Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/13

Rh not have made himself a soldier of fortune, fighting "for his own hand" in Asia, and being anxious to settle down there as a colonist, had circumstances been favourable.

As to the exact date of the birth of Xenophon, there has been some doubt and controversy. This, however, has arisen from the words occurring at the commencement of one of his minor works, called 'The Banquet,' in which he professes to describe circumstances at which he was himself present. The supper-party in question was connected with the Panathenaic games of the year 420 ; and some critics, assuming that Xenophon must have been more than twenty years old at the time, place the date of his birth at about 445 This assumption is connected with a story, of apocryphal origin, that Xenophon was present at the battle of Delium (424 ), and that his life was saved by Socrates on that occasion. Other circumstances, however, prevent us from believing in the reality of such an occurrence. And as to the 'Banquet,' internal evidence tends to show that this is a merely imaginative picture, so that we cannot build any theory on Xenophon's having stated that he was "present" on the occasion, and still less can we find any ground in his description of the circumstances for deciding how old he may have been at the time. The real data that we have for fixing the age of Xenophon consist in the terms in which he speaks of himself in relating the "Retreat of the Ten Thousand." And these are sufficiently conclusive for all practical purposes. He twice speaks of the immaturity