What was the primary motivation for a historical figure like Xenophon to create an extensive collection of written material?Historical, academic explanations for the near-universal second-class citizenship of women?What is the historical reason for 18 years being the most commonly accepted age of adulthood?What was the contemporary reaction to Dante's Divine Comedy?Was John S. Mosby the model/motivation/template for John Carter?What was the medium for Marcus Aurelius's Meditations?What was the name of this medieval philosophical idea?What are the tabs/spaces for in the Beowulf textWhat is the source for this Leonardo Da Vinci quote?In Classical Athens, what did the portico of the archon basileus look like?

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What was the primary motivation for a historical figure like Xenophon to create an extensive collection of written material?


Historical, academic explanations for the near-universal second-class citizenship of women?What is the historical reason for 18 years being the most commonly accepted age of adulthood?What was the contemporary reaction to Dante's Divine Comedy?Was John S. Mosby the model/motivation/template for John Carter?What was the medium for Marcus Aurelius's Meditations?What was the name of this medieval philosophical idea?What are the tabs/spaces for in the Beowulf textWhat is the source for this Leonardo Da Vinci quote?In Classical Athens, what did the portico of the archon basileus look like?






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9

















Xenophon of Athens created a large amount of written material even by today's standards. Did he create this work knowing it would be read by future generations, or was it for his own satisfaction? I could imagine figures like Socrates, Aristotle, or Herodotus might expect their work to be copied many times, but maybe not?



Is this similar to academia, where a document or book might be highly useful to a smaller audience? Even in this case, the physical effort to create and copy the work seems trivial compared to the same with Papyrus and copying by hand.



Hellencia Papyrus










share|improve this question
































    9

















    Xenophon of Athens created a large amount of written material even by today's standards. Did he create this work knowing it would be read by future generations, or was it for his own satisfaction? I could imagine figures like Socrates, Aristotle, or Herodotus might expect their work to be copied many times, but maybe not?



    Is this similar to academia, where a document or book might be highly useful to a smaller audience? Even in this case, the physical effort to create and copy the work seems trivial compared to the same with Papyrus and copying by hand.



    Hellencia Papyrus










    share|improve this question




























      9












      9








      9








      Xenophon of Athens created a large amount of written material even by today's standards. Did he create this work knowing it would be read by future generations, or was it for his own satisfaction? I could imagine figures like Socrates, Aristotle, or Herodotus might expect their work to be copied many times, but maybe not?



      Is this similar to academia, where a document or book might be highly useful to a smaller audience? Even in this case, the physical effort to create and copy the work seems trivial compared to the same with Papyrus and copying by hand.



      Hellencia Papyrus










      share|improve this question















      Xenophon of Athens created a large amount of written material even by today's standards. Did he create this work knowing it would be read by future generations, or was it for his own satisfaction? I could imagine figures like Socrates, Aristotle, or Herodotus might expect their work to be copied many times, but maybe not?



      Is this similar to academia, where a document or book might be highly useful to a smaller audience? Even in this case, the physical effort to create and copy the work seems trivial compared to the same with Papyrus and copying by hand.



      Hellencia Papyrus







      ancient-greece literature philosophy writing world






      share|improve this question














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      share|improve this question










      asked May 18 at 16:53









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      1484 bronze badges























          3 Answers
          3






          active

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          14


















          Xenophon gave specific reasons for some of his works but for others he did not.



          Xenophon (about 431 BC to 354 BC) produced a very wide range of work during his lifetime: historical, biographical, philosophical, instructional. He never stated a primary purpose for all his works and we can deduce that some of what he wrote was aimed at specific audiences.



          For some of his works, he states a purpose (see below). For others we can sometimes deduce his intent with a certain degree of confidence, but with other texts we cannot be sure.



          The historical works Anabasis and Hellenika, are the most problematic for, as John Marincola states in The Cambridge Companion to Xenophon,




          Xenophon does not give us much help in interpreting these works. No
          major ancient historian is more reticent about the nature and purpose
          of his history...




          As Xenophon read the works of some of those who came before him, he would certainly would have expected (and intended) that what he wrote would be copied and read by others. From the way that Xenophon returns to certain themes (such as leadership) in different works, we can deduce that he was perhaps partly motivated by what interested him and what he saw as important.




          WORKS WHERE XENOPHON STATES A REASON



          Agesilaos



          In Agesilaos, (King Agesilaos II of Sparta, ruled c. 398 – c. 360 BC), Xenophon begins with:




          I know how difficult it is to write an appreciation of Agesilaus that
          shall be worthy of his virtue and glory. Nevertheless the attempt must
          be made. For it would not be seemly that so good a man, just because
          of his perfection, should receive no tributes of praise, however
          inadequate.




          This laudatory account of Agesilaos is in contrast to some parts of Hellenika (see below) where Agesilaos is at times criticized.



          Symposium



          In the Socratic dialogue Symposium, Xenophon, through a narrator, says:




          To my mind it is worth while to relate not only the serious acts of
          great and good men but also what they do in their lighter moods. I
          should like to narrate an experience of mine that gives me this
          conviction.




          Apology and Memorabilia



          The Socratic dialogues Apology and Memorabilia are both defences of Socrates but are aimed at different audiences. In Apology, his intent was to make explicit something about Socrates' defence which he felt other writers hadn't:




          It seems to me fitting to hand down to memory, furthermore, how
          Socrates, on being indicted, deliberated on his defence and on his
          end. It is true that others have written about this, and that all of
          them have reproduced the loftiness of his words,—a fact which proves
          that his utterance really was of the character intimated;—but they
          have not shown clearly that he had now come to the conclusion that for
          him death was more to be desired than life; and hence his lofty
          utterance appears rather ill-considered.




