Xenophon (C.430—C.350 BCE)
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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 -
A Moderately Ironic Reading of Xenophon's Oeconomicus
David M. JOHNSON Ischomachus the Model Husband? A Moderately Ironic Reading of Xenophon's Oeconomicus Xenophon's Oeconomicus is usually considered a treatise on household management masquerading as a Socratic dialogue (Pomeroy). But for others the reverse is true (Strauss and the Straussians; see also Mackenzie and Nails in EMC 1985, Too's review of Pomeroy in CR 1995, and the less orthodox Straussian Stevens). How one comes down on this issue will obviously affect one's evaluation of Ischomachus' relationship with his wife, and of Xenophon as a Socratic writer. I argue that the Oeconomicus is both Socratic and economic, both didactic and ironic. Xenophon chose Ischomachus because both his virtues and his vices have much to teach Critobulus, Socrates' immediate interlocutor, and Xenophon's readers. Our Ischomachus is probably the man whose wife went on to become the Chrysilla who would marry and bear a son to her son-in-law Callias, driving her daughter to attempt suicide (Andocides 1.124-127). There may be evidence for this in Oeconomicus itself. Callias would fall for Chrysilla again when she was "an old battleaxe" (Andocides 1.127); Ischomachus promises his wife that she can maintain her status even in old age (Oec. 7.20). The scandals which would beset Chrysilla and her children may shed light on Ischomachus' otherwise odd failure to say much about children to the wife he had married in large part for the sake of children. There are other ironies. Ischomachus hardly shares Socrates' understanding of property as that one knows how to use. Critobulus, in fact, is evidently already rich enough in conventional terms: he needs another sort of help. -
Oikos and Economy: the Greek Legacy in Economic Thought
Oikos and Economy: The Greek Legacy in Economic Thought GREGORY CAMERON In the study of the history of economic thought, there has been a tendency to take the meaning of the term “economics” for granted. As a consequence, when considering economic thought in ancient Greece, we turn to what the Greeks said about wealth, about money or about interest. This seems relatively straightforward. Problems emerge when we consider that the term “economics” had a different meaning in ancient Greece than it does today. As a rule, we project back onto history what we mean by “economics” and more or less ignore what it meant during the period in question. On one level, there is nothing wrong with this way of proceeding; after all we have no choice, ultimately, but to study the past with the concepts that are at our disposal. But the procedure can have certain drawbacks. The tendency of positive investigations is that they risk overlooking the kinds of transformations that give rise to our own concerns and even what is essential to our own thought and assumptions. The term “economics” has a long and varied history; the following is a brief attempt to turn things on their head and consider the history of economics not from the perspective of the modern notion of economics, but from the perspective of its ancient Greek ancestor and to begin to indicate the non-obvious ways in which the Greek legacy continues to inform even our most recent economies. As such, while brief mention is made of some modern economic historians, the primary focus is on the meaning of PhaenEx 3, no. -
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. -
Agorapicbk-17.Pdf
Excavations of the Athenian Agora Picture Book No. 17 Prepared by Mabel L. Lang Dedicated to Eugene Vanderpool o American School of Classical Studies at Athens ISBN 87661-617-1 Produced by the Meriden Gravure Company Meriden, Connecticut COVER: Bone figure of Socrates TITLE PAGE: Hemlock SOCRATES IN THE AGORA AMERICAN SCHOOL OF CLASSICAL STUDIES AT ATHENS PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY 1978 ‘Everything combines to make our knowledge of Socrates himself a subject of Socratic irony. The only thing we know definitely about him is that we know nothing.’ -L. Brunschvicg As FAR AS we know Socrates himselfwrote nothing, yet not only were his life and words given dramatic attention in his own time in the Clouds of Ar- istophanes, but they have also become the subject of many others’ writing in the centuries since his death. Fourth-century B.C. writers who had first-hand knowledge of him composed either dialogues in which he was the dominant figure (Plato and Aeschines) or memories of his teaching and activities (Xe- nophon). Later authors down even to the present day have written numerous biographies based on these early sources and considering this most protean of philosophers from every possible point of view except perhaps the topograph- ical one which is attempted here. Instead of putting Socrates in the context of 5th-century B.C. philosophy, politics, ethics or rhetoric, we shall look to find him in the material world and physical surroundings of his favorite stamping- grounds, the Athenian Agora. Just as ‘agora’ in its original sense meant ‘gathering place’ but came in time to mean ‘market place’, so the agora itself was originally a gathering place I. -
