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| Under Construction |
All text, translations, and maps copyrighted by Lawrence Douglas Ringer. Last modified on: 31-October-2015.
If you encounter a word or spelling with which you are unfamiliar, be sure to check the glossaries (see the links on the right under Reference Aids).
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| Bust of Xenophon, ca. 332 BCE – 395 CE. (Antiquities Museum, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt) A bust of the Hellenisitic Age (323–30 BCE) or later with the inscription ‘XENOPHON’ |
XENOPHON AND THE ANABASIS OF CYRUS THE YOUNGER
Rather than stay in Athens during the period of reconciliation and the restoration of democratic rule, Xenophon left his homeland in 401 BCE. Xenophon asked his mentor Sokrates for advice on whether or not to join an Asian expedition that would be unpopular in Athens. Sokrates advised him to enquire of the Delphic Oracle. Xenophon asked Apollo to which god he should sacrifice to insure a safe journey and was instructed to make sacrifices to several specific gods. Upon his return to Athens from Delphi, Xenophon was chastised by Sokrates for not having asked Apollo directly whether or not he should make the journey! In any event, Xenophon joined a military campaign which had Lakedaimonian (Spartan) backing both by land and by sea. Xenophon stated that he served as “neither a stratēgos (general) nor a lokhagos (captain) nor a stratiōtēs (soldier)” in the army of the Persian prince Kurush, who was known to the Greeks as Kyros (henceforth referred to as Cyrus the Younger). Cyrus was the younger brother of the Persian king Artaxerxes II (reigned 405/404–359/358 BCE). (Xenophon. Anabasis 3.1.4–8)
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| Audience Scene, Apadana, Persepolis, Persia, ca. 500 BCE. There is no known illustration of Cyrus the Younger. This beautiful modern drawing is based upon several reliefs found at Persepolis. It likely depicts King Darius I and his son the crown prince Xerxes I, the great grandfather of Cyrus the Younger. (Drawing compliments of Persepolis3D.com.) |
Xenophon wrote glowingly and uncritically about the megalomaniacal Persian prince, who seems to have mesmerized him. In the last years of the Peloponnesian War, Cyrus the Younger had financed the Lakedaimonian (Spartan) fleet that had annihilated the Athenian navy at Aigospotamoi only four years earlier! It was because of Cyrus’ crucial aid in rebuilding and maintaining the Lakedaimonian fleet after their defeat at Arginousai in 406 BCE that the Lakedaimonians lent their whole-hearted support to his expedition. Xenophon obviously had no qualms about joining the service of the Persian karanos (lord) whose money had brought about the deaths of thousands of his fellow Athenians and had brought Athens to its knees! By his own account, Xenophon was a sycophantic freeloader with no military role. He doubtlessly hoped to become powerful and fabulously wealthy as a member of the gentlemanly entourage of the charismatic and ambitious Cyrus.[1] (Xenophon. Anabasis 3.1.5; Xenophon. Hellēnika 1.4–6, 2.1, 2.3, 3.1; Diodoros. 13.70, 13.104, 14.19, 14.21)
Cyrus the Younger had assembled a large army of Asians and Greek mercenaries in order to attempt to overthrow and supplant his older brother Artaxerxes II on the Persian throne. The Lakedaimonians (Spartans) contributed 700 hoplites commanded by the Lakedaimonian Kheirisophos and 35 ships commanded by Pythagoras the Lakedaimonian. However, Cyrus was slain in battle against Artaxerxes at Kounaxa north of Babylon in the autumn of 401 BCE. Afterwards, many of the Greek mercenary generals who had served Cyrus were reportedly murdered by the victorious Persians. At this perilous moment, Xenophon stepped forward and, according to his own self serving account, played a prominent role in the so-called ‘March of the Ten Thousand’ in which roughly 10,000 Greek mercenaries valiantly trudged thousands of kilometres through hostile territory back home to Greece. Notwithstanding Xenophon’s no doubt glorified account, his exploits and those of the Greek mercenaries were incredible achievements and a triumph of the Greek spirit. In the end, Xenophon earned the respect of these battle-worn mercenaries and emerged as the commander-in-chief of the Kyreians as the fractious Greek mercenaries who had served Cyrus came to be known. (Xenophon. Anabasis; Plutarch. Artaxerxes 6.1–20.1)
