Did Alexander the Great Read Xenophon?
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Keeping Tradition Alive: Just War and Historical Imagination Cian O’Driscoll
Journal of Global Security Studies, 3(2), 2018, 234–247 doi: 10.1093/jogss/ogy003 Research Article Keeping Tradition Alive: Just War and Historical Imagination Cian O’Driscoll University of Glasgow Abstract The just war tradition is one of the key constituencies of international political theory, and its vocab- ulary plays a prominent role in how political and military leaders frame contemporary conflicts. Yet, it stands in danger of turning in on itself and becoming irrelevant. This article argues that scholars who wish to preserve the vitality of this tradition must think in a more open-textured fashion about its historiography. One way to achieve this is to problematize the boundaries of the tradition. This article pursues this objective by treating one figure that stands in a liminal relation to the just war tradition. Despite having a lot to say about the ethics of war, Xenophon is seldom acknowledged as a bona fide just war thinker. The analysis presented here suggests, however, that his writings have much to tell us, not only about how he and his contemporaries thought about the ethics of war, but about how just war thinking is understood (and delimited) today and how it might be revived as a pluralistic critical enterprise. Keywords: just war, ancient Greece, Xenophon, historiography, changing character of war “The past is a different country, they do things differ- its totality, as a rolling story, rather than as an index of ently there.” discrete individuated contributions (Johnson 2009, 252). L. P. Hartley Proponents of this -
The Outbreak of the Rebellion of Cyrus the Younger Jeffrey Rop
The Outbreak of the Rebellion of Cyrus the Younger Jeffrey Rop N THE ANABASIS, Xenophon asserts that the Persian prince Cyrus the Younger was falsely accused of plotting a coup I d’état against King Artaxerxes II shortly after his accession to the throne in 404 BCE. Spared from execution by the Queen Mother Parysatis, Cyrus returned to Lydia determined to seize the throne for himself. He secretly prepared his rebellion by securing access to thousands of Greek hoplites, winning over Persian officials and most of the Greek cities of Ionia, and continuing to send tribute and assurances of his loyalty to the unsuspecting King (1.1).1 In Xenophon’s timeline, the rebellion was not official until sometime between the muster of his army at Sardis in spring 401, which spurred his rival Tissaphernes to warn Artaxerxes (1.2.4–5), and his arrival several months later at Thapsacus on the Euphrates, where Cyrus first openly an- nounced his true intentions (1.4.11). Questioning the “strange blindness” of Artaxerxes in light of Cyrus’ seemingly obvious preparations for revolt, Pierre Briant proposed an alternative timeline placing the outbreak of the rebellion almost immediately after Cyrus’ return to Sardis in late 404 or early 403.2 In his reconstruction, the King allowed Cyrus 1 See also Ctesias FGrHist 688 F 16.59, Diod. 14.19, Plut. Artax. 3–4. 2 Pierre Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander (Winona Lake 2002) 617–620. J. K. Anderson, Xenophon (New York 1974) 80, expresses a similar skepticism. Briant concludes his discussion by stating that the rebellion officially (Briant does not define “official,” but I take it to mean when either the King or Cyrus declared it publicly) began in 401 with the muster of Cyrus’ army at Sardis, but it is nonetheless appropriate to characterize Briant’s position as dating the official outbreak of the revolt to 404/3. -
Anton Powell, Nicolas Richer (Eds.), Xenophon and Sparta, the Classical Press of Wales, Swansea 2020, 378 Pp.; ISBN 978-1-910589-74-8
ELECTRUM * Vol. 27 (2020): 213–216 doi:10.4467/20800909EL.20.011.12801 www.ejournals.eu/electrum Anton Powell, Nicolas Richer (eds.), Xenophon and Sparta, The Classical Press of Wales, Swansea 2020, 378 pp.; ISBN 978-1-910589-74-8 The reviewed book is a collection of twelve papers, previously presented at the confe- rence organised by École Normale Supérieure in Lyon in 2006. According to the edi- tors, this is a first volume in the planned series dealing with sources of Spartan his- tory. The books that follow this will deal with the presence of this topic in works by Thucydides, Herodotus, Plutarch, and in archaeological material. The decision to start the cycle from Xenophon cannot be considered as surprising; this ancient author has not only written about Sparta, but also had opportunities to visit the country, person- ally met a number of its officials (including king Agesilaus), and even sent his own sons for a Spartan upbringing. Thus his writings are widely considered as our best source to the history of Sparta in the classical age. Despite this, Xenophon’s literary work remains the subject of numerous controver- sies in discussions among modern scholars. The question of his objectivity is especial- ly problematic and the views about the strong partisanship of Xenophon prevailed for a long time; allegedly, he was depicting Sparta and king Agesilaus in a possibly overly positive light, even omitting inconvenient information.1 In the second half of the 20th century such opinion has been met with a convincing polemic, clearly seen in the works of H. -