          Thus, Apology is aimed at an audience which is already 'sympathetic' to Socrates. In contrast,




          The audience Xenophon imagines for the Memorabilia , on the other
          hand, presumably includes readers still open to the attacks against
          Socrates; otherwise Xenophon would not spend so much time summarizing
          and refuting such arguments.




          Constitution of the Lacedaimonians



          Xenophon's pro-Spartan sympathies frequently show through in his writing (see Hellenika, for example), though he is not entirely uncritical. In this treatise on the Spartan constitution, Xenophon started with:




          It occurred to me one day that Sparta, though among the most thinly
          populated of states, was evidently the most powerful and most
          celebrated city in Greece; and I fell to wondering how this could have
          happened. But when I considered the institutions of the Spartans, I
          wondered no longer.




          Xenophon, like many Greek writers, was concerned with good government and leadership. In Constitution, he praises Spartan institutions and aims to show how Sparta became a great power, but he also criticizes Spartans for not following their laws in his own time. Thus, he seems to be pointing to Sparta's decline, even before the catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC




          WORKS WHERE XENOPHON DOES NOT CLEARLY STATE A REASON



          Cyropaedia



          (see also the section below on Anabasis) This multi-genre text is Xenophon's longest work and focuses on Cyrus the Great (although much of it is fiction) but it was intended neither as a history nor a biography but rather as a thesis on the training of a ruler. Cyropaedia is




          the most enigmatic with regards to the author’s intentions....Xenophon
          sets out to narrate certain noteworthy incidents and exceptional deeds
          (military and political) from the life of Cyrus the Great.... What he found most admirable and
          underlines already in the prologue of this work is the fact that Cyrus
          managed to rule a great empire with the willing obedience of his
          followers. The Cyropaedia is thus presented as having serious claims
          to contribute to the political discourse of Xenophon’s time. It is no
          wonder that in antiquity it was considered a response to Plato’s
          Republic...




          Why did Xenophon choose a Persian, Cyrus? Melina Tamiolaki, in The Cambridge Companion to Xenophon argues that:




          At least two reasons can be advanced to explain this choice: firstly,
          Xenophon was interested in paradigms of successful empires; obviously
          he could not find such paradigms in Greece, which experienced
          consecutive failures of empires. Secondly, he must have been impressed
          by specific features on which the propaganda about Cyrus insisted,
          mainly his qualities as a benevolent despot and his success in gaining
          the willing obedience of his followers. Greek leaders ostensibly
          lacked these qualities, for the simple reason that the regime of
          monarchy that by definition enables and fosters them, was absent in
          Greece. Xenophon wished to underline these qualities, but without
          implying a suggestion about constitutional change in Greece.




          Hellenika



          Hellenika is a continuation of Thucydides' work on the Peloponnesian War and then beyond. His style reveals that he had clearly read both Herodotus and Thucydides. He begins Hellenika with "And after those things, not many days later...". David Thomas, in his introduction to The Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika, observes:




          Xenophon begins this way, expecting the reader to recognize that he is
          picking up roughly where Thucydides left off....Xenophon...is in some
          sense claiming to be a historian who can be compared to Thucydides.




          Thucydides states why he wrote his work. It was because he thought




          "it would be a great war, and more worthy of relation than any other
          that had preceded it"




          Xenophon may have felt the same way, particularly as he simply continues from where Thucydides left off. What else might have given him reason to write Hellenika we don't know with any certainty but Thomas suggests that Xenophon wished to put his own 'slant' on events, which might account for the differences between Xenophon's Hellenika and the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia (unknown author).



          Anabasis



          This is similarly problematic in terms of motive. Perhaps he felt that the march of 10,000 Greeks through the heart of the mighty Persian empire was too good a story not to tell, but there is almost certainly more to it than that. In Anabasis, the theme of Leaders and Followers is evident, as it was in Cyropaedia, and Xenophon's desire to make known his thoughts on what he personally saw as something very important may well have been an important (but not only) reason for writing both Anabasis and Cyropaedia.




          OTHER WORKS



          Hipparchicus, On Horsemanship and Hunting with Dogs



          Hipparchicus, On Horsemanship and Hunting with Dogs can all be considered technical treatise. They are instructional, but that does not appear to be the only reason that Xenophon wrote them. Hipparchicus, for example, sees Xenophon once again dealing with leadership, while Hunting with Dogs




          is a definite outlier in Xenophon’s corpus of smaller works and a
          difficult text. It is made up of three distinct parts: an elaborate,
          mythological preface; an extensive attack upon the sophists at the
          end; in between, a fairly straightforward practical section concerning
          hunting.




          Source: John Dillery (Chapter 10), in The Cambridge Companion to Xenophon






          share|improve this answer



































            8


















            In a specific case, his work was clearly intended as instructional manual for others:



            His work On Horsemanship addresses cavalry officers and others either involved with the training of horses or the leading of mounted troops.



            Thus sitting "between" your two positions of "for future generations" and "for own satisfaction".



            The twist being that he almost certainly could not predict that future generations of equestrians would still return to this work and marvel about how much of his instructions and observations stood the test of time, through fads and fashions, across nearly 2 1/2 thousand years!






            share|improve this answer

































              6


















              Of course we can only conjecture (as we cannot know exactly what was in Xenophon's mind), so I conjecture that motivation was the same as for many modern writers: it is the desire to spread one's knowledge and ideas. To the contemporaries and to the later generations. There are additional, secondary motivations, of course, such as fame, respect in the society and other benefits. Famous writers can get various favors from the rulers and from the people.



              The only difference between the ancient Greece and modern world in this respect is that monetary rewards play more important role in the modern world. We invented copyright, and some modern authors can be more motivated by selling their writings.
              This was apparently not a motivation of the Greeks. And in general, money plays a much greater role in the modern world then in the ancient world.






              share|improve this answer



























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                3 Answers
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                14


















                Xenophon gave specific reasons for some of his works but for others he did not.