Citations in Classics and Ancient History
Citations in Classics and Ancient History The most common style in use in the field of Classical Studies is the author-date style, also known as Chicago 2, but MLA is also quite common and perfectly acceptable. Quick guides for each of MLA and Chicago 2 are readily available as PDF downloads. The Chicago Manual of Style Online offers a guide on their web-page: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html The Modern Language Association (MLA) does not, but many educational institutions post an MLA guide for free access. While a specific citation style should be followed carefully, none take into account the specific practices of Classical Studies. They are all (Chicago, MLA and others) perfectly suitable for citing most resources, but should not be followed for citing ancient Greek and Latin primary source material, including primary sources in translation. Citing Primary Sources: Every ancient text has its own unique system for locating content by numbers. For example, Homer's Iliad is divided into 24 Books (what we might now call chapters) and the lines of each Book are numbered from line 1. Herodotus' Histories is divided into nine Books and each of these Books is divided into Chapters and each chapter into line numbers. The purpose of such a system is that the Iliad, or any primary source, can be cited in any language and from any publication and always refer to the same passage. That is why we do not cite Herodotus page 66. Page 66 in what publication, in what edition? Very early in your textbook, Apodexis Historia, a passage from Herodotus is reproduced. -
The Impact of the Roman Army (200 BC – AD 476)
Impact of Empire 6 IMEM-6-deBlois_CS2.indd i 5-4-2007 8:35:52 Impact of Empire Editorial Board of the series Impact of Empire (= Management Team of the Network Impact of Empire) Lukas de Blois, Angelos Chaniotis Ségolène Demougin, Olivier Hekster, Gerda de Kleijn Luuk de Ligt, Elio Lo Cascio, Michael Peachin John Rich, and Christian Witschel Executive Secretariat of the Series and the Network Lukas de Blois, Olivier Hekster Gerda de Kleijn and John Rich Radboud University of Nijmegen, Erasmusplein 1, P.O. Box 9103, 6500 HD Nijmegen, The Netherlands E-mail addresses: [email protected] and [email protected] Academic Board of the International Network Impact of Empire geza alföldy – stéphane benoist – anthony birley christer bruun – john drinkwater – werner eck – peter funke andrea giardina – johannes hahn – fik meijer – onno van nijf marie-thérèse raepsaet-charlier – john richardson bert van der spek – richard talbert – willem zwalve VOLUME 6 IMEM-6-deBlois_CS2.indd ii 5-4-2007 8:35:52 The Impact of the Roman Army (200 BC – AD 476) Economic, Social, Political, Religious and Cultural Aspects Proceedings of the Sixth Workshop of the International Network Impact of Empire (Roman Empire, 200 B.C. – A.D. 476) Capri, March 29 – April 2, 2005 Edited by Lukas de Blois & Elio Lo Cascio With the Aid of Olivier Hekster & Gerda de Kleijn LEIDEN • BOSTON 2007 This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC 4.0 License, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. -
Sophrosyne in Xenophon’S Oeconomicus
166 ECONOMIC SELF- RESTRAINT An interpretation of Ischomachus’ use of sophrosyne in Xenophon’s Oeconomicus MA Thesis Classics and Ancient Civilizations Supervisor: Dr. T.A. van Berkel Second reader: Dr. A.M. Rademaker Word count: 16.494 Date of submission: 12-08-2019 Aniek Vink s1665235 [email protected] Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 2 Chapter 1: a semantic study of sophrosyne ............................................................................................. 4 1.1. General uses ................................................................................................................................. 4 1.2. Plato’s philosophical uses ............................................................................................................ 8 1.3. Relation to enkrateia .................................................................................................................... 9 Chapter 2: Socrates’ sophrosyne ........................................................................................................... 11 2.1. Good sense to avoid harming others .......................................................................................... 11 2.1.1. Xenophon’s apologetic definition ....................................................................................... 11 2.1.2. Socrates’ philosophical definition ...................................................................................... -
Neoplatonic Asclepius: Science and Religion at the Crossroads of Aristotelian Biology, Hippocratic Medicine and Platonic Theurgy