1-And-2 Kings
FROM DAVID TO EXILE 1 & 2 Kings by Daniel J. Lewis © copyright 2009 by Diakonos, Inc. Troy, Michigan United States of America 2 Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 4 Composition and Authorship ...................................................................................................................... 5 Structure ..................................................................................................................................................... 6 Theological Motifs ..................................................................................................................................... 7 The Kingship of Solomon (1 Kings 1-11) .....................................................................................................13 Solomon Succeeds David as King (1:1—2:12) .........................................................................................13 The Purge (2:13-46) ..................................................................................................................................16 Solomon‟s Wisdom (3-4) ..........................................................................................................................17 Building the Temple and the Palace (5-7) .................................................................................................20 The Dedication of the Temple (8) .............................................................................................................26 -
Notes on Strabo
The Classical Quarterly http://journals.cambridge.org/CAQ Additional services for The Classical Quarterly: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here Notes on Strabo Horace L. Jones The Classical Quarterly / Volume 11 / Issue 03 / July 1917, pp 132 - 134 DOI: 10.1017/S0009838800011034, Published online: 11 February 2009 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0009838800011034 How to cite this article: Horace L. Jones (1917). Notes on Strabo. The Classical Quarterly, 11, pp 132-134 doi:10.1017/S0009838800011034 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/CAQ, IP address: 138.251.14.35 on 16 Apr 2015 NOTES ON STRABO. I. THE MEANING OF fj,ovoTpo<f>ea> (STRABO 3. 3. 6). THE word fiovorpo^io) is apparently an aira^ Xeyofievov, being cited by the dictionaries only for Strabo 3. 3. 6 : eviov; he ra>v trpoaoiKovvTaiv T(j> Aovpltp •jrorafio) Aa,K(ovcicoi)<; htdyeiv (pa&iv, d\enrTr)pi,oi<; xpa/ievov; hl<> ical irvplcu<; iic ~Kid<ov hiairvpwv, yjrv)£p6\ovTpovvTa<; icai /Movorpo<f>ovvTa<i Ka8apel(0<; ical \«TG)9. Stephanus' Thesaurus (Liddell and Scott) and Sophocles give only one meaning: ' to eat but one kind of food.' Madvig, whom A. Vogel follows, emended to Ko/j.orpo<povvra<;, obviously being led to do so, in part, because he took fiovorpo^>ovvTa<i in the meaning cited above. In 3- 3- 7 Strabo specifically asserts that the mountaineers—and this includes Lusitanians—eat goat-meat, bread made of acorn-flour, and butter; and that while water is their beverage, they also drink wine and beer. -
Mercenaries, Poleis, and Empires in the Fourth Century Bce
The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts ALL THE KING’S GREEKS: MERCENARIES, POLEIS, AND EMPIRES IN THE FOURTH CENTURY BCE A Dissertation in History and Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies by Jeffrey Rop © 2013 Jeffrey Rop Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2013 ii The dissertation of Jeffrey Rop was reviewed and approved* by the following: Mark Munn Professor of Ancient Greek History and Greek Archaeology, Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee Gary N. Knoppers Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies, Religious Studies, and Jewish Studies Garrett G. Fagan Professor of Ancient History and Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies Kenneth Hirth Professor of Anthropology Carol Reardon George Winfree Professor of American History David Atwill Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies Graduate Program Director for the Department of History *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT This dissertation examines Greek mercenary service in the Near East from 401- 330 BCE. Traditionally, the employment of Greek soldiers by the Persian Achaemenid Empire and the Kingdom of Egypt during this period has been understood to indicate the military weakness of these polities and the superiority of Greek hoplites over their Near Eastern counterparts. I demonstrate that the purported superiority of Greek heavy infantry has been exaggerated by Greco-Roman authors. Furthermore, close examination of Greek mercenary service reveals that the recruitment of Greek soldiers was not the purpose of Achaemenid foreign policy in Greece and the Aegean, but was instead an indication of the political subordination of prominent Greek citizens and poleis, conducted through the social institution of xenia, to Persian satraps and kings. -
Zeugma's Military History in Light of the Rescue Excavations