                Xenophon (about 431 BC to 354 BC) produced a very wide range of work during his lifetime: historical, biographical, philosophical, instructional. He never stated a primary purpose for all his works and we can deduce that some of what he wrote was aimed at specific audiences.



                For some of his works, he states a purpose (see below). For others we can sometimes deduce his intent with a certain degree of confidence, but with other texts we cannot be sure.



                The historical works Anabasis and Hellenika, are the most problematic for, as John Marincola states in The Cambridge Companion to Xenophon,




                Xenophon does not give us much help in interpreting these works. No
                major ancient historian is more reticent about the nature and purpose
                of his history...




                As Xenophon read the works of some of those who came before him, he would certainly would have expected (and intended) that what he wrote would be copied and read by others. From the way that Xenophon returns to certain themes (such as leadership) in different works, we can deduce that he was perhaps partly motivated by what interested him and what he saw as important.




                WORKS WHERE XENOPHON STATES A REASON



                Agesilaos



                In Agesilaos, (King Agesilaos II of Sparta, ruled c. 398 – c. 360 BC), Xenophon begins with:




                I know how difficult it is to write an appreciation of Agesilaus that
                shall be worthy of his virtue and glory. Nevertheless the attempt must
                be made. For it would not be seemly that so good a man, just because
                of his perfection, should receive no tributes of praise, however
                inadequate.




                This laudatory account of Agesilaos is in contrast to some parts of Hellenika (see below) where Agesilaos is at times criticized.



                Symposium



                In the Socratic dialogue Symposium, Xenophon, through a narrator, says:




                To my mind it is worth while to relate not only the serious acts of
                great and good men but also what they do in their lighter moods. I
                should like to narrate an experience of mine that gives me this
                conviction.




                Apology and Memorabilia



                The Socratic dialogues Apology and Memorabilia are both defences of Socrates but are aimed at different audiences. In Apology, his intent was to make explicit something about Socrates' defence which he felt other writers hadn't:




                It seems to me fitting to hand down to memory, furthermore, how
                Socrates, on being indicted, deliberated on his defence and on his
                end. It is true that others have written about this, and that all of
                them have reproduced the loftiness of his words,—a fact which proves
                that his utterance really was of the character intimated;—but they
                have not shown clearly that he had now come to the conclusion that for
                him death was more to be desired than life; and hence his lofty
                utterance appears rather ill-considered.




                Thus, Apology is aimed at an audience which is already 'sympathetic' to Socrates. In contrast,




                The audience Xenophon imagines for the Memorabilia , on the other
                hand, presumably includes readers still open to the attacks against
                Socrates; otherwise Xenophon would not spend so much time summarizing
                and refuting such arguments.




                Constitution of the Lacedaimonians



                Xenophon's pro-Spartan sympathies frequently show through in his writing (see Hellenika, for example), though he is not entirely uncritical. In this treatise on the Spartan constitution, Xenophon started with:




                It occurred to me one day that Sparta, though among the most thinly
                populated of states, was evidently the most powerful and most
                celebrated city in Greece; and I fell to wondering how this could have
                happened. But when I considered the institutions of the Spartans, I
                wondered no longer.




                Xenophon, like many Greek writers, was concerned with good government and leadership. In Constitution, he praises Spartan institutions and aims to show how Sparta became a great power, but he also criticizes Spartans for not following their laws in his own time. Thus, he seems to be pointing to Sparta's decline, even before the catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC




                WORKS WHERE XENOPHON DOES NOT CLEARLY STATE A REASON



                Cyropaedia



                (see also the section below on Anabasis) This multi-genre text is Xenophon's longest work and focuses on Cyrus the Great (although much of it is fiction) but it was intended neither as a history nor a biography but rather as a thesis on the training of a ruler. Cyropaedia is




                the most enigmatic with regards to the author’s intentions....Xenophon
                sets out to narrate certain noteworthy incidents and exceptional deeds
                (military and political) from the life of Cyrus the Great.... What he found most admirable and
                underlines already in the prologue of this work is the fact that Cyrus
                managed to rule a great empire with the willing obedience of his
                followers. The Cyropaedia is thus presented as having serious claims
                to contribute to the political discourse of Xenophon’s time. It is no
                wonder that in antiquity it was considered a response to Plato’s
                Republic...




                Why did Xenophon choose a Persian, Cyrus? Melina Tamiolaki, in The Cambridge Companion to Xenophon argues that:




                At least two reasons can be advanced to explain this choice: firstly,
                Xenophon was interested in paradigms of successful empires; obviously
                he could not find such paradigms in Greece, which experienced
                consecutive failures of empires. Secondly, he must have been impressed
                by specific features on which the propaganda about Cyrus insisted,
                mainly his qualities as a benevolent despot and his success in gaining
                the willing obedience of his followers. Greek leaders ostensibly
                lacked these qualities, for the simple reason that the regime of
                monarchy that by definition enables and fosters them, was absent in
                Greece. Xenophon wished to underline these qualities, but without
                implying a suggestion about constitutional change in Greece.




                Hellenika



                Hellenika is a continuation of Thucydides' work on the Peloponnesian War and then beyond. His style reveals that he had clearly read both Herodotus and Thucydides. He begins Hellenika with "And after those things, not many days later...". David Thomas, in his introduction to The Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika, observes:




                Xenophon begins this way, expecting the reader to recognize that he is
                picking up roughly where Thucydides left off....Xenophon...is in some
                sense claiming to be a historian who can be compared to Thucydides.




                Thucydides states why he wrote his work. It was because he thought




                "it would be a great war, and more worthy of relation than any other
                that had preceded it"




                Xenophon may have felt the same way, particularly as he simply continues from where Thucydides left off. What else might have given him reason to write Hellenika we don't know with any certainty but Thomas suggests that Xenophon wished to put his own 'slant' on events, which might account for the differences between Xenophon's Hellenika and the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia (unknown author).



