Xenophon

Meno, a Platonic Dialogue. Why did Xenophon Despise Meno?
Philosophy

Meno, a Socratic Dialogue. Why Did Xenophon and Plato Despise Meno? How Did Meno Die?

12/21/2024 Bruce Strom 0

Xenophon, in Robin Waterfield’s translation, remembers:
“It was obvious that Meno longed to be rich; he wanted military command because it would bring him a greater share of the spoils, he wanted prestige because it would help him increase his wealth, and he wanted to be on good terms with the most powerful men because then he could avoid being punished for his crimes.”
Xenophon continues, “Meno thought that the quickest way for him to achieve his goals was to use perjury, lies, and deceit. In his opinion, openness and truthfulness were synonyms for stupidity. He evidently felt no affection for anyone, and if he claimed to be somebody’s friend it soon became clear that he was trying to sabotage him.”
Xenophon said that “Meno was frightened of people he found breaking promises and committing crimes, because he regarded them as well protected, and he tried to exploit people who were moral and honest because he regarded them as weak.” […]

Summary Platonic Dialogues on Love and Friendship
Philosophy

Summary of Platonic Dialogues on Love, With Commentary by Copleston and Anders Nygren

11/24/2023 Bruce Strom 2

How can we benefit by reflecting on Four Platonic Dialogues on Love: Lysis, Alcibiades, Symposium, and Phaedrus? How similar are they? Was it possible for men and women, and husbands and wives, to be friends in ancient Greece and Rome? Did the Platonic dialogues on love condone or encourage homosexuality […]

Robin Waterfield Reflects on Xenophon’s Anabasis in Persia, and Other Greco-Persian Conflicts
Greek and Roman History

The Historian Robin Waterfield Reflects on Xenophon’s Anabasis in Persia, and Other Greco-Persian Conflicts

10/05/2023 Bruce Strom 1

The Greek hoplite infantry forces were the best warriors of their time, they were eagerly employed as mercenaries in the ancient world. The Greeks won the Battle of Cunaxa, and although Artaxerxes was wounded in the battle, his younger brother Cyrus died fighting. The Greek forces were stuck thousands of miles from home, but the Persian forces of Artaxerxes were fearful of directly attacking them. At first, the Persians guided them north towards the Greek colonies of the Black Sea, but then they double-crossed them, killing many of their generals. The Greeks simply elected new generals, with Xenophon now leading their forces, as they first fought the Persians, then mountain tribesmen, fighting for provisions, as they retreated to the Greek colonies on the shores of the Black Sea. […]

The Life, Adventures, and Philosophy of Xenophon, General and Student of Socrates
Greek and Roman History

The Life, Adventures, and Philosophy of Xenophon, General and Student of Socrates

08/03/2023 Bruce Strom 0

Was Xenophon a warrior, a historian, or a philosopher? Xenophon is one of the rare ancient authors whose entire corpus of major works have survived, putting him in the company of Plato and St Augustine, he was highly regarded among ancient and medieval scholars, though hyper-critical modern scholars tend to deprecate him. He was a student of Socrates and wrote several works featuring Socrates, including a fascinating collections of his Stoic-like sayings in the Memorabilia. […]

Xenophon’s Anabasis: The Persian Expedition, an Ancient Adventure Story
Greek and Roman History

Xenophon’s Anabasis: The Persian Expedition, an Ancient Adventure Story

07/07/2023 Bruce Strom 3

The historian Will Durant summarizes this March of the Ten Thousand, led by Xenophon, “was one of the greatest adventures in human history. We are amazed at the inexhaustible courage of these Greeks, fighting their way on foot, day by day for five months, thorough two thousand miles of enemy country, across hot and foodless plains, and over perilous mountain passes covered with eight feet of snow, while armies and guerrilla bands attacked them in the rear and in front and on either flank, and hostile natives used every device to kill them, or mislead them, or bar their way.” […]

Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, Moral Sayings of Cyrus the Great, King of Persia
Greek Philosophy

Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, Moral Sayings of Cyrus the Great, King of Persia

06/30/2023 Bruce Strom 5

Was Xenophon’s Cyrus the source of Benjamin Franklin’s response to the question of what sort of government the delegates of the Constitutional Convention had created: “A republic, if you can keep it.” Xenophon’s Cyrus the Great observes, “It is a great work to found an empire, but a far greater work to keep it. To seize it may the fruit of daring and daring only, but to hold it is impossible without self-restraint and self-command and endless care.” […]

Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, Biography of Cyrus the Great, King of Persia
Greek and Roman History

Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, Biography of Cyrus the Great, King of Persia

06/28/2023 Bruce Strom 5

During his first hunt, Cyrus the Great eagerly pressed his horse to chase a great stag. His horse slipped, going to his knees, nearly throwing him, but “the boy managed to keep his seat, and the horse recovered its footing,” and shortly “Cyrus let fly his javelin, and the stag fell dead, a beautiful big creature.” When they were dismounted, admiring the slain stag, Cyrus sprang back on his horse when he heard a “frenzied wild boar charging down on them. He charged to meet it, drawing his bow with the surest aim possible, struck the beast in the forehead, and laid him low.” Cyrus would later display this brave coolness when under fire in battle. […]

Greek and Roman History

Summary of the Peloponnesian Wars Between Athens and Sparta

11/25/2022 Bruce Strom 4

Why study the Peloponnesian wars? One main reason is: You cannot understand the Platonic dialogues without first understanding the history of the Peloponnesian Wars, because so many of the leading figures of this period are referenced in the Platonic dialogues, and we can learn many moral lessons from the war, which changed the Greek city-states forever.
The history of the war includes many interesting personalities, including Pericles, the founder of the radical democracy of Athens who died in the first years of the war, and Alcibiades, the ladies’ man and charismatic personality who was a leader of all three sides of the antagonists of the war, and we have the Spartan general Lysander who spared Athens from destruction when she lost the war. […]

Philosophy

Xenophon and Plato, Socratic Dialogue, Symposium, Divine and Noble Love, Part 2

08/05/2022 Bruce Strom 0

Both of these commandments are the Divine Love that Plato describes in the Symposium. Like the country song suggests, If you don’t love your neighbor, you don’t Love God. As we learned from St John of the Cross, if our love for our neighbor or our love does not increase in us our Love of God, then it is not love at all. Which means that you cannot talk about two types of love, one mortal, one divine, as do the speakers like Agathon in the Symposium, though you could talk about love and lust, love being unselfish, and lust being selfish, caring only about yourself, not caring about the well-being of your partner or friend. […]