A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Ξενοφῶν), the Athenian, was the

son of Gryllus, and a native of the demus Ercheia. The time of his birth is not known, but it is approximated to by the fact mentioned in the Life of Xenophon by Diogenes Laertius, and in Strabo (p. 403, ed. Cas.) that Xenophon fell from his horse in the flight after the battle of Delium, and was taken up by Socrates, the philosopher, on his shoulders and carried a distance of several stadia. The battle of Delium was fought B. C. 424 between the Athenians and Boeotians (Thuc. 4.96), and Xenophon therefore could not well have been born after B. C. 444. The time of his death also is not mentioned by any ancient writer. Lucian says (Macrob. 21) that he attained to above the age of ninety, and Xenophon himself in his Hellenica (6.4.35) mentions the assassination of Alexander of Pherae which happened in B. C. 357, according to Diodorus (16.14). Between B. C. 424 and B. C. 357, there is a period of sixty-seven years, and thus we have evidence of Xenophon being alive nearly seventy years after Socrates saved his life at Delium. There has been much discussion on the age of Xenophon at the time when he joined the expedition of the younger Cyrus, B. C. 401. Those who would make him a young man between twenty and thirty must reject the evidence as to the battle of Delium. Plutarch has a story that Socrates saved the life of Alcibiades at Potidaea, and that Alcibiades protected Socrates in the retreat after the defeat at Delium (Alcib. 7). The passage in the Anabasis (2.1.12) in which Xenophon is called νεανίσκος is not decisive, for in this passage of the Anabasis the best MSS. read " Theopompus" instead of " Xenophon ;" and, besides this, the term νεανίσκος is not used in such a way as to limit it to a young man. Xenophon seemed to Seuthes (Anab. 7.2.8) old enough to have a marriageable daughter. This question is discussed at some length by C. W. Krüger (De Xenophontis Vita Quaestiones, Halle, 1822). The most probable conclusion seems to be that Xenophon was not under forty at the time when he joined the army of Cyrus. The mode in which Xenophon introduces himself in the Anabasis (3.1) would almost lead to the conclusion that his name ought not to occur in the first two books. (Comp. Clinton, Fast. Hell. B. C. 401.)

Xenophon is said to have been a pupil of Socrates at an early age, which is consistent with the intimacy which might have arisen from Socrates saving his life. Philostratus states that he also received instruction from Prodicus of Ceos, during the time that he was a prisoner in Boeotia, but nothing is known of this captivity of Xenophon from any other authority. Photius (Biblioth. cclx.) says that Xenophon was also a pupil of Isocrates, which may be true, though Isocrates was younger than Xenophon, being born in B. C. 436. A story reported by Athenaeus (x. p. 427) of something that Xenophon said at the table of Dionysius the tyrant, may probably refer to the elder Dionysius who lived till B. C. 367; and if the statement is true, Xenophon must have visited Syracuse. Letronne (Biog. Univ. art. Xenophon), endeavours to show that Xenophon wrote the Symposium and the Hiero before B. C. 401; but his conclusion can hardly be said to be even a strong probability. Xenophon was the editor of the History of Thucydides, but no time can be fixed for this; nor can we assent to Letronne's conclusion that he published the work before B. C. 401. Xenophon may have been at Athens in B. C. 402, and Thucydides may have been dead then ; but these two facts prove nothing as to the time when the work of Thucydides was published. [THUCYDIDES.]

Xenophon in the Anabasis (3.1) mentions the circumstances under which he joined the army of Cyrus the younger, who was preparing his expedition against his brother, Artaxerxes Mnemon, the king of Persia. 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. Xenophon consulted his master Socrates, who advised him to consult the oracle of Delphi, for it was rather a hazardous matter for hint 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 asked to what gods he should sacrifice in order 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; and Xenophon went to Sardis, which Cyrus was just about to leave. The real object of the expedition was disguised from the Greeks in the army of Cyrus, or at least they affected not to know what it was. But Clearchus knew; and the rest might suspect. Cyrus gave out that he was going to attack the Pisidians, but the direction of his march must have very soon shown that he was going elsewhere. He led his forces through Asia Minor, and over the mountains of Taurus to Tarsus in Cilicia. From thence he passed into Syria, crossed the Euphrates, and met the huge army of the Persians in the plain of Cunaxa, about forty miles from Babylon. In the affray that ensued, for it was not a battle, 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 other 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. In the commencement of the third book of the Anabasis he states how he was called to take a part in conducting the hazardous retreat. Instead of attempting to return by the road by which they advanced, where they would have found no supplies, at least till they reached the Mediterranean, the Greek leaders conducted their men along the Tigris and over the high table lands of Armenia to Trapezus, now Trebizond, a Greek. colony on the south-east coast of 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 Senthes, king of Thrace, who wanted their aid, and promised to pay for it. The Greeks performed what they agreed to do, but Seuthes was unwilling to pay, and it was with great difficulty that Xenophon got from him part of what he had promised. The description which Xenophon gives (Anab. 6.3,&c) of the manners of the Thracians is very curious and amusing. As the Lacedaemonians under Thimbron were now at war with Tissaphernes and Pharnal azus, Xenophon and his troops were