                Anabasis



                This is similarly problematic in terms of motive. Perhaps he felt that the march of 10,000 Greeks through the heart of the mighty Persian empire was too good a story not to tell, but there is almost certainly more to it than that. In Anabasis, the theme of Leaders and Followers is evident, as it was in Cyropaedia, and Xenophon's desire to make known his thoughts on what he personally saw as something very important may well have been an important (but not only) reason for writing both Anabasis and Cyropaedia.




                OTHER WORKS



                Hipparchicus, On Horsemanship and Hunting with Dogs



                Hipparchicus, On Horsemanship and Hunting with Dogs can all be considered technical treatise. They are instructional, but that does not appear to be the only reason that Xenophon wrote them. Hipparchicus, for example, sees Xenophon once again dealing with leadership, while Hunting with Dogs




                is a definite outlier in Xenophon’s corpus of smaller works and a
                difficult text. It is made up of three distinct parts: an elaborate,
                mythological preface; an extensive attack upon the sophists at the
                end; in between, a fairly straightforward practical section concerning
                hunting.




                Source: John Dillery (Chapter 10), in The Cambridge Companion to Xenophon






                share|improve this answer
































                  14


















                  Xenophon gave specific reasons for some of his works but for others he did not.



                  Xenophon (about 431 BC to 354 BC) produced a very wide range of work during his lifetime: historical, biographical, philosophical, instructional. He never stated a primary purpose for all his works and we can deduce that some of what he wrote was aimed at specific audiences.



                  For some of his works, he states a purpose (see below). For others we can sometimes deduce his intent with a certain degree of confidence, but with other texts we cannot be sure.



                  The historical works Anabasis and Hellenika, are the most problematic for, as John Marincola states in The Cambridge Companion to Xenophon,




                  Xenophon does not give us much help in interpreting these works. No
                  major ancient historian is more reticent about the nature and purpose
                  of his history...




                  As Xenophon read the works of some of those who came before him, he would certainly would have expected (and intended) that what he wrote would be copied and read by others. From the way that Xenophon returns to certain themes (such as leadership) in different works, we can deduce that he was perhaps partly motivated by what interested him and what he saw as important.




                  WORKS WHERE XENOPHON STATES A REASON



                  Agesilaos



                  In Agesilaos, (King Agesilaos II of Sparta, ruled c. 398 – c. 360 BC), Xenophon begins with:




                  I know how difficult it is to write an appreciation of Agesilaus that
                  shall be worthy of his virtue and glory. Nevertheless the attempt must
                  be made. For it would not be seemly that so good a man, just because
                  of his perfection, should receive no tributes of praise, however
                  inadequate.




                  This laudatory account of Agesilaos is in contrast to some parts of Hellenika (see below) where Agesilaos is at times criticized.



                  Symposium



                  In the Socratic dialogue Symposium, Xenophon, through a narrator, says:




                  To my mind it is worth while to relate not only the serious acts of
                  great and good men but also what they do in their lighter moods. I
                  should like to narrate an experience of mine that gives me this
                  conviction.




                  Apology and Memorabilia



                  The Socratic dialogues Apology and Memorabilia are both defences of Socrates but are aimed at different audiences. In Apology, his intent was to make explicit something about Socrates' defence which he felt other writers hadn't:




                  It seems to me fitting to hand down to memory, furthermore, how
                  Socrates, on being indicted, deliberated on his defence and on his
                  end. It is true that others have written about this, and that all of
                  them have reproduced the loftiness of his words,—a fact which proves
                  that his utterance really was of the character intimated;—but they
                  have not shown clearly that he had now come to the conclusion that for
                  him death was more to be desired than life; and hence his lofty
                  utterance appears rather ill-considered.




                  Thus, Apology is aimed at an audience which is already 'sympathetic' to Socrates. In contrast,




                  The audience Xenophon imagines for the Memorabilia , on the other
                  hand, presumably includes readers still open to the attacks against
                  Socrates; otherwise Xenophon would not spend so much time summarizing
                  and refuting such arguments.




                  Constitution of the Lacedaimonians



                  Xenophon's pro-Spartan sympathies frequently show through in his writing (see Hellenika, for example), though he is not entirely uncritical. In this treatise on the Spartan constitution, Xenophon started with:




                  It occurred to me one day that Sparta, though among the most thinly
                  populated of states, was evidently the most powerful and most
                  celebrated city in Greece; and I fell to wondering how this could have
                  happened. But when I considered the institutions of the Spartans, I
                  wondered no longer.




                  Xenophon, like many Greek writers, was concerned with good government and leadership. In Constitution, he praises Spartan institutions and aims to show how Sparta became a great power, but he also criticizes Spartans for not following their laws in his own time. Thus, he seems to be pointing to Sparta's decline, even before the catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC




                  WORKS WHERE XENOPHON DOES NOT CLEARLY STATE A REASON



                  Cyropaedia



                  (see also the section below on Anabasis) This multi-genre text is Xenophon's longest work and focuses on Cyrus the Great (although much of it is fiction) but it was intended neither as a history nor a biography but rather as a thesis on the training of a ruler. Cyropaedia is




                  the most enigmatic with regards to the author’s intentions....Xenophon
                  sets out to narrate certain noteworthy incidents and exceptional deeds
                  (military and political) from the life of Cyrus the Great.... What he found most admirable and
                  underlines already in the prologue of this work is the fact that Cyrus
                  managed to rule a great empire with the willing obedience of his
                  followers. The Cyropaedia is thus presented as having serious claims
                  to contribute to the political discourse of Xenophon’s time. It is no
                  wonder that in antiquity it was considered a response to Plato’s
                  Republic...