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| The Anabasis (Going Up) march of Cyrus the Younger and the subsequent ‘March of the Ten Thousand’ back home to Greece. |
XENOPHON’S RETURN AND THE EXECUTION OF SOKRATES
In 400–399 BCE, following his miraculous return from the centre of the vast Persian Empire, Xenophon served as a mercenary general commanding the Kyreians under the barbarian Thracian chieftain Seuthes in southeastern Thrace. Thanks no doubt to the increase in his power and influence brought about by the Kyreians, Seuthes later revolted against his overlord, the Odrysian king Medokos (also known as Amadokos), and established himself as a rival Odrysian king. He is known as Seuthes II by modern historians. (Xenophon. Anabasis 7)
Tragically, in 399 BCE while Xenophon was away commanding the Kyreians, an Athenian court convicted and executed Xenophon’s mentor Sokrates on charges of not honouring the city’s gods, introducing new gods, and corrupting the youth. Almost certainly a major contributing factor in his conviction was the fact that Sokrates had been the teacher and mentor of a number of unsavoury characters including the bloodthirsty oligarch Kritias and the scandalous turncoat Alkibiades. During the Peloponnesian War, the brilliant yet unprincipled Alkibiades had done immeasurable damage to his homeland by aiding both Lakedaimon (Sparta) and Persia. In addition, according to Xenophon, Sokrates compelled many of the jurors to vote for conviction by creating a tremendous amount of indignation and ill-will against himself. He did this by exalting himself in what many interpreted as intellectual snobbery and also by claiming that the theou phōnē (voice of god) was manifested to him. Nonetheless, Sokrates was convicted by only a small majority of the jury.[2] (Plato. Defense of Sokrates 17–36; Xenophon. Defense of Sokrates Before the Jurors 1–22, 32; Xenophon. Memorial Records)
Sadly, Sokrates further provoked the jury members when they were considering his punishment. According to Plato, Sokrates at first flippantly proposed that he should be given free meals at the Prytaneion, where the prytaneis dined everyday at the state’s expense! The prytaneis, by the way, were the chairmen of the executive committee of the Boulē (Council). The jury—which likely numbered 501 members—subsequently voted for execution in larger numbers than they had voted for conviction![3] (Plato. Defense of Sokrates 36–42; Xenophon. Defense of Sokrates Before the Jurors 23–34; Xenophon. Memorial Records)
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| Translation by Lawrence D. Ringer |
THE LAKEDAIMONIAN WAR IN ASIA AGAINST THE PERSIANS
Following their service in Thrace, Xenophon and the Kyreians subsequently served with three successive Lakedaimonian (Spartan) commanders in Asia against the Persians. First was Thibron in 399 BCE and secondly was Derkylidas in 399–396 BCE. Xenophon apparently remained in command of the Kyreians under both generals. Lastly in 396–394 BCE, the Kyreians served in the army of the Lakedaimonian king Agesilaos II (reigned ca. 401/400–360/359 BCE), the successor of his half-brother Agis II and a member of the Eurypontid royal house. Xenophon idolized and subsequently lionized Agesilaos in his writings. King Agesilaos placed the Lakedaimonian Herippidas in command of the Kyreians. What command, if any, Xenophon held thereafter is unknown. (Xenophon. Hellēnika 3.1.3–3.2.20, 3.4, 4.1; Xenophon. Agesilaos 1.7–38; Plutarch. Agesilaos 6–15; Diodoros. 14.36–39, 14.79–80)
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| Greece During the Lifetime of Xenophon |
Despite enjoying modest success on the battlefield against the Persians for roughly five years, the Lakedaimonians (Spartans) proved to be totally incapable of capitalizing on their victories. By way of comparison, Alexander the Great invaded the Persian Empire in May 334 BCE and five years later in May 329 BCE Alexander crossed the Hindu Kush into Baktria (the northern part of modern Afghanistan) after having marched roughly 10,000 kilometres into the northeast corner of the Persian Empire! On the other hand, Agesilaos in the spring of 394 BCE—after nearly 5 years of Lakedaimonian campaigning in Asia—was still at his starting point at Ephesos on the coast of the Aegean Sea dreaming of conquest! As a result, the only threat that the Lakedaimonians realistically posed to Persian rule in Anatolia was as marauders, who only briefly occupied the Greek cities on the coast and very little else.
