Xenophon/Chapter 1
XENOPHON.
CHAPTER I.
NOTICES OF THE LIFE OF XENOPHON PREVIOUS TO
THE EXPEDITION OF CYRUS.
There is none of the ancient Greek authors whose personality stands more clearly before us than that of Xenophon. We owe this entirely to his own writings, for external notices of him are meagre and untrustworthy. But the historian of the expedition of Cyrus, the recorder of the conversations of Socrates, and the varied essayist on so many topics of ancient Greek life, was one of those writers who, in depicting other things, give at the same time a portrait of themselves. His chief work is the account of a military expedition in which he was himself engaged, and in which he ultimately played a very prominent and leading part. So it follows only naturally that five-sevenths of this work are almost pure autobiography. We have thus from Xenophon's own hand a minute and living picture of himself and his actions for more than a year and a half, during one of the most interesting episodes of military history. We have from himself also an indication of his subsequent mode of life in his country residence, when he had settled down into a landed proprietor, and had exchanged the sword for the pen. And all his writings, though perfectly artistic, are so naïve, communicative, and at the same time so consistent in tone, that we can have no doubt that they reflect his real character. They seem to bring the man himself, with his habits and ways of thinking, his principles, prejudices, and superstitions, vividly before us. But except what can be derived from these sources, we have scarcely any information about the life of Xenophon. There is a biography of him written by Diogenes Laertius at the end of the second century a.d. But, like the rest of the "Lives" of Diogenes, it is a mere debris of anecdotes and traditions; and no assertion which it contains can be accepted without criticism.
There is no reason, however, for discrediting the statement that Xenophon was the son of one Gryllus, an Athenian citizen; for this is corroborated by the better-attested fact that the historian had a son also named Gryllus—it being the custom at Athens to call children after their grandfathers. The family of Xenophon must have belonged to the upper middle ranks of Athens, as he himself was one of the class of "knights," or horsemen, for whom a property-qualification was required. But he could not have had much hereditary riches to depend on, else he would 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 b.c.; 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 b.c. This assumption is connected with a story, of apocryphal origin, that Xenophon was present at the battle of Delium (424 b.c.), 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 of his own age, at that period, as rendering him diffident in offering counsel to the other captains of the Greek army. He mentions himself as youngest of the seven officers chosen to conduct the retreat; he relates his own constant performance of duties requiring youthful activity; and he records that the Thracian chief, Seuthes, thinking that he was possibly unmarried, offered him the hand of his daughter. From all this we may fairly gather that Xenophon, at the time of the expedition of Cyrus (401 b.c.), was not more than thirty years of age. His birth may, with great probability, be placed about the year 431 b.c., contemporaneously with the commencement of the Peloponnesian war.
Through the successive phases of that twenty-eight years' war, Xenophon grew up to manhood. He was probably unconscious of the horrors of the plague which raged at Athens during the second and third years of the war. But he may well have remembered in his early boyhood the annual invasion of Attica by the Spartans, and the ravaging of the country up to the very city walls. When about seventeen years old he probably shared in the enthusiasm connected with the sending off of the Athenian expedition against Sicily; and two years later he witnessed the national grief and consternation at the news of the utter destruction of the Athenian force at Syracuse. When about twenty-eight years old, he saw the blockade, and finally the capitulation, of Athens, which in some respects might be compared to the capitulation of Paris in the year 1871. Such comparisons must not be pushed too far; but in some particulars the relation of the Spartans to the Athenian people might be said to be analogous to that of the Germans to the French in the great Franco-Prussian war. The events contemporaneous with his youth and early manhood must necessarily have had an influence on the mind and character of Xenophon. It was altogether an unhappy time—a period in which the national prestige of Athens was gradually being lost. The effect on the mind of a youthful Athenian would naturally be to prevent his feeling a pride in his country. This is, doubtless, an unfavourable circumstance for any one. In after-life we find Xenophon not absolutely unpatriotic—indeed, in his writings he appears constantly to be devising methods for the improvement of the Athenian resources; but we find him deficient in anything like reverence for Athens. He seems to "sit loose" on his country, and he shows a readiness to denationalise himself, and throw in his fortunes with those of foreign states, which can be best explained by reference to the events and influences of his youth.
