to Greece Xenophon served under Agesilaus,king of Sparta, at that time the chief power in the Greek world.With his native Athens and its general policy and institutionshe was not in sympathy. At Coroneia (304) he fought with theSpartans against the Athenians and Thebans, for which hisfellow-citizens decreed his banishment. The Spartans provideda home for him at Scillus in Elis, about two miles from Olympia;there he settled down to indulge his tastes for sport and literature.After Sparta's crushing defeat at Leuctra (371), Xenophon wasdriven from his home by the people of Elis.Meantime Spartaand Athens had become allies, and the Athenians repealed thedecree which had condemned him to exile.There is, however,no evidence that he ever returned to his native city. Accordingto Diogenes Laërtius, he made his home at Corinth. The yearof his death is not known; all that can be said is that it waslater than 355, the date of his work on the Revenues of Athens.
The Anabasis (composed at Scillus between 379 and 371) is a workof singular interest, and is brightly and pleasantly written.Xenophon, like Caesar, tells the story in the third person, and there is astraightforward manliness about the style, with a distinct flavour ofa cheerful lightheartedness, which at once enlists our sympathies.His description of places and of relative distances is very minuteand painstaking. The researches of modern travellers attest hisgeneral accuracy. It is expressly stated by Plutarch and DiogenesLaërtius that the Anabasis was the work of Xenophon, and theevidence from style is conclusive. The allusion (Hellenica, iii. 1, 2)to Themistogenes of Syracuse as the author shows that Xenophonpublished it under an assumed name.
The Cyropaedia, a political and philosophical romance, whichdescribes the boyhood and training of Cyrus, hardly answers to itsname, being for the most part an account of the beginnings of thePersian empire and of the victorious career of Cyrus its founder.The Cyropaedia contains in fact the author's own ideas of trainingand education, as derived conjointly from the teachings of Socratesand his favourite Spartan institutions. It was said to have beenwritten in opposition to the Republic of Plato. A distinct moralpurpose, to which literal truth is sacrificed, runs through the work.For instance, Cyrus is represented as dying peacefully in his bed,whereas, according to Herodotus, he fell in a campaign against theMassagetae.
The Hellenica written at Corinth, after 362, is the only contemporaryaccount of the period covered by it (411-362) thathas comedown to us. It consists of two distinct parts; books i. and ii.,which are intended to form a continuation of the work of Thucydides,and bring the history down to the fall of the Thirty, and booksiii.-vii., the Hellenica proper, which deal with the period from 401to 362, and give the history of the Spartan and Theban hegemonies,down to the death of Epaminondas. There is, however, no groundfor the view that these two parts were written and published asseparate works. There is probably no justification for the charge ofdeliberate falsification. It must be admitted, however, that he hadstrong political prejudices, and that these prejudices have influencedhis narrative. He was a partisan of the reactionary movementwhich triumphed after the fall of Athens; Sparta is his ideal, andAgesilaus his hero. At the same time, he was a believer in a divineoverruling providence. He is compelled, therefore, to see in thefall of Sparta the punishment inflicted by heaven on the treacherouspolicy which had prompted the seizure of the Cadmea and the raidof Sphodrias. Hardly less serious defects than his political biasare his omissions, his want of the sense of proportion and his failureto grasp the meaning of historical criticism. The most that can besaid in his favour is that as a witness he is at once honest and wellinformed. For this period of Greek history he is, at any rate, anindispensable witness.
The Memorabilia, or “Recollections of Socrates,” in four books,was written to defend Socrates against the charges of impiety andcorrupting the youth, repeated after his death by the sophistPolycrates. The work is not a literary masterpiece; it lackscoherence and unity, and the picture it gives of Socrates fails to dohim justice. Still, as far as it goes, it no doubt faithfully describesthe philosopher's manner of life and style of conversation. It wasthe moral and practical side of Socrates's teaching which mostinterested Xenophon; into his abstruse metaphysical speculationshe seems to have made no attempt to enter: for these indeed he hadneither taste nor genius. Moving within a limited range of ideas, hedoubtless gives us “considerably less than the real Socrates, whilePlato gives us something more.” It is probable that the work inits present form is an abridgment.
Xenophon has left several minor works, some of which are veryinteresting and give an insight into the home life of the Greeks.
The Oeconomics (to some extent a continuation of the Memorabilia,and sometimes regarded as the fifth book of the same) deals with themanagement of the house and of the farm, and presents a pleasantand amusing picture of the Greek wife and of her home duties.There are some good practical remarks on matrimony and on therespective duties of husband and wife. The treatise, which is in theform of a dialogue between Socrates and a certain Ischomachus,was translated into Latin by Cicero.