                  Why did Xenophon choose a Persian, Cyrus? Melina Tamiolaki, in The Cambridge Companion to Xenophon argues that:




                  At least two reasons can be advanced to explain this choice: firstly,
                  Xenophon was interested in paradigms of successful empires; obviously
                  he could not find such paradigms in Greece, which experienced
                  consecutive failures of empires. Secondly, he must have been impressed
                  by specific features on which the propaganda about Cyrus insisted,
                  mainly his qualities as a benevolent despot and his success in gaining
                  the willing obedience of his followers. Greek leaders ostensibly
                  lacked these qualities, for the simple reason that the regime of
                  monarchy that by definition enables and fosters them, was absent in
                  Greece. Xenophon wished to underline these qualities, but without
                  implying a suggestion about constitutional change in Greece.




                  Hellenika



                  Hellenika is a continuation of Thucydides' work on the Peloponnesian War and then beyond. His style reveals that he had clearly read both Herodotus and Thucydides. He begins Hellenika with "And after those things, not many days later...". David Thomas, in his introduction to The Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika, observes:




                  Xenophon begins this way, expecting the reader to recognize that he is
                  picking up roughly where Thucydides left off....Xenophon...is in some
                  sense claiming to be a historian who can be compared to Thucydides.




                  Thucydides states why he wrote his work. It was because he thought




                  "it would be a great war, and more worthy of relation than any other
                  that had preceded it"




                  Xenophon may have felt the same way, particularly as he simply continues from where Thucydides left off. What else might have given him reason to write Hellenika we don't know with any certainty but Thomas suggests that Xenophon wished to put his own 'slant' on events, which might account for the differences between Xenophon's Hellenika and the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia (unknown author).



                  Anabasis



                  This is similarly problematic in terms of motive. Perhaps he felt that the march of 10,000 Greeks through the heart of the mighty Persian empire was too good a story not to tell, but there is almost certainly more to it than that. In Anabasis, the theme of Leaders and Followers is evident, as it was in Cyropaedia, and Xenophon's desire to make known his thoughts on what he personally saw as something very important may well have been an important (but not only) reason for writing both Anabasis and Cyropaedia.




                  OTHER WORKS



                  Hipparchicus, On Horsemanship and Hunting with Dogs



                  Hipparchicus, On Horsemanship and Hunting with Dogs can all be considered technical treatise. They are instructional, but that does not appear to be the only reason that Xenophon wrote them. Hipparchicus, for example, sees Xenophon once again dealing with leadership, while Hunting with Dogs




                  is a definite outlier in Xenophon’s corpus of smaller works and a
                  difficult text. It is made up of three distinct parts: an elaborate,
                  mythological preface; an extensive attack upon the sophists at the
                  end; in between, a fairly straightforward practical section concerning
                  hunting.




                  Source: John Dillery (Chapter 10), in The Cambridge Companion to Xenophon






                  share|improve this answer






























                    14














                    14










                    14









                    Xenophon gave specific reasons for some of his works but for others he did not.



                    Xenophon (about 431 BC to 354 BC) produced a very wide range of work during his lifetime: historical, biographical, philosophical, instructional. He never stated a primary purpose for all his works and we can deduce that some of what he wrote was aimed at specific audiences.



                    For some of his works, he states a purpose (see below). For others we can sometimes deduce his intent with a certain degree of confidence, but with other texts we cannot be sure.



                    The historical works Anabasis and Hellenika, are the most problematic for, as John Marincola states in The Cambridge Companion to Xenophon,




                    Xenophon does not give us much help in interpreting these works. No
                    major ancient historian is more reticent about the nature and purpose
                    of his history...




                    As Xenophon read the works of some of those who came before him, he would certainly would have expected (and intended) that what he wrote would be copied and read by others. From the way that Xenophon returns to certain themes (such as leadership) in different works, we can deduce that he was perhaps partly motivated by what interested him and what he saw as important.




                    WORKS WHERE XENOPHON STATES A REASON



                    Agesilaos



                    In Agesilaos, (King Agesilaos II of Sparta, ruled c. 398 – c. 360 BC), Xenophon begins with:




                    I know how difficult it is to write an appreciation of Agesilaus that
                    shall be worthy of his virtue and glory. Nevertheless the attempt must
                    be made. For it would not be seemly that so good a man, just because
                    of his perfection, should receive no tributes of praise, however
                    inadequate.




                    This laudatory account of Agesilaos is in contrast to some parts of Hellenika (see below) where Agesilaos is at times criticized.



                    Symposium



                    In the Socratic dialogue Symposium, Xenophon, through a narrator, says:




                    To my mind it is worth while to relate not only the serious acts of
                    great and good men but also what they do in their lighter moods. I
                    should like to narrate an experience of mine that gives me this
                    conviction.




                    Apology and Memorabilia



                    The Socratic dialogues Apology and Memorabilia are both defences of Socrates but are aimed at different audiences. In Apology, his intent was to make explicit something about Socrates' defence which he felt other writers hadn't:




                    It seems to me fitting to hand down to memory, furthermore, how
                    Socrates, on being indicted, deliberated on his defence and on his
                    end. It is true that others have written about this, and that all of
                    them have reproduced the loftiness of his words,—a fact which proves
                    that his utterance really was of the character intimated;—but they
                    have not shown clearly that he had now come to the conclusion that for
                    him death was more to be desired than life; and hence his lofty
                    utterance appears rather ill-considered.




                    Thus, Apology is aimed at an audience which is already 'sympathetic' to Socrates. In contrast,




                    The audience Xenophon imagines for the Memorabilia , on the other
                    hand, presumably includes readers still open to the attacks against
                    Socrates; otherwise Xenophon would not spend so much time summarizing
                    and refuting such arguments.




