The Agesilaus is a panegyric on the great Agesilaus, king of Sparta, Xenophon's friend. Cicero speaks of him as the instructor of Agesilaus, and says, "The single little book of Xenophon," "in praise of that king, is worth all the pictures and statues in honour of all other princes." 991 Modern readers are apt to make the same complaint of it that Charles II. made of the praises offered him by Cowley, that it is rather tame and insipid. The two treatises On the Athenian and Lacedæmonian Commonwealths, which, though not always regarded, even by the ancients, as genuine works of Xenophon, have nothing in their matter or style to prove that he was not the author of them, show that the writer evidently preferred the polity of Sparta to that of Athens. The treatise on the Republic of Athens has been translated into English by James Morris, 1794. Of that on the State of Sparta there is, I believe, no English translation. The little work On the Revenues of Athens, is intended to show how the public revenues of Athens might be improved. Its matter and merits are fully discussed in Boeckh's "Public Economy of Athens." It was translated into English by Walter Moyle, Esq., 1697. The Hipparchicus is a treatise on the duties of a cavalry officer. It contains a variety of directions on the equipment, evolutions, and general management of cavalry. The treatise On Horsemanship, though placed by Schneider before the Hipparchicus, was written after it, there being a reference to the latter at the end of the former. It gives a number of precepts on the management, choice, and training of horses; precepts which the writer considers that from long experience in horses he is well entitled to give. The Cynegeticus is a little work on hunting, the breeding and qualities of dogs, and the various modes of taking hares, foxes, boars, and other game. The last chapter contains some strictures on the sophists, as distinguished from the philosophers, which have little to do with the subject. The Nine Epistles printed with the works of Xenophon were not written by him, but are mere forgeries or scholastic essays.2 5 Of Xenophon's style his own countrymen must be allowed to be the best judges; and they found such charms in it that they called him the Athenian Muse, and the Attic Bee. Dionysius of Halicarnassus extols him for the purity and clearness of his periods, and for the judicious selection and elegant collocation of his words. Nor were the critics of Rome less ready to accord him similar praise; Quintilian attributes to him "an unaffected sweetness, which no 3 6 De Orat. iii. 34; Ad Fam. v. 12. Schneider, Epist. ad Schaef. præmiss. Econom. p. 1. 4 Suidas, v. Ξενοφῶν. De Præcip. Histor. vol. vi. p. 778, ed. Reisk. • x. i. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF XENOPHON. XV affectation could attain," and says that "what Pericles observed of the ancient comedy may be justly transferred to him, that the goddess of persuasion dwelt upon his lips ;" and Cicero' says that "his language is sweeter than honey," and "that the Muses spoke with his mouth." His style is indeed simple, perspicuous, and agreeable. He never rises above a certain level, but beneath that level is always pleasing, elegant, and consistent with himself. He sometimes borrows a poetical expression, but never disfigures his page with purple patches. The piece in which he displays most animation of style is the Anabasis; in the Cyropædia, the sentences, though far more laboured, are sometimes long and heavy. In the Hellenics, Kühner 2 charges him with being often dry and jejune. His brevity, in many passages of that work, certainly renders him obscure, and leaves his reader dissatisfied. It is said by Lord Monboddo3 that the language of Cæsar's Commentaries is perhaps the best "memoir-style" that ever was written. I know not why it should be preferred to that of Xenophon in the Anabasis. Dr. Johnson has justly observed, that the characters of the deceased generals drawn in the second book of the Anabasis are the earliest specimens of that kind of portraiture. Xenophon, as a man, if we form our opinion of him from his writings and the voice of antiquity, was of a highly honourable character; just, generous, and humane. In paying reverence to the gods, as worshipped by his countrymen, he was a disciple of Socrates, and went beyond his master, apparently, in what was to him a religious respect, but what we are inclined to call a superstitious fondness, for omens, dreams, and other supposed signs from heaven. He shows this propensity through all his works, and is ready to admit the providence and agency of the gods on every occasion. Hume has noticed many instances of his superstition. He could tell a plain story, or discuss ordinary topics, with fluency and clearness, but had not an intellect, like that of Plato, for the consideration of abstruse or sublime metaphysical questions. He encourages his readers to the cultivation of virtue, and the study of what he thought useful and likely to contribute to their happiness. He has been censured for his approbation of the Lacedæmonian polity, and his dislike and depreciation of that of his country; but he was certainly at liberty, like any other man, to form a judgment on a comparison of the two, and, if he preferred the ancient Spartan severity to the disorder, corruption, and laxity of morals, which in his time prevailed in Athens, to express his opinion to that effect. Though the ground for his banishment seems hardly just, it does not appear that, while he was in exile, he took any part in hostilities against his country; if he was present 1 Orat. c. 19. 