* Xenophon's Retreat by Robin Waterfield, is an accessible companion for anyone needing to be filled in on the historical, military and political background.

Foucault took Xenophon's depiction of the relationship between Ischomachus and his wife as a classical expression of the ancient Greek ideology of power, according to which a man's control of his emotions was externally reflected in his control of his wife, his slaves, and his political subordinates.

In addition to arguing that Socrates was most pious, and, as the most self-controlled of men, the least likely to corrupt the youth, Xenophon deals with informal political accusations not directly addressed in the Apology of Plato ( or Xenophon's own Apology ).

As a translator she produced Xenophon's Memoirs of Socrates, with the Defense of Socrates Before His Judges in 1762, a work by the Ancient Greek writer and soldier Xenophon concerning the philosopher Socrates.

However, scholar Helmut Koester has pointed out the Greek title " Memorabilia " was not applied to Xenophon's work until the Middle Ages, and it is more likely apomnemoneumata was used to describe the oral transmission of the sayings of Jesus in early Christianity.

Though he spent much of his life in Athens, Xenophon's involvement in Spartan politics ( he was a close associate of King Agesilaus II ) has led to him being closely associated with the city.

Theramenes ' reputation has undergone a dramatic shift since the 19th century, when Xenophon's and Lysias ' unfavorable accounts were widely accepted, and Theramenes was execrated as a turncoat and blamed for instigating the execution of the generals after Arginusae.

The discovery of Aristotle's Constitution of the Athenians in 1890 reversed this trend for the broad assessment of Theramenes ' character, and Diodorus ' account of the Arginusae trial has been preferred by scholars since Antony Andrewes undermined Xenophon's account in the 1970s ; Diodorus ' more melodramatic passages, such as his elaborate presentation of Theramenes ' last moments, are still discounted, but he is now preferred on a number of issues, and on the Arginusae trial in particular.

It seems that Xenophon's portrayal of her in his Symposium has been the most influential: Diogenes Laërtius, for example, seems to quote the Symposium passage, though he does not mention Xenophon by name, and the term " Xanthippe " has now come to mean any nagging scolding person, especially a shrewish wife.

In the old debate surrounding Xenophon's and Plato's works, the Sacred Band has figured prominently as a possible way of dating which of the two wrote their version of Symposium first.

Xenophon conspicuously omits any mention of the Theban victory in his Hellenica, though this has traditionally been ascribed to Xenophon's strong anti-Theban and pro-Spartan sentiments.

One passage ( Wis. 8: 2-18 ) has notable similarity to Virtue's speech to Heracles in Xenophon's Memorabilia, Book 2, 1: 37.

Many of the dialogues seem to use Socrates as a device for Plato's thought, and inconsistencies occasionally crop up between Plato and the other accounts of Socrates ; for instance, Plato has Socrates constantly denying that he would ever accept money for teaching, while Xenophon's Symposium clearly has Socrates stating that he is paid by students to teach wisdom and this is what he does for a living.

This has led some scholars to suspect that Xenophon's Apology was the original conclusion to the Memorabilia ; given our limited evidence, however, this cannot be known with certainty.

There has been some dispute about whether Xenophon's or Plato's work was written first.

* Project Gutenberg has the e-text of Dakyns ' translation of Xenophon's Symposium

In the early 20th century, evidence against Xenophon's authorship was presented, and has become the majority view.

However, because his son Gryllus fought and died for Athens at the Battle of Mantinea while Xenophon was still alive, Xenophon's banishment may have been revoked.

Andre Norton's 1955 science fiction novel Star Guard appears to have been the first speculative fiction transliteration of the Anabasis theme, in which a body of human mercenaries hired out of a future Terra to fight in a dynastic war among autochthons on a distant planet are betrayed in much the same way as were the Hellenic mercenaries of Xenophon's account, and left leaderless to negotiate and battle their way across hostile country to safety.

