Why did Xenophon leave Athens in 401 BCE?

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Xenophon Xenophon, statue in front of the parliament building in Vienna.

In 401 BCE, Xenophon left postwar Athens after being prompted by a Boeotian friend to join the Greek mercenary army of the Achaemenian prince Cyrus the Younger.1

At that time, Xenophon’s life history is only scantily recorded, and his decision to depart was driven by the opportunity to participate in Cyrus’s rebellion against his brother, the Persian king Artaxerxes II. Following the defeat of Cyrus at the Battle of Cunaxa, Xenophon became a key figure in the famous retreat of the "Ten Thousand" mercenaries back to the Black Sea.12

While his later service to Sparta and his subsequent formal exile from Athens remain subjects of historical dispute, his initial departure in 401 BCE was specifically motivated by his involvement with the mercenary force.1