Commentary

[in chronological order]

The Case for Greatness by Robert Faulkner

- Faulkner, R. The Case for Greatness: honorable ambition and its critics. New Haven: Yale University Press. 2008.
Publisher’s Review: “The Case for Greatness is a spirited look at political ambition, good and bad, with particular attention to honorable ambition. Robert Faulkner contends that too many modern accounts of leadership slight such things as… More

Xenophon’s Socrates by Leo Strauss

- Strauss, L. Xenophon's Socrates. St. Augustine Press. 2004 [1972].
Publisher’s Review: “Relying exclusively on the texts, Professor Strauss analyzes and compares every seemingly casual utterance as well as the more formal statements to recover the true Socrates and to determine the character of political… More

Xenophon’s Prince by Christopher Nadon

- Nadon, C. Xenophon's Prince: Republic and Empire in the Cyropaedia, Berkeley: U. Cal Press, 2001.
From the publisher: For over two millennia, the Cyropaedia, an imaginative biography of the Persian king Cyrus the Great, was Xenophon’s most popular work and considered his masterpiece. This study contributes to the recent rediscovery of… More

“Xenophon’s Symposium”

- Bartlett, R. "Xenophon's Symposium." In Xenophon's Shorter Socratic Writings, ed. Robert Bartlett. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell U. Press. 1996.
Publisher’s Review “This book presents translations of three dialogues Xenophon devoted to the life and thought of his teacher, Socrates. Each is accompanied by notes and an interpretative essay that will introduce new readers to Xenophon and… More

Xenophon and the History of His Times

- Dillery, John. Xenophon and the History of His Times. London: Routledge. 1995.
Publisher’s Review: “Xenophon and the History of his Times examines Xenophon’s longer historical works, the Hellenica and the Anabasis. Dillery considers how far these texts reflect the Greek intellectual world of the fourth and fifth… More

The Socratic Movement

- Vander Waerdt, P. A., ed. The Socratic Movement. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 1994.

Oeconomicus: A Social and Historical Commentary

- Pomeroy, S. Xenophon Oeconomicus: A Social and Historical Commentary. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1994.
Publisher’s Review: “The Oeconomicus is unique in Greek literature in combining a discussion of the proper management of a family or household and didactic material on agriculture within a Socratic dialogue. One of the richest primary sources… More

The Socratic Movement

- Vander Waerdt, P. A., ed. The Socratic Movement. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 1994.
Table of Contents: Preface Abbreviations Introduction / Paul A. Vander Waerdt 1 1. The Origins of the Socratic Dialogue / Diskin Clay 23 2. Socrates in the Clouds / Paul A. Vander Waerdt 48 3. Aeschines on Socratic Eros / Charles H. Kahn 87 4. The… More

The Failings of Empire: a Reading of Xenophon. Hellenica 2.3.11-7.5.27

- Tuplin, C. The Failings of Empire: a Reading of Xenophon. Hellenica 2.3.11-7.5.27. Stuttgart: F. Steiner, 1993
Publisher’s Review: “Current views of Xenophon’s account of 404-362 BC under-play the fact that it is a chronological report of politico-military events which should be taken seriously and not seen merely as arbitrary pegs for didactic… More

Xenophon’s Cyropaedia by Deborah Gera

- Gera, D. Xenophon's Cyropaedia: Style, Genre, and Literary Technique. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1993.
Publisher’s Review: “This book is a literary study of the Cyropaedia, Xenophon’s fictional account of Cyrus the Great and the founding of his empire. The Cyropaedia is a complex blend of various literary forms, and this book examines… More

Socrates, Ironist and Moral Philosopher

- Vlastos, G. Socrates, Ironist and Moral Philosopher. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991.
Publisher’s Review: “Written by a leading historian of Greek thought, it argues for a Socrates who, though long overshadowed by his successors Plato and Aristotle, marked the true turning point in Greek philosophy, religion and ethics. The quest… More

Xenophon’s Imperial Fiction: On the Education of Cyrus

- Tatum, J. Xenophon's Imperial Fiction: On the Education of Cyrus. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1989.
Publisher’s Review: “Tatum’s goal is to make it fully meaningful for the twentieth-century reader. To accomplish this aim, he uses reception study, philological and historical criticism, and an intertextual and structural analysis of the… More

“Xenophon’s Hiero and the Meaning of the Wise Man and Tyrant in Greek Literature”

- Gray, V. "Xenophon's Hiero and the Meaning of the Wise Man and Tyrant in Greek Literature." Classics Quarterly 36: 115-23, 1989.
Publisher’s Review: “The Hiero is an account in Socratic conversational form of a meeting between Simonides the poet and Hiero the tyrant of Syracuse; it was written by Xenophon of Athens in the fourth century b.c., but is set in the fifth, when… More

“Xenophon”

- Bruell, C. "Xenophon." In History of Political Philosophy, ed. L. Strauss and J. Cropsey. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1987.

Agesilaos and the Crisis of Sparta

- Cartledge, P. Agesilaos and the Crisis of Sparta. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 1987.
Publisher’s Review: “As one of the two Spartan kings, Agesilaos II presided over Sparta’s greatest imperial expansion and its collapse as a major power. At his accession in 400 BC, Sparta had recently defeated Athens in the Peloponnesian War… More

“Xenophon’s Anabasis”

- Strauss, L. "Xenophon's Anabasis". In Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1985.

The Prince

- Machiavelli's The Prince. Trans. H. C. Mansfield. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
Publisher’s Review: “The most famous book on politics ever written, The Prince remains as lively and shocking today as when it was written almost five hundred years ago. Initially denounced as a collection of sinister maxims and a recommendation… More

Xenophon

- Anderson, J. K.  Xenophon.  New York: Scribner.  1974.
Publisher’s Review: “Historian, soldier, huntsman, economist, farmer, philosopher and author, Xenophon is one of the most versatile yet most accessible of the classical Greeks. Born at the start of the Peloponnesian War in Athens, he joined the… More

Cyropédie, I-II

- Bizos, M. Cyropédie, I-II. Paris: Les Belles Letters. 1971-1973.

Xenophon’s Socratic Discourse: An Interpretation of the Oeconomicus

- Strauss, L. Xenophon's Socratic Discourse: An Interpretation of the Oeconomicus. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. 1970.
Publisher’s Review: “Xenophon’s only true Socratic discourse, the Oeconomicus, is a dialogue between Socrates and a gentleman-farmer on the art of household management and the art of farming as practiced on a gentleman’s estate. It is… More

“The Spirit of Sparta or the Taste of Xenophon”

- Strauss, L. "The Spirit of Sparta or the Taste of Xenophon." Social Research 6: 502-36, 1939.
Summary: Leo Strauss’ first article on Xenophon, an interpretation of Xenophon’s Spartans. Fundamental for the interpretation of Xenophon and Leo Strauss.

“On the Cyropaedia”

- Dadachanjee, R. K. "On the Cyropaedia." Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 21: 552-61.

Xenophon

- Grant, A. Xenophon. Philadelphia: Lippincott. 1871.
Publisher’s Review: “This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1878 Excerpt: … Between… More