THE KORINTHIAN WAR, 395–386 BCE
Meanwhile in mainland Greece, war broke out in 395 BCE between the Lakedaimonians (Spartans) and the Boiotian League, which was led by their foremost city Thebes. Ostensibly, the war began when the Thebans took the side of the Opountian Lokrians in a minor conflict with the Phokians. Eight years earlier in 403 BCE following the end of the Peloponnesian War, the Thebans had refused to aid the Lakedaimonians against the Athenian democrats in Peiraieus. The Boiotians had also refused to participate in the Lakedaimonian campaign against the Eleians in 399–397 BCE. More recently, the Thebans had prevented King Agesilaos from sacrificing at Aulis in eastern Boiotia on the eve of his Asian expedition in 396 BCE and moreover had refused to participate in that campaign. According to myth, the Mycenaean king Agamemnon had sacrificed his daughter Iphigeneia at Aulis prior to sailing against Troy. Agesilaos had hoped to inspire his troops by invoking the legendary past, but his grandiose plans had been thwarted by the Thebans. As a result of these and other affronts, the Lakedaimonians eagerly undertook this war as a pretext for punishing the Thebans for their independent mindedness. Accordingly, the Lakedaimonians decided to support the Phokians with a full scale, two-pronged invasion of Boiotia. Lysander was directed to invade Boiotia from Phokis in the west and King Pausanias was tasked with leading the main Peloponnesian army across the Boiotian border in the southeast. In response, the Thebans formed—or had already formed—alliances with the major states of Athens, Korinth, and Argos. Significantly, several of these Greek allies received Persian financial backing to encourage their uprising. The Persians aided the Greek allies in hopes of forcing the withdrawal of Agesilaos from Asia thereby putting an end to the pillaging of their territories on their far western frontier. (Xenophon. Hellēnika 3.2.25, 3.5.1–5)
In the first significant conflict of the Korinthian War, the celebrated Lakedaimonian (Spartan) commander Lysander was slain in the Theban victory at Haliartos in central Boiotia in 395 BCE. Lysander fell after blundering into an ambush beneath the walls of Haliartos. The Lakedaimonian king Pausanias arrived a few days too late to aid Lysander, who had impatiently attacked without waiting for Pausanias and his army. An Athenian army led by Thrasyboulos also arrived too late for the battle. However, the presence of the Athenians was no doubt an important factor in deterring Pausanias from attacking the smaller Boiotian army. In addition, the army of Lysander had dispersed back to their homes following their defeat! Pausanias moreover perceived that his own army was not eager to fight. As a result, Pausanias recovered the bodies of the dead under a truce and then withdrew. The Lakedaimonians condemned King Pausanias to death for his tardiness and for failing to recover Lysander’s body in battle. Anticipating the outcome of his trial, Pausanias did not appear at his court martial and went into voluntary exile at Tegea in Arkadia. (Xenophon. Hellēnika 3.5.6–25; Diodoros 14.81.1–3; Plutarch. Lysander 28–30)
With Lysander dead, the Agiad king Pausanias exiled, and Pausanias’ son Agesipolis I (reigned 395–380 BCE) a minor, the Lakedaimonians (Spartans) recalled the Eurypontid king Agesilaos from Asia in 394 BCE to deal with this serious Greek uprising against Lakedaimonian hegemony. Xenophon (Anabasis 5.3.6) wrote that he returned from Asia with Agesilaos to oppose the Boiotians, so he was almost certainly present during the entire campaign. Plutarch (Agesilaos 18.1) concurred that Xenophon crossed from Asia to fight alongside Agesilaos and was present at the battle of Koroneia (see below). King Agesilaos led his army overland from Asia across the Hellespont and into Thrace en route to central Greece. (Xenophon. Hellēnika 4.2.1–8)