. chapter nine . Zeugma’s Military History in Light of the Rescue Excavations Hugh Elton The rescue excavations at Zeugma in 2000 provided an ment has recently been published. This was a large assem- unusual opportunity to examine a city in the Roman Near blage, including about 75 edged weapons and perhaps as East with late 20th-century archaeological techniques. many as 50 shields, and provides the best parallels for the The site at Zeugma is remarkable for the excellent state of Zeugma materials.5 From the mid-1980s, there have been preservation. Its position at the base of Belkis Tepe meant some renewed excavations.6 that most of the city was covered with colluvium, rather At Apamea in north Syria, also an open-field site, long- than being exposed for stone-robbing. In its potential for running Belgian excavations provide useful comparisons.7 archaeological research, its frontier situation on a river Like Zeugma and Dura-Europos, Apamea was founded by crossing, and its use as a Roman legionary base, Zeugma Seleucus I, though its role as the major western Seleucid thus offers opportunities similar to few classical sites in the army base means that its character may have been differ- ancient Near East. The majority of the areas excavated in ent. Under the Romans, it also served as an assembly area 2000 contained domestic housing, limiting the conclusions for military expeditions, a function it had in common with that can be drawn about Zeugma’s military history. None- Zeugma. And as at Dura-Europos and Zeugma, the Sasa- theless, a large quantity of military equipment has been re- nian invasion of the 250s had a great impact on the city. -
1 XENOPHON's PARASANGS* Abstract
1 XENOPHON’S PARASANGS* Abstract: This paper analyses one aspect of Xenophon’s representation of space, focussing on the famous stages-and-parasangs formula employed by Xenophon in the Anabasis. It starts by discussing the meaning of his terms, and then explores patterns of repetition and variation in his account of the march, split into three section (the marches upcountry, to the sea, and along the coast). Rather than explaining Xenophon’s usage in terms of sources, it suggests that variations in the marching formula elaborate the successive stages of the Greeks’ encounter with the spaces of the Achaemenid empire. ‘From there Cyrus progresses two stages, ten parasangs, to the river Psarus, which was three plethra in breadth. From there he progresses one stage, five parasangs, to the river Pyramus, which was a stade in breadth. From there he progresses two stages, fifteen parasangs, to Issi, the last city of Cilicia, settled on the sea, large and prosperous. There they remained three days.’ (Xenophon, Anabasis) ‘I have done my best with the orthography of this place, though it is not important, consisting of one house, and that only a farsakh from Maragha. The farsakh (Xenophon’s parasang) will be of interest to us now. It has been ‘stabilized’ at four miles, but in common parlance varies from three to seven.’ (Robert Byron, Tasr Kand, 17 October 1933)1 * * * 2 Xenophon’s parasangs have not been of much interest to most readers of the Anabasis - no matter whether they have read it in the Penguin translation of Rex Warner (who explains that he has ‘got rid of the “parasang”, so familiar to beginners in Greek, and turned it, rather inaccurately, into miles’), or progressed through the Greek text at school.2 Parasangs have even inspired a certain hostility: historians moan about the ‘too recurrent parasang’, while the editor of one of the standard nineteenth-century school editions asked ‘whether, in its absolute lack of interest, a parallel could be found for the above extract [1.4.1] in the writings of any other historian, ancient or modern’. -
Xenophon's Theory of Moral Education Ix
Xenophon’s Theory of Moral Education Xenophon’s Theory of Moral Education By Houliang Lu Xenophon’s Theory of Moral Education By Houliang Lu This book first published 2015 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2015 by Houliang Lu All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-6880-9 ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-6880-8 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ................................................................................... vii Editions ..................................................................................................... viii Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Part I: Background of Xenophon’s Thought on Moral Education Chapter One ............................................................................................... 13 Xenophon’s View of His Time Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 41 Influence of Socrates on Xenophon’s Thought on Moral Education Part II: A Systematic Theory of Moral Education from a Social Perspective Chapter One .............................................................................................. -
BRUCE LAFORSE, Praising Agesilaus: the Limits of Panhellenic
