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The Platypus Reads Part XIII



A Torrey tutor once asked me if I thought we should read Xenophon in Torrey. It's a hard question. Xenophon is what we might label a "minor genius." He was on the outskirts of the Socratic circle in Athens, and may have had connections to Thucydides as well. His works, numerous by ancient standards, fail to rise to the level of Plato and Thucydides but have still enjoyed a remarkable popularity down through the ages. So why read Xenophon? Since I'm working my way through his "Hellenica" right now, I thought I'd try and tackle that question.

1. He's our only fully extant source for the period beginning at the end of the Peloponnesian War and ending with the hegemony of Philip of Macedon. As such, he is also the lone chronicler of the Spartan Empire.

2. He's one of our few sources for the Achamaenid Persian Empire. The other two major sources are the Bible and Herodotus.

3. He shows us what an average Greek trying to live according to Socrates' teachings actually looked like.

4. He knows more and presents more of the inner-workings of Sparta than any other Ancient writer.

5. As a memoirist, he has an attractive and engaging style and he helped pioneer the genre.

6. If he's dumber than Socrates, he's still smarter than you.

Those are just my preliminary thoughts. If something further attracts my attention, I'll post it here.

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Linds said…
Wasn't Xenophon the first biographer? Or am I thinking of someone else?
11:52 PM
James said…
As far as I know, yes. First biographer, first writer of historical fiction, first memoirist and auto-biographer. Not bad, eh?
9:04 PM
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