While Agesilaos and his army were still in Thrace, the Lakedaimonians (Spartans) under Aristodemos[4] defeated an allied Greek army near the Nemea Stream, a few kilometres from Korinth. The Greek allies included the Thebans and the other Boiotians (except for the Orkhomenians) as well as the Athenians, Argives, Korinthians, Euboians, Opountian (eastern) Lokrians, Ozolian (western) Lokrians, Akarnanians, and Malians. Their opponents included the Lakedaimonians, Arkadians from Tegea and Mantinea, Eleians, Triphylians, Akrorians, Lasionians, Sikyonians, Epidaurians, Troizenians, Hermionians, Halians, Marganians, Letrinians, Amphidolians, Akhaians from Pellene, and Kretan bowmen. Virtually all of the Lakedaimonian allies were routed, but the Lakedaimonians themselves routed the Athenians who were posted opposite them and then marched down the line slaughtering all of their enemies as they returned from their pursuit of the Lakedaimonian allies. (Xenophon. Hellēnika 4.2.9–23)
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| Grave Stele of Dexileos, Athens, Greece, ca. 394/393 BCE. (Kerameikos Museum, Athens, Greece) According to the inscription on the stele, the Athenian hippeus (cavalryman) Dexileos was roughly twenty years old when he was slain at Korinth in the archonship of Euboulides (summer 394 to summer 393 BCE) probably at the battle near the Nemea Stream against the Lakedaimonians (Spartans). Dexileos is depicted without armour and his prone opponent—probably a Lakedaimonian— is depicted nude. Both depictions were unrealistic artistic conventions. |
Meanwhile, the army of Agesilaos continued its advance southwards through Thessaly and defeated the Thessalians in a skirmish between Pras and Narthakion in Thessaly. Xenophon wrote glowingly of Agesilaos’ pride in having defeated the famed Thessalian cavalry with a cavalry force that he himself had personally recruited and trained. (Xenophon. Hellēnika 4.3.3–9)
Arriving in Boiotia, Agesilaos encountered an army of the allied Greeks arrayed against him at Koroneia. The alliance of Greek states included the Thebans and the other Boiotians (except for the Orkhomenians) as well as the Athenians, Argives, Korinthians, Euboians, both (i.e. eastern and western) Lokrians, and Ainianes. Obviously, their defeat a few weeks or months earlier near the Nemea Stream had not fractured or weakened this alliance of Greek states. Agesilaos commanded one and a half morai (divisions) of Lakedaimonians, the neodamōdeis (‘new people’, i.e. freed helots) who had accompanied him to Asia, the mercenaries (the remaining Kyreians) under Herippidas, the Greeks from Asia and Europe who had joined Agesilaos (including Ionians, Aiolians, and Hellespontines), the Phokians, and the Boiotians from Orkhomenos. The Lakedaimonian forces routed their opponents all along the line except for the Thebans, who held their own right wing opposite the Orkhomenians. Having routed the Orkhomenians and having then pillaged the enemy’s sutlers, the Thebans successfully fought their way back through Agesialos’ victorious troops to join their comrades who had taken refuge on Mount Helikon. The following day the Lakedaimonians set up a battle trophy and the Theban allies conceded defeat by asking for the bodies of their dead under the protection of a truce. Despite Xenophon’s assertion that Agesilaos’ triumph at Koroneia was a great Lakedaimonian (Spartan) victory, it was not decisive and the Korinthian War dragged on for another seven years until 386 BCE. (Xenophon. Hellēnika 4.3.10–4.4.2)