An example of how the aorist tense contrasts with the imperfect in describing the past occurs in Xenophon's Anabasis, when the Persian aristocrat Orontas is executed: " and those who had been previously in the habit of bowing ( προσεκύνουν prosekúnoun, imperfect ) to him, bowed ( προσεκύνησαν prosekúnēsan, aorist ) to him even then.

Xenophon's account of the exploit resounded through Greece, where, two generations later, some surmise, it may have inspired Philip of Macedon to believe that a lean and disciplined Hellene army might be relied upon to defeat a Persian army many times its size.

Here, according to an allegorical parable, " The Choice of Heracles ", invented by the sophist Prodicus ( c. 400 BC ) and reported in Xenophon's Memorabilia 2. 1. 21-34, he was visited by two nymphs — Pleasure and Virtue — who offered him a choice between a pleasant and easy life or a severe but glorious life: he chose the latter.

Xenophon's writings, especially the Anabasis, are often read by beginning students of the Greek language.

When she started school in London, she astonished her teachers by precociously beginning an essay with two Greek words from Xenophon's Anabasis.

The early sophists ' practice of charging money for education and providing wisdom only to those who could pay led to the condemnations made by Socrates, through Plato in his Dialogues, as well as Xenophon's Memorabilia.

The cry of Xenophon's soldiers when they meet the sea is mentioned by the narrator of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth, when their expedition discovers an underground ocean.

The cry of Xenophon's soldiers is also mentioned by Buck Mulligan in James Joyce's novel Ulysses, " Ah, Dedalus, the Greeks!

* Xenophon's Anabasis, Seven Books, by William Harper & James Wallace, American Book Co. 1893, English with the books in Greek

Dismissing completely 17th to 19th century ideas of a Canaanite, Assyrian, Indian or Macedonian origin, Nefiodkin also challenges Xenophon's attribution of scythed chariots to the first Persian king Cyrus, pointing to their notable absence in the invasion of Greece ( 480 − 479 BC ) by one of his successors, Xerxes I.

One contemporary criticism of Plato's Apology is perhaps implied by the opening paragraphs of Xenophon's Apology, assuming that the former antedated the latter ; Xenophon remarks that previous writers had failed to make clear the reason for Socrates ' boastful talk ( megalēgoria ) in the face of the death penalty.

The most famous symposium of all, described in Plato's dialogue of that name ( and rather differently in Xenophon's ) was hosted by the poet Agathon on the occasion of his first victory at the theater contest of the 416 BC Dionysia.

While Plato's Symposium consists of a series of lengthy speeches in praise of love, Xenophon's is dominated by witty repartee.

Some have taken Xenophon's use of Ischomachus as a supposed expert in the education of a wife as an instance of anachronistic irony, a device used by Plato in his Socratic dialogues.

As for being informative historical sources about Socrates, Xenophon's works are regarded by some scholars today as practically worthless, while others like Leo Strauss continue to hold them in high regard.

The assumption that Xenophon was responding to Polycrates point by point may be driven as much by the traditionally low esteem for Xenophon's literary powers as to any historical influence from Polycrates.

The self-control of Xenophon's Socrates is in keeping with his role in inspiring ancient of cynicism, which was traditionally said to be founded by Socrates ' follower Antisthenes.

Early literature such as Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico or Xenophon's Anabasis, both ostensibly non-fictional accounts of wars led by their authors, used illeism to impart an air of objective impartiality to the account, which included justifications of the author's actions.

* Leo Strauss ' Seminar Transcripts on Xenophon ( 1962, 1966 ); and an audio recording of the entire course on Xenophon's Oeconomicus ( 1969 ) are available for reading, listening or download.

* Strauss, Leo ; Xenophon's Socrates, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1972.

* Strauss, Leo, Xenophon's Socratic Discourse: An Interpretation of the " Oeconomicus ", Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1970 ISBN 1-890318-96-5

* Strauss, Leo, Xenophon's Socrates, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1972.