Xenophon

Name: Xenophon
Rating: 4.4 (191 reviews)

by Xenophon

Amazon

4.3(191)

This Xenophon volume, centred on History of My Times or the Hellenica, continues Greek history after Thucydides. It covers the last years of the Peloponnesian War, Spartan dominance, the Corinthian War, the rise of Thebes, Leuctra and the unsettled world that ends at Mantinea in 362 BCE. It is a useful source for readers trying to follow the sequence of alliances, campaigns and power shifts in Greece between the fall of Athens and the rise of Macedon.

Xenophon writes as a participant in the political and military culture he describes, and his sympathies are not evenly distributed. His respect for Sparta and particular leaders shapes emphasis and silence, while abrupt transitions can leave motives uncertain. The work remains invaluable precisely because it preserves a contemporary perspective on the unstable decades after the Peloponnesian War.

Historical Periods

Decelean War413–404 BCE Corinthian War395–387 BCE Battle of Leuctra371 BCE Rise of Macedon359–336 BCE Spartac. 700–371 BCE Classical Historiography500 BCE–250 CE Second Battle of Mantinea362 BCE