The most noteworthy battle during the following years was the victory of the Athenian general Iphikrates over the Lakedaimonians (Spartans) near Lekhaion, the western port of Korinth, in 391/390 BCE. Iphikrates led javelin-armed peltasts (skirmishers carrying peltai or light shields) against a mora (division) of hōs (about, nearly) 600 Lakedaimonian hoplites. Iphikrates’ peltasts did not engage the hoplites in hand-to-hand combat, but instead showered them with javelins from afar. The peltasts killed peri (around, about) 250 Lakedaimonians. The Lakedaimonian survivors were forced to either jump into the sea in order to swim out to boats or to run to the city walls for safety! The Lakedaimonian hoplites would have been forced to throw away their aspides (large heavy shields) in order to swim or to outrun lightly armed peltasts. This was contrary to the maxim supposedly given by a Lakonian mother to her son to return home with his shield or on it (i.e. dead). Xenophon wrote a very detailed account of the circumstances of Agesilaos’ reception of the news of this disaster. It would seem, therefore, that Xenophon had been present with Agesilaos, who was campaigning only 20 or so kilometres away to the northeast. (Xenophon. Hellēnika 4.5.1–17; Plutarch. Sayings of Lakonian Women 6.16)
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While these events were happening on land, Athens re-established its naval power. The Persian satrap Pharnabazos and the Athenian exile Konon led a Persian fleet into the Aegean and destroyed the Lakedaimonian (Spartan) fleet under Peisander at Knidos in 394 BCE. Konon had been the only Athenian stratēgos (general) to escape the disaster at Aigospotamoi in 405 BCE and had been in exile ever since. The following spring of 393 BCE, Pharnabazos raided the coast of Lakonike (the Lakedaimonian homeland) and siezed the large Lakedaimonian island of Kythera. Pharnabazos then dispatched Konon to Athens where he helped to rebuild the fortifications of the Athenian port Peiraieus and the ‘Long Walls’ between Athens and Peiraieus. The ‘Long Walls’—which were a symbolic as well as a physical representation of Athens’ imperial might—had been demolished by the Lakedaimonians in 404 BCE when Athens had surrendered at the end of the Peloponnesian War. (Xenophon. Hellēnika 4.3.10–12, 4.8.1–12)
Subsequently, the great Athenian democratic leader Thrasyboulos campaigned successfully around the Aegean Sea in 390/389 BCE. However, Thrasyboulos was slain at night in his tent at Aspendos in Pamphylia by locals who were angry about pillaging by his troops. The Athenians’ inability to properly finance their fleets—without tribute from an empire—would prove to be a major problem throughout the post-Peloponnesian War era. (Xenophon. Hellēnika 4.8.25–31)
XENOPHON’S EXILE AT SKILLOUS IN TRIPHYLIA
At the battle of Koroneia in 394 BCE, Xenophon would have fought for the Lakedaimonians (Spartans) against his fellow countrymen! It was apparently this treasonous act which resulted in Xenophon being exiled by the Athenians.[5] Ironically, Xenophon wrote that “treason is so much more terrible than war” and “far more hateful”. He added that men can “never again make peace (literally “pour libations one with another” as part of a sacred pledge) with someone they have caught betraying them and can never again put their trust in that person in the future”. Xenophon was obviously not thinking about himself when he wrote those words! (Xenophon. Hellēnika 2.3.29)
Xenophon wrote that, after being exiled from Athens, he settled at Skillous near the sanctuary of Olympia in a Lakedaimonian (Spartan) colony. Xenophon’s status as a Lakedaimonian katoikos (settler) likely included a requirement for military service. The Lakedaimonians had ‘liberated’ the towns of Triphylia from Elis in ca. 399–397 BCE and had forced the independent minded Eleians to once again become obedient Lakedaimonian allies. Settling Lakedaimonian colonists in this newly ‘liberated’ territory was obviously designed to secure this border area for the Lakedaimonians. Xenophon likely settled at Skillous sometime shortly after the battle of Koroneia in 394 BCE. Xenophon lived on a bountiful estate where there was hunting of all types of wild game including boars, gazelles, and stags. The land was also suitable