Xenophon

Xenophon was an Athenian soldier, historian and student of Socrates. He led part of the Ten Thousand during their retreat from Persia and wrote works on the expedition, Greek politics, leadership, cavalry and household management.

After the expedition of the Ten Thousand, Xenophon spent years associated with Sparta and was exiled from Athens for part of his life. His surviving works include the Anabasis, Hellenica, Cyropaedia, Socratic dialogues and practical treatises on cavalry, hunting and estate management. Together they reveal a writer interested not only in events but in leadership, education, military discipline and household order.

In Xenophon’s The Persian Expedition, Xenophon’s Persian Expedition, or Anabasis, is the main ancient source for Cyrus the Younger’s expedition against Artaxerxes II, the Battle of Cunaxa in 401 BCE and the retreat of the Ten Thousand. In Xenophon’s Xenophon, this Xenophon volume, centred on History of My Times or the Hellenica, continues Greek history after Thucydides. Further fictional perspectives on Xenophon can be found in Valerio Massimo Manfredi’s The Lost Army and Michael Curtis Ford’s The Ten Thousand. For broader historical treatment of Xenophon, see Xenophon’s Hiero the Tyrant and Other Treatises, Plutarch’s On Sparta, and Xenophon’s Conversations of Socrates.