                    Constitution of the Lacedaimonians



                    Xenophon's pro-Spartan sympathies frequently show through in his writing (see Hellenika, for example), though he is not entirely uncritical. In this treatise on the Spartan constitution, Xenophon started with:




                    It occurred to me one day that Sparta, though among the most thinly
                    populated of states, was evidently the most powerful and most
                    celebrated city in Greece; and I fell to wondering how this could have
                    happened. But when I considered the institutions of the Spartans, I
                    wondered no longer.




                    Xenophon, like many Greek writers, was concerned with good government and leadership. In Constitution, he praises Spartan institutions and aims to show how Sparta became a great power, but he also criticizes Spartans for not following their laws in his own time. Thus, he seems to be pointing to Sparta's decline, even before the catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC




                    WORKS WHERE XENOPHON DOES NOT CLEARLY STATE A REASON



                    Cyropaedia



                    (see also the section below on Anabasis) This multi-genre text is Xenophon's longest work and focuses on Cyrus the Great (although much of it is fiction) but it was intended neither as a history nor a biography but rather as a thesis on the training of a ruler. Cyropaedia is




                    the most enigmatic with regards to the author’s intentions....Xenophon
                    sets out to narrate certain noteworthy incidents and exceptional deeds
                    (military and political) from the life of Cyrus the Great.... What he found most admirable and
                    underlines already in the prologue of this work is the fact that Cyrus
                    managed to rule a great empire with the willing obedience of his
                    followers. The Cyropaedia is thus presented as having serious claims
                    to contribute to the political discourse of Xenophon’s time. It is no
                    wonder that in antiquity it was considered a response to Plato’s
                    Republic...




                    Why did Xenophon choose a Persian, Cyrus? Melina Tamiolaki, in The Cambridge Companion to Xenophon argues that:




                    At least two reasons can be advanced to explain this choice: firstly,
                    Xenophon was interested in paradigms of successful empires; obviously
                    he could not find such paradigms in Greece, which experienced
                    consecutive failures of empires. Secondly, he must have been impressed
                    by specific features on which the propaganda about Cyrus insisted,
                    mainly his qualities as a benevolent despot and his success in gaining
                    the willing obedience of his followers. Greek leaders ostensibly
                    lacked these qualities, for the simple reason that the regime of
                    monarchy that by definition enables and fosters them, was absent in
                    Greece. Xenophon wished to underline these qualities, but without
                    implying a suggestion about constitutional change in Greece.




                    Hellenika



                    Hellenika is a continuation of Thucydides' work on the Peloponnesian War and then beyond. His style reveals that he had clearly read both Herodotus and Thucydides. He begins Hellenika with "And after those things, not many days later...". David Thomas, in his introduction to The Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika, observes:




                    Xenophon begins this way, expecting the reader to recognize that he is
                    picking up roughly where Thucydides left off....Xenophon...is in some
                    sense claiming to be a historian who can be compared to Thucydides.




                    Thucydides states why he wrote his work. It was because he thought




                    "it would be a great war, and more worthy of relation than any other
                    that had preceded it"




                    Xenophon may have felt the same way, particularly as he simply continues from where Thucydides left off. What else might have given him reason to write Hellenika we don't know with any certainty but Thomas suggests that Xenophon wished to put his own 'slant' on events, which might account for the differences between Xenophon's Hellenika and the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia (unknown author).



                    Anabasis



                    This is similarly problematic in terms of motive. Perhaps he felt that the march of 10,000 Greeks through the heart of the mighty Persian empire was too good a story not to tell, but there is almost certainly more to it than that. In Anabasis, the theme of Leaders and Followers is evident, as it was in Cyropaedia, and Xenophon's desire to make known his thoughts on what he personally saw as something very important may well have been an important (but not only) reason for writing both Anabasis and Cyropaedia.




                    OTHER WORKS



                    Hipparchicus, On Horsemanship and Hunting with Dogs



                    Hipparchicus, On Horsemanship and Hunting with Dogs can all be considered technical treatise. They are instructional, but that does not appear to be the only reason that Xenophon wrote them. Hipparchicus, for example, sees Xenophon once again dealing with leadership, while Hunting with Dogs




                    is a definite outlier in Xenophon’s corpus of smaller works and a
                    difficult text. It is made up of three distinct parts: an elaborate,
                    mythological preface; an extensive attack upon the sophists at the
                    end; in between, a fairly straightforward practical section concerning
                    hunting.




                    Source: John Dillery (Chapter 10), in The Cambridge Companion to Xenophon






                    share|improve this answer
















                    Xenophon gave specific reasons for some of his works but for others he did not.



                    Xenophon (about 431 BC to 354 BC) produced a very wide range of work during his lifetime: historical, biographical, philosophical, instructional. He never stated a primary purpose for all his works and we can deduce that some of what he wrote was aimed at specific audiences.



                    For some of his works, he states a purpose (see below). For others we can sometimes deduce his intent with a certain degree of confidence, but with other texts we cannot be sure.



                    The historical works Anabasis and Hellenika, are the most problematic for, as John Marincola states in The Cambridge Companion to Xenophon,




                    Xenophon does not give us much help in interpreting these works. No
                    major ancient historian is more reticent about the nature and purpose
                    of his history...




                    As Xenophon read the works of some of those who came before him, he would certainly would have expected (and intended) that what he wrote would be copied and read by others. From the way that Xenophon returns to certain themes (such as leadership) in different works, we can deduce that he was perhaps partly motivated by what interested him and what he saw as important.




                    WORKS WHERE XENOPHON STATES A REASON



                    Agesilaos



                    In Agesilaos, (King Agesilaos II of Sparta, ruled c. 398 – c. 360 BC), Xenophon begins with:




                    I know how difficult it is to write an appreciation of Agesilaus that
                    shall be worthy of his virtue and glory. Nevertheless the attempt must
                    be made. For it would not be seemly that so good a man, just because
                    of his perfection, should receive no tributes of praise, however
                    inadequate.




