Xenophon and Sparta

Xenophon has for long, and understandably, enjoyed a privileged position as a reliable source on Sparta. Commander of a grand military expedition of Sparta's devising, and a dependent of Sparta's influential king Agesilaos, Xenophon knew Sparta from the inside, and - as himself an Athenian in exile - was well placed to comment on Sparta's difference. The simplicity of his Greek style has a perfume of honesty.



And yet... Recent research has with increasing force called into doubt Xenophon's motives and truthfulness - especially as regards Sparta. Analysis of his Hellenica reveals much evasion and euphemism about Sparta's failings - complicated by occasional outbursts against the iniquity of Spartan imperialism. His euphemistic Constitution of the Lakedaimonians (itself containing such an outburst), and his near-hagiography of the dead Agesilaos, have variously evoked trust and suspicion in historians.



This book, by a distinguished team of specialists in Spartan history, is the first of a short series from CPW, approaching Spartan reality by way of close analysis of our main contemporary Greek sources: their access, their biases, the literary structure and the genre of their works.

Vincent Azoulay (Marne-La-Vallee): `Sparta and the Cyropaedia: The Correct Use of Analogies' Gianluca Cuniberti (Turin): `The Role of the Lacedaemonians in the Works and Reception of the Historian Xenophon' Thomas J. Figueira (Rutgers): `Xenophon and the Spartan Economy' Noreen Humble (Calgary): `True History: Xenophon's Agesilaos and the Encomiastic Genre' Ellen Millender (Reid):`Foxes at Home, Lions Abroad: Spartan Commanders in Xenophon's Anabasis' Pierre Pontier (Paris): `Xenophon, Sparta and Phleious' Anton Powell (Swansea): `Sparta and the Enigma of Xenophon' Nicolas Richer (Lyon): `The Lacedaemonian Model in Xenophon's Non-Historical Works'