The Life of Xenophon

Description

An Athenian follows a Persian prince into the interior of Asia. The prince is killed. The Greek commanders are seized. The army has to find a road home, and one of the men who helps lead it will write the account by which the expedition is remembered.

Xenophon is soldier, student of Socrates, exile, landowner and author. His books preserve extraordinary scenes of courage, negotiation, accusation and survival. They also raise a difficult question: how do you write the life of a man who controls so much of the evidence about himself?

This biography follows the march, the Spartan connections, the sanctuary at Scillus and the long afterlife of a writer often first encountered in a classroom. It sets his narrative beside other ancient witnesses, keeps uncertain dates and disputed traditions visible, and asks what the words, numbers and silences can actually support.

Each chapter ends with an evidence note. The result is a life told through the story and the sources that make it possible.