                    This laudatory account of Agesilaos is in contrast to some parts of Hellenika (see below) where Agesilaos is at times criticized.



                    Symposium



                    In the Socratic dialogue Symposium, Xenophon, through a narrator, says:




                    To my mind it is worth while to relate not only the serious acts of
                    great and good men but also what they do in their lighter moods. I
                    should like to narrate an experience of mine that gives me this
                    conviction.




                    Apology and Memorabilia



                    The Socratic dialogues Apology and Memorabilia are both defences of Socrates but are aimed at different audiences. In Apology, his intent was to make explicit something about Socrates' defence which he felt other writers hadn't:




                    It seems to me fitting to hand down to memory, furthermore, how
                    Socrates, on being indicted, deliberated on his defence and on his
                    end. It is true that others have written about this, and that all of
                    them have reproduced the loftiness of his words,—a fact which proves
                    that his utterance really was of the character intimated;—but they
                    have not shown clearly that he had now come to the conclusion that for
                    him death was more to be desired than life; and hence his lofty
                    utterance appears rather ill-considered.




                    Thus, Apology is aimed at an audience which is already 'sympathetic' to Socrates. In contrast,




                    The audience Xenophon imagines for the Memorabilia , on the other
                    hand, presumably includes readers still open to the attacks against
                    Socrates; otherwise Xenophon would not spend so much time summarizing
                    and refuting such arguments.




                    Constitution of the Lacedaimonians



                    Xenophon's pro-Spartan sympathies frequently show through in his writing (see Hellenika, for example), though he is not entirely uncritical. In this treatise on the Spartan constitution, Xenophon started with:




                    It occurred to me one day that Sparta, though among the most thinly
                    populated of states, was evidently the most powerful and most
                    celebrated city in Greece; and I fell to wondering how this could have
                    happened. But when I considered the institutions of the Spartans, I
                    wondered no longer.




                    Xenophon, like many Greek writers, was concerned with good government and leadership. In Constitution, he praises Spartan institutions and aims to show how Sparta became a great power, but he also criticizes Spartans for not following their laws in his own time. Thus, he seems to be pointing to Sparta's decline, even before the catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC




                    WORKS WHERE XENOPHON DOES NOT CLEARLY STATE A REASON



                    Cyropaedia



                    (see also the section below on Anabasis) This multi-genre text is Xenophon's longest work and focuses on Cyrus the Great (although much of it is fiction) but it was intended neither as a history nor a biography but rather as a thesis on the training of a ruler. Cyropaedia is




                    the most enigmatic with regards to the author’s intentions....Xenophon
                    sets out to narrate certain noteworthy incidents and exceptional deeds
                    (military and political) from the life of Cyrus the Great.... What he found most admirable and
                    underlines already in the prologue of this work is the fact that Cyrus
                    managed to rule a great empire with the willing obedience of his
                    followers. The Cyropaedia is thus presented as having serious claims
                    to contribute to the political discourse of Xenophon’s time. It is no
                    wonder that in antiquity it was considered a response to Plato’s
                    Republic...




                    Why did Xenophon choose a Persian, Cyrus? Melina Tamiolaki, in The Cambridge Companion to Xenophon argues that:




                    At least two reasons can be advanced to explain this choice: firstly,
                    Xenophon was interested in paradigms of successful empires; obviously
                    he could not find such paradigms in Greece, which experienced
                    consecutive failures of empires. Secondly, he must have been impressed
                    by specific features on which the propaganda about Cyrus insisted,
                    mainly his qualities as a benevolent despot and his success in gaining
                    the willing obedience of his followers. Greek leaders ostensibly
                    lacked these qualities, for the simple reason that the regime of
                    monarchy that by definition enables and fosters them, was absent in
                    Greece. Xenophon wished to underline these qualities, but without
                    implying a suggestion about constitutional change in Greece.




                    Hellenika



                    Hellenika is a continuation of Thucydides' work on the Peloponnesian War and then beyond. His style reveals that he had clearly read both Herodotus and Thucydides. He begins Hellenika with "And after those things, not many days later...". David Thomas, in his introduction to The Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika, observes:




                    Xenophon begins this way, expecting the reader to recognize that he is
                    picking up roughly where Thucydides left off....Xenophon...is in some
                    sense claiming to be a historian who can be compared to Thucydides.




                    Thucydides states why he wrote his work. It was because he thought




                    "it would be a great war, and more worthy of relation than any other
                    that had preceded it"




                    Xenophon may have felt the same way, particularly as he simply continues from where Thucydides left off. What else might have given him reason to write Hellenika we don't know with any certainty but Thomas suggests that Xenophon wished to put his own 'slant' on events, which might account for the differences between Xenophon's Hellenika and the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia (unknown author).



                    Anabasis



                    This is similarly problematic in terms of motive. Perhaps he felt that the march of 10,000 Greeks through the heart of the mighty Persian empire was too good a story not to tell, but there is almost certainly more to it than that. In Anabasis, the theme of Leaders and Followers is evident, as it was in Cyropaedia, and Xenophon's desire to make known his thoughts on what he personally saw as something very important may well have been an important (but not only) reason for writing both Anabasis and Cyropaedia.




                    OTHER WORKS



                    Hipparchicus, On Horsemanship and Hunting with Dogs



                    Hipparchicus, On Horsemanship and Hunting with Dogs can all be considered technical treatise. They are instructional, but that does not appear to be the only reason that Xenophon wrote them. Hipparchicus, for example, sees Xenophon once again dealing with leadership, while Hunting with Dogs




                    is a definite outlier in Xenophon’s corpus of smaller works and a
                    difficult text. It is made up of three distinct parts: an elaborate,
                    mythological preface; an extensive attack upon the sophists at the
                    end; in between, a fairly straightforward practical section concerning
                    hunting.