2 Prolegom. in Anab. p. x. 3 Or. and Pr. of Language, vol. iv. p. 293. Essays, vol. ii. note DDD. Prolegom. in Anab. p. xvii. at the battle of Coroneia, there is no proof that he gave the Lacedæmonians any assistance in it. The attack upon the Persian Asidates is the only known act of his life in which we can charge him with having deviated from strict morality. In drawing the character of Menon, it is thought that he must have been unjust, as it could hardly have been so black as it is painted; since Menon is represented by Plato, in the Dialogue which bears his name, as a man of better character; but "Xenophon," as Kühner observes, "might have known his morals better than Plato; Plato introduces him as a young man, and he had plenty of time to grow worse before he joined Cyrus; and even from Plato himself it appears that he was of a proud and insolent temper." A notion was in early times more or less prevalent among the learned, that there was great rivalry and enmity between Xenophon and Plato. The chief arguments for that supposition, as given by Aulus Gellius, are, that Plato, in all his works, makes no mention of Xenophon, and Xenophon in his makes no mention of Plato, though each had ample opportunities of alluding to the other; that Xenophon, on reading the first two books of Plato's Republic, proceeded to write the Cyropædia in opposition to it, and that Plato, annoyed at Xenophon's conduct, took occasion to observe, in speaking of Cyrus, that he was a brave and active man, but had not been happy in his discipline and government; and that Xenophon, in his Memorabilia, represents Socrates as discountenancing physical speculations, in order to throw discredit on Plato, who was inclined to indulge in them. But Gellius himself thinks that these arguments are not sufficient to establish the fact of their enmity, and inclines to suppose that the report of it arose from the subsequent disputes between their partisans, as to which of the two was the wiser or greater philosopher, from which disputes it came to be believed that there had existed jealousy and ill-feeling between the two philosophers themselves. Athenæus and Laertius observe that one of them wrote a Symposium in emulation of the other, but do not say which of the two wrote first; it is generally supposed, however, that the Symposium of Plato was the first to make its appearance.4 Menage thinks that Gellius was deceived, and that jealousy did exist between the two; Heusde and Ast," the commentators on Plato, are of the same opinion. On the whole, the general voice seems to be too strong against Gellius. But whence the enmity, if it existed, arose, there is among the ancients neither account nor conjecture. 2 Prolegom. in Anab. p. xvii. J. S. W. Diog. Laert. ii. 57; iii. 34; A. Gell. xiv. 3; Athenæus, lib. xi. p. 504; Marcellin. Vit. Thucyd. 3 See note on Mem. Soc. iii. 6. 1. Smith's Dict. of Biog. and Mythol., art. Xenophon. 5 Ad Diog. Laert. iii. 34. 7 Ad Plato Republ. i. init. Ad Plato, Protag. § 91. XENOPHON'S CYROPÆDIA, OR, INSTITUTION OF CYRUS. BOOK I.-CHAPTER I. Remarks on the several forms of government. On the government of inferior animals, and the difficulty of governing men. The great power of Cyrus, and his excellence as a ruler. 1. THE reflection once occurred to me, how many democracies have been dissolved by men who chose to live under some other government rather than a democracy; how many monarchies, and how many oligarchies, have been overthrown by the people; and how many individuals, who have tried to establish tyrannies, have, some of them, been at once entirely destroyed, while others, if they have continued to reign for any length of time, have been admired as wise and fortunate men. I had observed, too, I thought, many masters, in their own private houses, some indeed having many servants, but some only very few, and yet utterly unable to keep those few entirely obedient to their commands. 2. I considered also that herdsmen are the rulers of oxen, and horse-feeders of horses; and that, in general, all those called overseers of animals may properly be accounted the rulers of the animals of which they have the charge. I thought that I perceived all these herds. more willing to obey their keepers than men their governors; for the herds go the way that their keepers direct them; they feed on those lands to which their keepers drive them, and abstain from those from which they repel them; and they suffer their keepers to make what use they please of the profits that arise from them. Besides, I never saw a herd conspiring against its keeper, either with a view of not obeying him, or of not allowing him to enjoy the advantages arising from them; for herds are more refractory towards strangers than they are towards their keepers, and those who make profit of them; but men conspire against none sooner than against those whom they perceive attempting to rule them. 3. While I was reflecting upon these things, I came to this judgment upon them; that to man, such is his nature, it was easier to rule every other sort of creature than to rule man. But when I considered that there was Cyrus the Persian, who had rendered many men, many cities, and many nations, obedient to him, I was then necessitated to change my opinion, and to think that to rule men is not among the things that are impossible, or even difficult, if a person undertakes it with understanding and skill. I knew that there were some who willingly obeyed Cyrus, that were many days' journey, and others that were even some months' journey, distant from him; some, too, who had never seen him, and some who knew very well that they never should see him; and yet they readily submitted to his government; 4. for he so far excelled all other kings, as well those that had received their dominion from their forefathers, as those that had acquired it by their own efforts, that the Scythian, for example, though his people be very numerous, is unable to obtain the dominion over any other nation, but rests satisfied if he can but continue to rule his own; so it is with the Thracian king in regard to the Thracians, and with the Illyrian king in regard to the Illyrians; and so it is with other nations, as many as I have heard of; for the nations of Europe, at least, are said to be independent and detached from each other. But Cyrus, finding, in like manner, the nations of Asia independent, and setting out with a little army of Persians, obtained the dominion over the Medes by their own choice, and over the Hyrcanians in a similar manner; he subdued the Syrians, Assyrians, Arabians, Cappadocians, both the Phrygians, the Lydians, Carians, Phoenicians, and Babylonians; he had under his rule the Bactrians, Indians, Milk, wool, labour in the plough, and any other profits that men can derive from them. |