Studia Antiqua et Archaeologica 23(2): 333–349 Neoplatonic Asclepius: Science and religion at the crossroads of Aristotelian biology, Hippocratic medicine and Platonic theurgy Eugene AFONASIN1 Abstract. In the first part of the paper, I will briefly discuss certain peculiarities of the medical profession in antiquity. In his Philosophical History (fr. 80–84 Athanassiadi) Damascius narrates about a philosopher, named Asclepiodotus, whose interests ranged from Platonic philosophy to Aristotelian natural sciences. Asclepiodotus’ instructor in medical matters, a son of a doctor from the island of Rhodos, Iacobus, is pictured by Damascius as an exemplary figure (fr. 84), who, unlike many of his contemporaries, always tested the opinions of others and gained a reputation of an extremely successful physician, although the methods of treatment, ascribed to him by Damascius, are highly reminiscent of those presented as the Pythagorean by Iamblichus (On the Pythagorean way of life 244). In this respect both Iacobus and Asclepiodotus are conformed to the best standards of medical ethics, and pass the test set by Galen in his “On examination by which the best physicians are recognized”, except perhaps by the fact that they preferred to base their activities on such authorities as Aristotle and the Methodist Soranus rather than on a list of the “dogmatists” proposed by Galen. In the second part of the paper, dedicated to the cult of Asclepius in Late Antiquity, I will look at various kinds of evidence taken from the Neoplatonic philosophers. Having discussed first the principal philosophical interpretations of Asclepius found in Apuleius, Aelianus, Macrobius, Julian, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Proclus, Damascius, etc., we turn to Proclus’ attitude to Athena and Asclepius as reflected in Marinus’ Vita Procli and finally discuss the cult of Eshmun as found in Damascius. -
De Novis Libris Iudicia 247 XENOPHON: Hiero the Tyrant And
De novis libris iudicia 247 XENOPHON: Hiero the Tyrant and Other Treatises. Translated by ROBIN WATERFIELD, with introductions and notes by PAUL CARTLEDGE. Penguin Books, London – New York 1997. ISBN 0-14-044682-6. xxxi, 248 pp. GBP 7.99 / USD 13.95. Waterfield had previously published, together with H. Tredennick, the Memoirs of Socrates in 1990 in a volume entitled Conversations of Socrates in the same Penguin Classics. Now he presents a new translation of Hiero, Agesilaus, Hipparchicus, De re equestri, Cynegeticus, and Poroi. The six treatises are translated from Marchant's Oxford edition from 1920 (he would have had some more recent editions at his disposal, but neglecting them may not have caused any great harm); at the end of the volume the reader is offered some textual notes. Waterfield's translations seem to be – if a non-native speaker of English be permitted to judge – clear and accurate. The volume is opened by Paul Cartledge's succinct and well-written Introduction. Heikki Solin MELISSA S. LANE: Method and Politics in Plato's Statesman. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1998. ISBN 0-521-58229-6. 229 pp. GBP 35. Until quite recently, the interest in Plato's so-called late dialogues has been considerably weaker than in the dialogues considered earlier. In the latter, language, style and drama are often more elaborate, and thus they are more enjoyable to read as well as, sometimes, easier to understand. Even among the less entertaining late dialogues, the Statesman has sometimes been judged as exceptionally dull. With the new interest in the philosophical content of the late dialogues, several studies have shown that an assiduous inquiry into this neglected side of Plato has much to offer. -
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 .............................................................................................. -
Scripta Minora, with an English Translation by E.C. Marchant
THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY FOUKDED BY J1.MKS LOEB, IX.D. EDITED BT t T. E. PAGE, C.H., LITT.D. E. CAPPS, PH.D., LL.D W. H. D. ROUSE, litt.d. L. A. POST, M.A. E. H. WARMINGTON. m.a. XENOPHON SCRIITA MINORA XENOPHON SCRIPTA MINORA WITH AN ENGLISH TRAXSLATION BY E. C. MARCHANT nTB-RECTOR OF LINCOLM COLLKOE, OXFORD LONDON WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS MCMXLVI FmsT Pbikted . 1925 Repbiijtkd . 1946 PrinUd tn Qreal Britain CONTENTS PAOK ixTRODUcnoK ii HIKRO • 1 AGESILATT8 59 CONSTHTXJTION OF THE LACBDAEM0NIAN8 135 WAY8 AND MEANS 191 ON THE CAVALRT COMMANDSR 233 ON THB ART OF H0RSEMAN8HIF 296 ON HTTNTINO 365 INDIX . •• 459 INTRODUCTION " Well, Xenophon, I had been told that you are an Athenian ; and that was all I knew about you : but now I praise you for your words and deeds, and I should wish as many as possible to be like you. That would be good for everybody."—Cheirisophus the Lacedaemonian, in Anabasis, iii. i. 45. Various modern writers have challenged the ascription to Xenophon of every one of the works included in this volume. The Agesilatis and the Ways and Means have suffered much from the on- slaughts of the critics, the Jgesilaus on account of its style, the JVai/s and Means for its subject matter It must sutfice here to say that no case has been made out against any one of them, with the excep- tion of the Hunting ; and, even in that case, it is impossible to state with confidence that the main portion of the treatise was not written by Xenophon.^ The rest may be accepted with confidence as the work of the man whose name they bear.