Rethink.

To this Astyages said, “If you are so resolved, my child, feast at least upon these meats, so that you may go home a vigorous youth.” As he was saying this, he had a great deal of meat brought to him, of both wild and tame animals. When he saw all this meat, Cyrus said, …

The revealing keynote of the education in virtue is struck by Xenophon’s description of the law on education to justice and to gratitude (understood as a subdivision of justice). The boys learn justice, Xenophon explains, by indicting and convicting one another on many charges but especially on that charge “for which humans hate one another …

Lots worth thinking about in this article. Newell starts with an obvious but important premise. Plato and Aristotle used as a starting point for their contemplation of politics “virtuous citizenship within a small, self-governing community;” Xenophon’s “Education of Cyrus takes as its explicit theme how one supremely talented and aggressive ruler can satisfy his craving …

The commentary I recommend on Xenophon’s Symposium is Dustin Gish’s dissertation, “Xenophon’s Socratic Rhetoric: A Study of the Symposium.” Gish has his own translation of the work with notes in the appendices. Still, I realize access to that is problematic for many of you. It’s in the University of Dallas library and something I can …

The article discussed below can be found in Perspectives on Political Science, vol. 39 issue 2, Apr-Jun 2010. 77-81 Nadon’s Xenophon’s Prince, a study of The Education of Cyrus, is solid, useful scholarship and highly recommended. The article at hand is rather problematic. Nadon builds a case that Strauss took the time in an article …

Or Constitution of the Lacedaemonians. Lacedaemon and Sparta are the same. I’m working on Plato’s Timaeus at the moment, but I revisited this text to keep Xenophon fresh in my mind. This is not an authoritative account, by far. A few basic points: the golden age of Greece is roughly 500-400 B.C. In that time, …