In the essays on horsemanship (Hippikē) and hunting (Cynegeticus),Xenophon deals with matters of which he had a thorough practicalknowledge. In the first he gives rules how to choose a horse, andthen tells how it is to be groomed and ridden and generally managed.The Cynegeticus deals chiefly with the hare, though the authorspeaks also of boar-hunting and describes the hounds, tells how theyare to be bred and trained, and gives specimens of suitable namesfor them. On all this he writes with the zest of an enthusiasticsportsman, and he observes that those nations whose upper classeshave a taste for field-sports will be most likely to be successful inwar. Both treatises may still be read with interest by the modernreader.
The Hipparchicus explains the duties of a cavalry officer; it isnot, according to our ideas, a very scientific treatise, showing thatthe art of war was but very imperfectly developed and that themilitary operations of the Greeks were on a somewhat petty scale.He dwells at some length on the moral qualities which go to themaking of a good cavalry officer, and hints very plainly that theremust be strict attention to religious duties.
The Agesilaus is a eulogy of the Spartan king, who had two specialmerits in Xenophon's eyes: he was a rigid disciplinarian, and hewas particularly attentive to all religious observances.We havea summary of his virtues rather than a good and striking pictureof the man himself.
The Hiero works out the line of thought indicated in the storyof the Sword of Damocles. It is a protest against the notion thatthe “tyrant” is a man to be envied, as having more abundantmeans of happiness than a private person. This is one of the mostpleasing of his minor works; it is cast into the form of a dialoguebetween Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse, and the lyric poet Simonides.
The Symposium, or “Banquet,” to some extent the complementof the Memorabilia, is a brilliant little dialogue in which Socratesis the prominent figure. He is represented as “improving theoccasion,” which is that of a lively Athenian supper-party, at whichthere is much drinking, with flute-playing, and a dancing-girl fromSyracuse, who amuses the guests with the feats of a professionalconjuror. Socrates's table-talk runs through a variety of topics,and winds up with a philosophical disquisition on the superiorityof true heavenly love to its earthly or sensual counterfeit, and withan earnest exhortation to one of the party, who had just won avictory in the public games, to lead a noble life and do his duty tohis country.
There are also two short essays, attributed to him, on the politicalconstitution of Sparta and Athens, written with a decided bias infavour of the former, which he praises without attempting to criticize.Sparta seems to have presented to Xenophon the best conceivablemixture of monarchy and aristocracy. The second is certainly notby Xenophon, but was probably written by a member of the oligarchicalparty shortly after the beginning of the Peloponnesian War.
In the essay on the Revenues of Athens (written in 355) he offerssuggestions for making Athens less dependent on tribute receivedfrom its allies. Above all, he would have Athens use its influencefor the maintenance of peace in the Greek world and for the settlementof questions by diplomacy, the temple at Delphi being forthis purpose an independent centre and supplying a divine sanction.
The Apology, Socrates's defence before his judges, is rather afeeble production, and in the general opinion of modern critics isnot a genuine work of Xenophon, but belongs to a much later period.
Xenophon was a man of great personal beauty and considerableintellectual gifts; but he was of too practical a nature to take aninterest in abstruse philosophical speculation.His dislike of thedemocracy of Athens induced such lack of patriotism that he evenfought on the side of Sparta against his own country. In religiousmatters he was narrow minded, a believer in the efficacy of sacrificeand in the prophetic art. His plain and simple style, which attimes becomes wearisome, was greatly admired and procured himmany imitators.
The editions of Xenophon's works, both complete and of separateportions, are very numerous, especially of the Anabasis; only aselection can be given here. Editio princeps (1516, incomplete);J. G. Schneider (1790-1849); G. Sauppe (1865-66); L. Dindorf(1875); E. C. Marchant (1900-, in the Clarendon Press ScriptorumClassicorum Bibliotheca). Anabasis: R. Kühner (1852);J. F. Macmichael (1883); F. Vollbrecht (1887); A. Pretor (1888);C. W. Krüger and W. Pökel (1888); W. W. Goodwin and J. W. White(i.-iv., 1894). Cyropaedia: G. M. Gorham (1870); L. Breitenbach(1875); A. Goodwin (vi.-viii., 1880); F. Hertlein and W.Nitsche (1886); H. A. Holden (1887-90). Hellenica: L. Breitenbach(1874-84); R. Büchsenschütz (1880-91); J. I. Manatt
