Xenophon: References & Edit History
More Articles On This Topic
- Anabasis
- short storyThe Greeks
- Cyrus the Great
- Cyrus The Younger
- ancient Greek civilizationThe helot factor
- horsemanshipOrigins and early history
- Lycurgus
- history of MesopotamiaThe classical and medieval views of Mesopotamia; its rediscovery in modern times
- SocratesXenophon
- biographyAntiquity
- Western philosophySocrates
- Socrates
Additional Reading
Texts and translations
Greek texts of all Xenophonâs works can be found in the Oxford Classical Texts series and (with facing English translation) The Loeb Classical Library series. Most of the corpus (not Cyropaedia) is available in translation in The Penguin Classics series. Translations of Cyropaedia are available as The Education of Cyrus, trans. by Henry Graham Dakyns (1914, reissued 1992); and trans. by Wayne Ambler (2001). Modern commentaries are available in English on Oeconomicus, by Sarah B. Pomeroy (1994); Symposium, by A.J. Bowen (1998); Apology & Memorabilia I, by M.D. Macleod (2000); Lacedaemoniorum Respublica, by Michael Lipka (2002); selections from Hiero, Respublica Lacedaemoniorum, and Respublica Atheniensium, by Vivienne Gray, in Xenophon on Government (2007); Hellenika II.3.10 (1989), and Hellenika II.3.11âIV.2.8 (1995), both by Peter Krentz; and Anabasis IV.3.1âVII.8.26, by Jan P. Stronk, in The Ten Thousand in Thrace (1995).
General
Overviews of Xenophon and his period include J.K. Anderson, Xenophon (1974, reissued 2001); W.E. Higgins, Xenophon the Athenian: The Problem of the Individual and the Society of the Polis (1977); John Dillery, Xenophon and the History of His Times (1995); Steven W. Hirsch, The Friendship of the Barbarians: Xenophon and the Persian Empire (1985); and Christopher Tuplin (ed.), Xenophon and His World (2003). One aspect of the modern reception of Xenophon is pursued in Tim Rood, The Sea! The Sea!: The Shout of the Ten Thousand in the Modern Imagination (2005).
Specific works
Works on Hellenica include Vivienne Gray, The Character of Xenophonâs Hellenica (1989); and Christopher Tuplin, The Failings of Empire: A Reading of Xenophon Hellenica 2.3.11â7.5.27 (1993).
Anabasis is treated in Robin Lane Fox (ed.), The Long March: Xenophon and the Ten Thousand (2004); Andrew Dalby, âGreeks Abroad: Social Organisation and Food Among the Ten Thousand,â The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 112:16â30 (1992); and Christopher Tuplin, âOn the Track of the Ten Thousand,â Revue des Ă©tudes anciennes, 101(3â4):331â366 (1999). Shane Brennan, In the Tracks of the Ten Thousand: A Journey on Foot Through Turkey, Syria, and Iraq (2005), recounts a modern journey along the route of Xenophon and his colleagues.
Among treatments of Cyropaedia are James Tatum, Xenophonâs Imperial Fiction: On the Education of Cyrus (1989); Bodil Due, The Cyropaedia: Xenophonâs Aims and Methods (1989); Deborah Levine Gera, Xenophonâs Cyropaedia: Style, Genre, and Literary Technique (1993); Christopher Tuplin, âXenophonâs Cyropaedia: Education and Fiction,â in Alan H. Sommerstein and Catherine Atherton (eds.), Education in Greek Fiction (1997), pp. 65â162; and Christopher Nadon, Xenophonâs Prince: Republic and Empire in the Cyropaedia (2001).
The Socratic writings are the subject of Leo Strauss, Xenophonâs Socrates (1972, reissued 1998); Paul A. Vander Waerdt (ed.), The Socratic Movement (1994); Vivienne Gray, The Framing of Socrates: The Literary Interpretation of Xenophonâs Memorabilia (1998); Bernhard Huss, âThe Dancing Sokrates and the Laughing Xenophon, or The Other âSymposium,ââ The American Journal of Philology, 120(3):381â410 (Autumn 1999); and Fiona Hobden, âReading Xenophonâs Symposium,â Ramus 34(2):93â111 (2005).
Article Contributors
Primary Contributors
Other Encyclopedia Britannica Contributors
Article History
| Type | Description | Contributor | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Add new Web site: Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Xenophon (c.427Â355/50 BC). | Sep 04, 2026 | ||
| Add new Web site: Academia - The Political Thought of Xenophon. | Dec 03, 2024 | ||
| First paragraph modernization. | Apr 16, 2024 | ||
| Add new Web site: Military History Matters - War Reporters: Xenophon. | Jan 11, 2024 | ||
| Add new Web site: Chemistry LibreTexts - Xenophon. | Dec 02, 2023 | ||
| Add new Web site: Perseus Digital Library - A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology - Xe'nophon. | Jun 08, 2023 | ||
| Add new Web site: Great Thinkers - Xenophon. | Apr 13, 2023 | ||
| Changed title of the "Assessment" section to "Legacy." | Nov 15, 2017 | ||
| Add new Web site: World History Encyclopedia - Xenophon. | May 22, 2014 | ||
| Add new Web site: Encyclopaedia Iranica - Xenophon. | May 22, 2014 | ||
| Add new Web site: Heritage History - Xenophon. | May 22, 2014 | ||
| Add new Web site: Ancient Greece - Biography of Xenophon. | Feb 07, 2013 | ||
| Add new Web site: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Biography of Xenophon. | Feb 07, 2013 | ||
| Add new Web site: Livius - Biography of Xenophon. | Feb 07, 2013 | ||
| Add new Web site: In2Greece - Biography of Xenophon. | Feb 07, 2013 | ||
| Added photograph. | Apr 05, 2012 | ||
| Add new Web site: Fact Monster - People - Biography of Xenophon. | Sep 19, 2011 | ||
| Added new Web site: How Stuff Works - History - Biography of Xenophon. | Nov 12, 2008 | ||
| Article thoroughly revised. | Jan 16, 2008 | ||
| Added new Web site: Pegasos - Biography of Xenophon. | Oct 21, 2007 | ||
| Article added to new online database. | Jul 20, 1998 |