Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1311

Rh XENOPPION. invited to join the army of Thirabroii, and Xeno- phon 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 roVjbery, replenished his empty pockets (Anab. ii. 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 (iv. 8. § 4). Xenophon was not banished at the time when he was leading the troops back to Thimbron (Anab. vii. 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 Tliimbron. The assumption of Letronne. that he went to Athens is unsupported by evidence. As we know nothing of his movements, the con- clusion 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. v. 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 Olyrapia, a spot of which he has given a description in the Anabasis. (. 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 Avhen he married her, or where, is unknown. His children were educated in Sparta, or at least Age- silaus 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 Hel- lenica, 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 Kriiger's that the Eleans did not take Scillus before B.C. 371, the year in which the Lacedaemonians were de- feated 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 era- ployed 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 sen- XENOPHON. 1299 tence 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. Krliger concludes for other reasons that it was repealed before 01.103, 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. (Diog. Laert.) The HipparcMcus 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 (viii. 8. § 4) show that the Epilogus at least was written after 01. 104. 3. (Diod. XV. 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 ; Kr tiger, de Xenophontis, 8^c. p. 28. The titles of the works of Xenophon which Diogenes enumerates are the same as those which are now extant. He says that Xenophon wrote about forty books (jStgAm), and that they were variously divided, which expression and the list of works which he gives, show that by the word books he meant the several divisions or books of the larger works, and the smaller works which consist of a single book. The number of books of Xenophon thus estimated is thirty-seven, which is tolerably near the number mentioned by Diogenes, and shows that a division of Xenophon's works into books existed at that time. Of the historical writings of Xenophon, the Anabasis, or the His- tory of the Expedition of the Younger Cyrus, and of the retreat of the Greeks, who formed part of his army, has immortalised his name. It is a clear and pleasing narrative, written in a simple style, free from affectation ; and it gives a great deal of curious information on the country which was traversed by the retreating Greeks, and on the manners of the people. It was the first work which made the Greeks acquainted with some portions of the Persian empire, and it showed the weakness of that extensive monarchy. The skir- mishes of the retreating Greeks with their enemies and the battles with some of the barbarian tribes are not such events as elevate the work to the character of a military history, nor can it as such be compared with Caesar's Commentaries. Indeed those passages in the Anabasis which relate di- rectly to the military movements of the retreating anny are not always clear, nor have we any evi- dence that Xenophon did possess any militaiy talent for great operations, whatever skill he may have had as a commander of a division. The editions of the Ariabasis are numerous : one of the most useful editions for the mere explanation of the Greek text is by Krliger. The work of Major Rennell " Illustrations chiefly geographical of the 4 o 2