Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/784

 T56 XEXOCRATES XENOPHON legiate departments, and admits both sexes. It was incorporated in 1850. In 1873-'4 there were 5 instructors and 167 students, of whom 122 were of collegiate grade. Wilberforce university, especially designed for the higher education of colored youth of both sexes, was incorporated in 1863. It has preparatory, normal, classical, scientific, theological, and law departments, and a library of 4,000 vol- umes. In 1873-'4 there were 12 instructors and 173 students (12 collegiate and 8 theo- logical). The building is finely situated. The theological seminary was organized in 1794, and in 1873-'4 had 5 instructors, 29 students, and a library of 8,500 volumes. Xenia was settled in 1804 and incorporated about 1808. XENOCRATES, a Greek philosopher, born in Chalcedon in 396 B. C., died in 314. He at- tached himself successively to ^Eschines the Socratic and to Plato, whom he accompanied to Syracuse. After the death of Plato he was repeatedly sent on embassies to Philip of Ma- cedon, and during the Lamian war to Antipa- ter. In 339 he succeeded Speusippus as direc- tor of the academy, and held that post till his death. lie wrote several metaphysical trea- tises, two works on physics, and several on ethics and political economy. Aristotle and Theophrastus wrote upon his doctrines, but our knowledge of them is very incomplete. He identified ideas with numbers, and founded upon these a mystical theology, defining the soul as a self-moving number. He taught that the value of everything besides virtue is con- ditional, and that happiness results from its possession and practice. XKVOI'IIAMX a Greek philosopher, born in Colophon, Ionia, about 570 B. C., died in Elea, southern Italy, about 480. He quitted his na- tive town as an exile, and probably lived for some time in Elea. He is regarded as the founder of the Eleatio school. He strongly combated the anthropomorphism of Hesiod and Homer, contending that God is one, self- existent, unchangeable, the universal supreme intelligence. The few fragments of his poems extant were published by Karsten (1830), and are also given in Schneidewin's Elegiaci Gratci (1838), and those which relate to philosophy in Ueberweg'a Orundrus der Geschichte der Phi- losophic. (See ELEATIO SCHOOL.) XKOPH., an Athenian author, the son of Gryllus, a native of the demus of Erchea, and of the order of knights. The date of his birth is uncertain. Some, accepting the statement of Diogenes Laertius and Strabo that he was in the battle of Delium in 424 B. 0., place it as early as 444 ; others fix upon 431. He is said to have been 90 years old when he died. Al- most nothing is positively known of his early years, save that he became a pupil of Socrates. In 401 he went to Sardis on the invitation of his friend Proxenus, who was on intimate terms with the younger Cyrus, and promised to introduce him to the Persian prince. He joined the expedition of Cyrus, but without any special office in the army. The object of the expedition was unknown to the Greeks in the employ of Cyrus; they were, how- ever, induced by the promise of higher pay to adhere to the commander after his inten- tion of dethroning his brother Artaxerxes II., the reigning king of Persia, was disclosed. Cyrus lost his life at the battle of Cunaxa, and the Greeks then began that return to Eu- rope which has become famous as the retreat of the 10,000. When Clearchus and other Greek leaders had been treacherously massa- cred by the satrap Tissaphernes, Xenophon, who had acted hitherto as a volunteer, as- sembled the officers, and pointed out to them the only practicable course to be pursued. His confidence, his practised talent, and his rhetorical powers enabled him to influence the soldiers. He was elected one of the five gen- erals, and appointed to the command of the rear guard, and by degrees came to be regard- ed as the controlling head of the army. He conducted the troops through many trials and perils across Mesopotamia and through the mountainous regions of Armenia to Trapezus on the Euxine, and thence to Europe, and was thus the first to demonstrate the invincible character of a body of trained Greek soldiers, and to point out the pathway to conquest which was afterward followed by Alexander the Great. After handing over his troops to the Spartan general Thimbron (399), he is sup- posed to have returned to Athens. Three years afterward he was serving in Asia under Age* silaus, the Lacedaemonian king. In the mean while war sprang up anew between Sparta and Athens, and Xenophon, accompanying his leader back to Europe, was present (though probably not a combatant) at the battle of Coronea in 394. Athens now passed against him a sentence of banishment. The Lacedeo- monians rewarded him for his attachment to their cause by allowing him land and a house at Scillus, a village of Triphylian Elis. After the battle of Leuctra in 371 he was expelled by the Eleans from his residence, and is said to have taken up his abode in Corinth. Not long afterward peace was concluded between Athens and Sparta, followed by a close alliance. The sentence of exile passed against Xenophon was revoked, and some of the last years of his life were probably spent in Athens. In character he appears to have been humane and cheerful, although not a little selfish, and deeply religious and superstitious. Xeno- phon's style has been uniformly praised by critics both ancient and modern, and Diogenes Laertius calls him the "Attic muse." Of his historical works, the best is the Anabasit, de- scriptive of the advance into Persia, and the retreat of the 10,000 Greeks. It abounds in interesting information. The Hellenica, in seven books, is a history of Grecian affairs from the time at which Thucydides ends his narrative to the battle of Mantinea in 362. It is generally an unentertaining account, dis-