for the rearing of swine, goats, cattle, and horses. There were groves of fruit trees. In the streams, there were fish and mussels. From his war booty, Xenophon built a shrine and temple to Artemis and established a sacred precinct and an annual festival. It was likely here in this idyllic setting that Xenophon wrote or began to write many of his works over the course of the next twenty or so years. However, Xenophon did occasionally leave this paradise. As mentioned above, it seems likely that Xenophon served with Agesilaos in 391/390 BCE at which time he would have been around 40 years old. (Xenophon. Hellēnika 3.2.21–31; Xenophon. Anabasis 5.3.7–13)
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Red-Figure Kylix by Euphronios (potter) and Onesimos (painter), Athens, ca. 500–490 BCE. (Louvre Museum, Paris, France) An Athenian horseman dressed in non-military attire including a chiton (tunic), himation (mantle), and petasos (flat broad- brimmed traveler’s hat). The petasos was commonly worn by aristocrats when hunting and travelling. As this horseman is armed with two javelins, he is undoubtedly dressed for hunting. (Image compliments of the Wikimedia Commons) |
GO TO PART THREE
FOOTNOTES
[1]↩ Xenophon (Anabasis 2.6.16–20, 3.1.4, 3.1.8–10) stated that he was invited to join the expedition of Cyrus the Younger by his old xenos (guest-friend) Proxenos the Boiotian. Xenophon stated that Proxenos himself was motivated to join Cyrus by a desire for “great fame, great power, and great wealth”. It seems likely that Xenophon shared those dreams.
[2]↩ Diogenes Laertios (2.41) stated that the vote was 281 votes for conviction. Plato (Defense of Sokrates 36a) wrote that, if only 30 more jurors had voted for acquittal, Sokrates would not have been found guilty. If both of these statements are true, then there must have been either 502 or 503 jurors as follows:
- 502 jurors = 281 versus 221. A change of 30 guilty votes to not guilty would have resulted in a vote of 251 versus 251 and Sokrates would have been acquitted by a tied vote.
- 503 jurors = 281 versus 222. A change of 30 guilty votes to not guilty would have resulted in a vote of 251 versus 252 and Sokrates would have been acquitted.
- 501 jurors = 280 versus 221. A change of 30 guilty votes to not guilty would have resulted in a vote of 250 versus 251 and Sokrates would have been acquitted. A tie was not possible with 501 jurors assuming that all of them voted.
[4]↩ Aristodemos was the prodikos (guardian) of the boy king Agesipolis I (reigned ca. 395–380 BCE), the elder son of King Pausanias. He was apparently a member of the Agiad royal family perhaps an uncle of Agesipolis I. Aristodemos had been the name of the legendary king who had fathered the two twins who had founded the two royal houses of Sparta.
[5]↩ The date and circumstances of Xenophon’s exile from Athens are unknown. In the Anabasis (7.7.57), Xenophon wrote that he had considered returning to Athens in 400 BCE as he had not yet been exiled. As Lakedaimonian (Spartan) allies, the Athenians sent a troop of 300 Athenian cavalry to aid the Lakedaimonian general Thibron in Asia in ca. 399 BCE (Xenophon. Hellēnika 3.1.4). The Athenians also sent an allied contingent to join the Lakedaimonian invasion of Elis in 399/398 BCE (Xenophon. Hellēnika 3.2.25). As long as Athens remained a Lakedaimonian ally it is unlikely that Xenophon would have been exiled from his homeland. In 395 BCE—a decade after their defeat in the Peloponnesian War—the Athenians allied with the Thebans against the Lakedaimonians (Xenophon. Hellēnika 3.5.6–22). So, it was likely in that year or in 394 BCE following the battle of Koroneia that Xenophon was exiled. Pausanias the periēgētēs (5.6.5) stated that Xenophon was exiled from Athens for aiding Cyrus the Younger in 401 BCE. That is possible, but unlikely due to the reasons just given.
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