In the mean time, Xenophon had shared with his countrymen that awakening of the intellect which especially characterised Athens during the very period of her incipient political decline. It was the time when Athenian poetry and art had reached their acme, and now oratory and debate were being studied and practised with zeal; Greek prose style was being cultivated and developed; and, from the discussions of the Sophists and Socrates, philosophy was receiving a new birth. The keen lively mind of Xenophon drank in all the influences of the age. He probably never listened to the eloquence of the great Pericles, but he must have heard innumerable debates in the Agora, and probably took part in many. From year to year he enjoyed the refining influence of the great masterpieces of Greek tragedy brought upon the stage by Sophocles, Euripides, and Agathon; while, at the same time, the inimitable comedies of Aristophanes furnished annually a humorous and intellectual commentary on public events and characters. Xenophon's thoughts must necessarily have been much engaged with war and foreign politics; and, above all, he had the great advantage, during the plastic period of his youth, of being the pupil and companion of the renowned Athenian teacher, Socrates.
We cannot tell whether the tradition, which has been preserved by Diogenes, of the beginning of this relationship, can be regarded as literally true. But at all events it is a very pleasing anecdote. We are told that Socrates, encountering Xenophon, who was "a beautiful, modest boy," in a narrow passage, put his stick across so as to stop him, and asked him "where provisions could be bought?" On Xenophon mentioning some place, he again asked, "And where are men made noble and good?" As Xenophon knew not what to answer, he said, "Well, then, follow and learn." And thenceforth Xenophon became the disciple of Socrates.
He appears to have diligently applied himself to profit by his opportunities, for he was considered by the ancients to have been "the first man that ever took notes of conversations." He made a considerable collection of the conversations of Socrates thus noted down. These were afterwards published in the book commonly known as the 'Memorabilia,' for which all the intellectual world must be grateful to Xenophon. But personally he can only have been to a limited extent influenced by the teachings of Socrates, as he had no taste for the higher and more abstract parts of philosophy, and therefore he only assimilated the ethical and practical elements of the thought of his master. Other pupils of Socrates, such as Plato and Euclid, appear to have derived from their teacher an impulse towards metaphysical speculation, of which Xenophon shows no trace. He was throughout his life a practical sensible man of the world, imbued with the easier and more popular Socratic theories; rather too fond of omens and divination, for which taste he quoted the authority of his master; doubtless much cultivated and improved by all the Socratic discussions to which he had listened, but by no means to be reckoned as one of the philosophers of the Socratic "family."
He appears, at all events, to have regarded Socrates as his mentor and adviser in the affairs of life. We have from his own pen[1] the following account of the share of Socrates in determining the step most important of all in the career of Xenophon. In the year 402 B.C. he received a letter from a Bœotian friend named Proxenus, urging him to come to Sardis and take service under Cyrus, the younger brother of Artaxerxes king of Persia. He showed this letter to Socrates, and consulted him whether he should go. Socrates thought that there was a risk of Xenophon's getting into trouble with his countrymen if he were to join Cyrus, who was believed to have given assistance against them to the Spartans. He advised him to go to Delphi and consult the oracle. Xenophon went accordingly to Delphi; but having made up his own mind on the subject, he barred dissuasion by evasively asking of Apollo "what god he should sacrifice to in order to perform most propitiously the journey which he had in his mind?" The oracle directed him to sacrifice to "Jupiter the King." Having taken back this answer, he was reproved by Socrates, but told that he must now do as the god had directed. Accordingly he performed his sacrifice, and crossed the Archipelago to Ephesus, whence he proceeded to the rendezvous at Sardis.
In this story we see amusingly exhibited the wilfulness of the youthful Xenophon, and the practical shrewdness, mixed with superstition, of Socrates. There might be some risk of unpleasant consequences from taking service under Cyrus, yet, on the other hand, there was a chance of such a step turning out well. The offers of Cyrus had a peculiar fascination for the soldiers of fortune in Greece; and Socrates, even as a practical adviser, may have been not insensible to the same imaginative influence. He followed his own maxim, "In cases of doubt consult the gods," and despatched Xenophon to the oracle of Delphi. The oracular response, as commonly happened in such circumstances, only confirmed the inquirer in the course to which he was himself inclined. And Xenophon accordingly joined the expedition of Cyrus. He joined it "neither as an officer nor a soldier," but in an unattached capacity. The leading events of that ill-fated expedition, and the subsequent adventures of the Greek force which was engaged in it, will occupy the three following chapters; and with all these events Xenophon himself was so completely identified, that the account of them, taken from his 'Anabasis,' will be found to be a continuation of the life of the historian.
- ↑ Anabasis, iii. 1.