                    Source: John Dillery (Chapter 10), in The Cambridge Companion to Xenophon







                    share|improve this answer















                    share|improve this answer




                    share|improve this answer








                    edited May 20 at 0:46

























                    answered May 19 at 4:16









                    Lars BosteenLars Bosteen

                    58.9k11 gold badges266 silver badges346 bronze badges




                    58.9k11 gold badges266 silver badges346 bronze badges


























                        8


















                        In a specific case, his work was clearly intended as instructional manual for others:



                        His work On Horsemanship addresses cavalry officers and others either involved with the training of horses or the leading of mounted troops.



                        Thus sitting "between" your two positions of "for future generations" and "for own satisfaction".



                        The twist being that he almost certainly could not predict that future generations of equestrians would still return to this work and marvel about how much of his instructions and observations stood the test of time, through fads and fashions, across nearly 2 1/2 thousand years!






                        share|improve this answer






























                          8


















                          In a specific case, his work was clearly intended as instructional manual for others:



                          His work On Horsemanship addresses cavalry officers and others either involved with the training of horses or the leading of mounted troops.



                          Thus sitting "between" your two positions of "for future generations" and "for own satisfaction".



                          The twist being that he almost certainly could not predict that future generations of equestrians would still return to this work and marvel about how much of his instructions and observations stood the test of time, through fads and fashions, across nearly 2 1/2 thousand years!






                          share|improve this answer




























                            8














                            8










                            8









                            In a specific case, his work was clearly intended as instructional manual for others:



                            His work On Horsemanship addresses cavalry officers and others either involved with the training of horses or the leading of mounted troops.



                            Thus sitting "between" your two positions of "for future generations" and "for own satisfaction".



                            The twist being that he almost certainly could not predict that future generations of equestrians would still return to this work and marvel about how much of his instructions and observations stood the test of time, through fads and fashions, across nearly 2 1/2 thousand years!






                            share|improve this answer














                            In a specific case, his work was clearly intended as instructional manual for others:



                            His work On Horsemanship addresses cavalry officers and others either involved with the training of horses or the leading of mounted troops.



                            Thus sitting "between" your two positions of "for future generations" and "for own satisfaction".



                            The twist being that he almost certainly could not predict that future generations of equestrians would still return to this work and marvel about how much of his instructions and observations stood the test of time, through fads and fashions, across nearly 2 1/2 thousand years!







                            share|improve this answer













                            share|improve this answer




                            share|improve this answer










                            answered May 19 at 1:58









                            MarakaiMarakai

                            2,06110 silver badges29 bronze badges




                            2,06110 silver badges29 bronze badges
























                                6


















                                Of course we can only conjecture (as we cannot know exactly what was in Xenophon's mind), so I conjecture that motivation was the same as for many modern writers: it is the desire to spread one's knowledge and ideas. To the contemporaries and to the later generations. There are additional, secondary motivations, of course, such as fame, respect in the society and other benefits. Famous writers can get various favors from the rulers and from the people.



                                The only difference between the ancient Greece and modern world in this respect is that monetary rewards play more important role in the modern world. We invented copyright, and some modern authors can be more motivated by selling their writings.
                                This was apparently not a motivation of the Greeks. And in general, money plays a much greater role in the modern world then in the ancient world.






                                share|improve this answer






























                                  6


















                                  Of course we can only conjecture (as we cannot know exactly what was in Xenophon's mind), so I conjecture that motivation was the same as for many modern writers: it is the desire to spread one's knowledge and ideas. To the contemporaries and to the later generations. There are additional, secondary motivations, of course, such as fame, respect in the society and other benefits. Famous writers can get various favors from the rulers and from the people.



                                  The only difference between the ancient Greece and modern world in this respect is that monetary rewards play more important role in the modern world. We invented copyright, and some modern authors can be more motivated by selling their writings.
                                  This was apparently not a motivation of the Greeks. And in general, money plays a much greater role in the modern world then in the ancient world.






                                  share|improve this answer




























                                    6














                                    6










                                    6









                                    Of course we can only conjecture (as we cannot know exactly what was in Xenophon's mind), so I conjecture that motivation was the same as for many modern writers: it is the desire to spread one's knowledge and ideas. To the contemporaries and to the later generations. There are additional, secondary motivations, of course, such as fame, respect in the society and other benefits. Famous writers can get various favors from the rulers and from the people.



                                    The only difference between the ancient Greece and modern world in this respect is that monetary rewards play more important role in the modern world. We invented copyright, and some modern authors can be more motivated by selling their writings.
                                    This was apparently not a motivation of the Greeks. And in general, money plays a much greater role in the modern world then in the ancient world.






                                    share|improve this answer














                                    Of course we can only conjecture (as we cannot know exactly what was in Xenophon's mind), so I conjecture that motivation was the same as for many modern writers: it is the desire to spread one's knowledge and ideas. To the contemporaries and to the later generations. There are additional, secondary motivations, of course, such as fame, respect in the society and other benefits. Famous writers can get various favors from the rulers and from the people.



                                    The only difference between the ancient Greece and modern world in this respect is that monetary rewards play more important role in the modern world. We invented copyright, and some modern authors can be more motivated by selling their writings.
                                    This was apparently not a motivation of the Greeks. And in general, money plays a much greater role in the modern world then in the ancient world.







                                    share|improve this answer













                                    share|improve this answer




                                    share|improve this answer










                                    answered May 18 at 20:46









                                    AlexAlex

                                    30k1 gold badge58 silver badges113 bronze badges




                                    30k1 gold badge58 silver badges113 bronze badges































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