Praising Agesilaus: the Limits of Panhellenic Rhetoric Bruce Laforse Shortly after the death of the Spartan king Agesilaus c. 360, Xenophon wrote an encomium of his old friend and patron. As one of the two kings in the unique Spartan dual kingship, Agesilaus had played a crucial role from 400 to 360 BC, a period which saw Sparta both rise to the pinnacle of power and then collapse. The Agesilaus is one of the earliest surviving examples of a prose work written in praise of an historical figure.1 In such an encomium the object was not to present a strictly accurate portrait of the subject; rather it was to praise his character, glorify his achievements and, on the other hand, to anticipate or defend against any potential detractors.2 Omission, exaggeration and bending of the truth were not only allowed but, indeed, expected. Its purpose, therefore, was far different from that of a modern biography; nor, despite the idealization of the subject’s character, did it attempt primarily to uplift and instruct, as did Plutarch’s later moralizing biographies, by presenting positive and negative models to emulate or avoid.3 It was designed to praise, to put the best possible face on the subject’s life, career, background and character.4 It is not, then, strictly speaking, a work of history, and thus scholars must exercise caution when using it as an historical source.5 Supplying conclusive proof that Xenophon himself regarded the purpose of the Agesilaus as fundamentally different from history is the fact that he wrote a much fuller and (comparatively) more balanced account of Agesilaus’ career in the Hellenica, his history of the years 411 to 362.6 The two works date to the same period, and share, with very minor alterations, a number of passages. -
1 Xenophon Poroi 5
ORE Open Research Exeter TITLE Xenophon Poroi 5: Securing a ‘More Just’ Athenian Hegemony AUTHORS Farrell, CA JOURNAL Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek Political Thought DEPOSITED IN ORE 03 March 2016 This version available at http://hdl.handle.net/10871/20403 COPYRIGHT AND REUSE Open Research Exeter makes this work available in accordance with publisher policies. A NOTE ON VERSIONS The version presented here may differ from the published version. If citing, you are advised to consult the published version for pagination, volume/issue and date of publication Xenophon Poroi 5: Securing a ‘More Just’ Athenian Hegemony Abstract: The present study examines section five of Poroi and Xenophon’s proposal to restore the reputation of Athens. After outlining his plan for ‘justly’ supplying the dēmos with sufficient sustenance in Poroi 1-4, section 5 addresses the desire to regain hegemony after Athens had lost the Social War. Xenophon does not adopt an anti-imperialist stance; instead he seeks to re-align imperial aspirations with Athenian ideals and earlier paradigms for securing hegemony. Xenophon’s ideas in Poroi are contextualized with consideration for his ‘Socratic’ distinction between tyranny and kingship, as well as his wider advice for ruling well. It is shown that his proposals for securing the consent of the allies reiterates ideas that Xenophon outlines across his corpus, especially Hiero and Cyropaedia. In Poroi Xenophon therefore applies his political thought in an attempt to re-direct Athenian ambitions away from policies that prompted charges of being a ‘tyrant polis’ and towards ‘legitimate rule’. Keywords: Xenophon; Poroi; imperialism/hegemony; Social War In 2009 Dustin Gish and Wayne Ambler co-edited a volume of Polis devoted to Xenophon. -
Christopher Kegerreis, Setting a Royal Pace: Achaemenid Kingship and the Origin of Alexander the Great’S Bematistai
The Ancient History Bulletin VOLUME THIRTY-ONE: 2017 NUMBERS 1-2 Edited by: Edward Anson ò Michael Fronda òDavid Hollander Timothy Howe òJoseph Roisman ò John Vanderspoel Pat Wheatley ò Sabine Müller ISSN 0835-3638 ANCIENT HISTORY BULLETIN Volume 31 (2017) Numbers 1-2 Edited by: Edward Anson, Michael Fronda, David Hollander, Sabine Müller, Joseph Roisman, John Vanderspoel, Pat Wheatley Senior Editor: Timothy Howe Assistant Editor: Charlotte Dunn Editorial correspondents Elizabeth Baynham, Hugh Bowden, Franca Landucci Gattinoni, Alexander Meeus, Kurt Raaflaub, P.J. Rhodes, Robert Rollinger, Victor Alonso Troncoso Contents of volume thirty-one Numbers 1-2 1 Paul Johstono, Rumor, Rage, and Reversal: Tragic Patterns in Polybius’ Account of Agathocles at Alexandria 21 Frances Pownall, Dionysius I and the Creation of a New-Style Macedonian Monarchy 39 Christopher Kegerreis, Setting a Royal Pace: Achaemenid Kingship and the Origin of Alexander the Great’s Bematistai 65 Waldemar Heckel, Dareios III’s Military Reforms Before Gaugamela and the Alexander Mosaic: A Note NOTES TO CONTRIBUTORS AND SUBSCRIBERS The Ancient History Bulletin was founded in 1987 by Waldemar Heckel, Brian Lavelle, and John Vanderspoel. The board of editorial correspondents consists of Elizabeth Baynham (University of Newcastle), Hugh Bowden (Kings College, London), Franca Landucci Gattinoni (Università Cattolica, Milan), Alexander Meeus (University of Leuven), Kurt Raaflaub (Brown University), P.J. Rhodes (Durham University), Robert Rollinger (Universität Innsbruck), Victor Alonso Troncoso (Universidade da Coruña) AHB is currently edited by: Timothy Howe (Senior Editor: [email protected]), Edward Anson, Michael Fronda, David Hollander, Sabine Müller, Joseph Roisman, John Vanderspoel and Pat Wheatley. AHB promotes scholarly discussion in Ancient History and ancillary fields (such as epigraphy, papyrology, and numismatics) by publishing articles and notes on any aspect of the ancient world from the Near East to Late Antiquity.