Xenophon and Sparta

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Xenophon and Sparta.
Edited by Anton Powell and Nicolas Richer

ISBN 978-1-910589-74-8, 300pp, 2020,

Xenophon has long been identified as a chief contemporary source, if not the chief source, for the history of classical Sparta. But his information has commonly been treated in restricted ways. Scholars who have studied Xenophon’s oeuvre have tended to apply a knowledge of Athenian history and of general Greek literature rather than a specialist knowledge of Sparta. And specialist students of Sparta have commonly `mined’ elements of Xenophon’s work without sufficient regard either for the author’s general characteristics and biases or for the variety of his literary genres.

In this volume, 12 internationally-recognised experts on Sparta examine the quality of Xenophon’s information on central topics of Laconian history, in the light of the author’s political, literary and intellectual characteristics.

This book is the first of a series in which the Classical Press of Wales will apply to Spartan history the approach it is already using for the history of Rome’s revolutionary era: focusing in turn on each of the main sources on which historians depend, and analysing with a combination of historical and literary methods.

The Editors

Anton Powell has published extensively on the history of Sparta, Athens – and the literature of the Roman Revolution. He is the author of an introduction to source-criticism in Greek history, Athens and Sparta (3rd edition 2016), and the editor of Wiley Blackwell’s Companion to Sparta (2 volumes, 2018). His monograph Virgil the Partisan (2008) was awarded the prize of the American Vergilian Society for ‘the book that makes the greatest contribution toward our understanding and appreciation of Vergil’. He has twice been Invited Professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, in 2006 for Greek history and in 2008 for Latin literature.

Nicolas Richer is one of France’s leading authorities on Sparta. His major works include Les Ephores (1998), La Religion des Spartiates (2012), Sparte: cité des arts, des armes et des lois (2018), and Atlas de la Grèce classique (2017).
He has also published widely in English.
Nicolas Richer is Professor at L’Ecole Normale Supérieure, Lyon

The Contributors

Vincent Azoulay, Gianluca Cuniberti, Giovanna Daverio Rocchi, Ephraim David, Jean Ducat, Thomas J. Figueira. Vivienne Gray. Noreen Humble, Ellen Millender. Pierre Pontier

Contents

Publisher’s note: the series ‘Source + Sparta’

Introductions and Acknowledgements - Anton Powell and Nicolas Richer

1. ‘One little skytale¯’: Xenophon, truth-telling in his major works, and Spartan imperialism - Anton Powell

2. The Lacedaemonian model in Xenophon’s non-historical works (excluding the Cyropaedia) - Nicolas Richer (trans. William E. Higgins)

3. Xenophon’s portrayal of Sparta in the Hellenica, the Lakedaimonion Politeia and the Agesilaos - Giovanna Daverio Rocchi (trans. Anton Powell)

4. Sparta and the Cyropaedia: the correct use of analogies - Vincent Azoulay (trans. Maxime Shelledy)

5. The communication of history in Xenophon. The art of narration, the control of reception and happiness - Gianluca Cuniberti (trans. Robert T. Valgenti)

6. Defining the difference: Xenophon and Spartan law - Vivienne Gray

7. Xenophon and the myth of Lykourgos - Ephraim David (trans. Anton Powell)

8. Foxes at home, lions abroad: Spartan commanders in Xenophon’s Anabasis - Ellen Millender

9. Xenophon and the Spartan economy - Thomas J. Figueira

10. True history: Xenophon’s Agesilaos and the encomiastic genre - Noreen Humble

11. Xenophon presenting Agesilaos: the case of Phleious - Pierre Pontier (trans. William E. Higgins)

12. Xenophon and the selection of the hippeis (Lak. Pol. 4.1–6) - Jean Ducat

Index

Classical Review 2021, 1-3.

"The contributing authors tend to agree that Xenophon was generally an apologist for Sparta, particularly their King Agesilaus, but was not blind to Sparta's faults. … it seems that Xenophon intended for his writings to be read by a Spartan audience. … This is a highly scholarly work for specialists capable of following nuanced arguments on fourth-century Greek history. " A. J. Papalas, CHOICE magazine, February 2021 Vol. 58 No. 6. "Although not entirely new, this is a book of great value and interest, that addresses many problems pertaining to history, literature, economy, law etc., certainly focused on Xenophon and Sparta (seen on the whole in a more critical perspective than ever before), but also on Greece in general. The volume fulfils its purpose ‘to resist centrifugal and hermetic tendencies of modern research and to promote a reintegration of Classics as discipline’ (p. vii)." Elisabetta Bianco,

BMCR 2022.04.23.

"Overall, although a good half of the papers were previously published, the contribution of this volume to the current scholarship is highly significant. The twelves essays, well-updated and written by leading classical scholars, offer diversified, solid, and sometimes pioneering treatments of topics ranging from Xenophon’s deviations from historical truthfulness to his representation of Spartan leaders to the Lacedaemonian economy. Therefore, the book successfully analyses the variety of literary genres in the Xenophontic corpus and provides an overview of the most significant research lines of the last two decades, representing an essential resource for future investigations of Xenophon’s treatment of Sparta." Martina Gatto,