invited to join the army of Thimbron, and Xenophon led them back out of Asia to join Thimbron B. C. 399. Xenophon, who was very poor, made an expedition into the plain of the Caicus with his troops before they joined Thimbron, to plunder the house and property of a Persian named Asidates. The Persian, with his women, children, and all his moveables was seized; and Xenophon, by this robbery, replenished his empty pockets (Anab. 7.8.23). He tells the story himself as if he were not ashamed of it.

Socrates was put to death in B. C. 399, and it seems probable that Xenophon was banished either shortly before or shortly after that event. His death during Xenophon's absence in Asia appears to be collected from the Memorabilia (4.8.4). Xenophon was not banished at the time when he was leading the troops back to Thimbron (Anab. 7.7.57), but his expression rather seems to imply that his banishment must have followed soon after. It is not certain what he was doing after the troops joined Thimbron. The assumption of Letronne. that he went to Athens is unsupported by evidence. As we know nothing of his movements, the conclusion ought to be that he stayed in Asia, and probably with Thimbron and his successor Dercyllidas.

Agesilaus, the Spartan king, was commanding the Lacedaemonian forces in Asia against the Persians in B. C. 396, and Xenophon was with him at least during part of the campaign. When Agesilaus was recalled B. C. 394, Xenophon accompanied him (Anab. 5.3.6), and he was on the side of the Lacedaemonians in the battle which they fought at Coroneia B. C. 394 against the Athenians (Plutarch, Agesil. 18). It seems that he went to Sparta with Agesilaus after the battle of Coroneia, and soon after he settled at Scillus in Eleia, not far from Olympia, a spot of which he has given a description in the Anabasis (5.3.7, &c). Here he was joined by his wife Philesia and his children. It has been said that Philesia was his second wife; but when he married her, or where, is unknown. His children were educated in Sparta, or at least Agesilaus advised him to educate them there. (Plut. Agesil. 20.) Xenophon was now an exile, and 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; and probably his historical writings, the Anabasis and the Hellenica, or part of the Hellenica, were composed here, as Diogenes Laertius says. The treatise on hunting and that on the horse were probably written during this time, when amusement and exercise of that kind formed part of his occupation. Xenophon was at last expelled from his quiet retreat at Scillus by the Eleans, but the year is uncertain. It is a conjecture of Krüger's that the Eleans did not take Scillus before B. C. 371, the year in which the Lacedaemonians were defeated by the Thebans at the battle of Leuctra. Diogenes says that the Lacedaemonians did not come to the aid of Xenophon when he was attacked by the Eleans, a circumstance that may lead to the probable inference that they were too busily employed in other ways either to prevent his expulsion or to reinstate him; and this is a reason why Letronne supposes that the Eleans probably attacked Scillus in B. C. 368 during the invasion of Laconica by Epaminondas. Xenophon's residence at Scillus in either case was above twenty years. The sentence of banishment from Athens was repealed on the motion of Eubulus, but it is uncertain in what year. In the battle of Mantineia which was fought B. C. 362, the Spartans and the Athenians were opposed to the Thebans, and Xenophon's two sons, Gryllus and Diodorus, fought on the side of the allies. He sent them, says Diogenes, to Athens to fight on behalf of the Spartans. Gryllus fell in the same battle in which Epaminondas lost his life. From the circumstance of Xenophon's two sons being in the battle. Letronne assumes that the decree for Xenophon's banishment must have been repealed before B. C. 362, a conclusion which is far from being necessary. Krüger concludes for other reasons that it was repealed before Ol. 103, that is, before the battle of Mantineia. 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. (Ding. Laert.)

The Hipparchicus was written after the repeal of the decree of banishment, and the treatise on the revenues of Athens. The events alluded to in the Epilogus to the Cyropaedia (8.8.4) show that the Epilogus at least was written after Ol. 104. 3. (Diod. 15.92.) Diogenes quotes Stesicleides as authority for Xenophon having died in the first year of the 105th Olympiad, or in B. C. 359. The time of his death may have been a few years later. Compare Clinton, Fasti Hell B. C. 359; Krüger, de Xenophontis, &c. p. 28.

[G.L]