Xenophon
- Writer
Greek historian and man of letters, he was the son of a well-born
Athenian named Gryllus. Xenophon approached manhood during the last
turbulent years of the Peloponnesian War (431-404), in which he himself
took part as a cavalryman; and perhaps he was also present at the sea
battle of Arginusae (406). He got to know
Socrates and became his keen admirer,
though probably not his pupil, since he possessed no aptitude for
philosophy himself. Xenophon was a man of right-wing political tastes,
with a simple belief in the virtues of strong leadership; he probably
found life uncomfortable when the short-lived oligarchic revolution
came to an end and democracy was restored in Athens (403). In any case,
he moved away from the city. In 401 his Boeotian friend Proxenus
invited him to join the expedition (anabasis, march up country) of
Cyrus the Younger who was in rebellion against his brother King
Artaxerxes II of Persia. After Cyrus had been defeated and killed at
Cunaxa (401), Xenophon was elected a general and played a major part in
the evacuation of the Greek expeditionary force to Trapezus (Trabzon,
northeastern Turkey). Then, after a brief period of service with the
Thracian king Seuthes, he offered himself and his troops to Thibron--a
general from Sparta, which was at war with Persia--and engaged as his
ally, in operations that continued under Thibron's successor Dercylidas
(399-397). In Xenophon's absence, however, at the time when Socrates
had just been executed and his associates were discredited, the
Athenians formally pronounced a sentence of exile upon him, involving
the confiscation of his property. In 396-394 he fought against the
Persian satrap Pharnabazus in the service of Agesilaus, king of Sparta
(398-361), to whom he formed a strong attachment; and when Agesilaus
was called home in 395 at the outset of the Corinthian War (in which
Sparta was pitted against Thebes), Xenophon took part in the battle of
Coronea (394), thus fighting against his own Athenian compatriots, who
were in alliance with Thebes. Subsequently, he settled with his family
at Sparta. He was presented by the Spartans with an estate at Scillus
in Elis (northwestern Peloponnese) where he spent the next two decades
living the life of a literary country gentleman, dividing his time
between hunting and writing. The Spartans appointed him as their envoy
(proxenos) to look after such of their citizens as visited Olympia
nearby. When, after its defeat by the Thebans at the battle of Leuctra
(371), Sparta lost possession of Scillus, Xenophon and his family moved
to a new residence on the isthmus of Corinth. However, relations
between Athens and Sparta having now improved, the Athenians repealed
his condemnation to exile (c. 365), and it seems likely that he
returned to Athens and lived there. In 362 his sons Gryllus and
Diodorus (by his wife Philesia) were members of an Athenian contingent
fighting with the Spartans against the Thebans at Mantinea, and Gryllus
was killed. Xenophon was probably on a visit to Corinth when he died.