Xenophon

Throughout history, there have been many wars where it can be argued who won. During the times of the ancient world, one of the biggest arguments that can be made is whether Athens or Sparta and her allies won the Peloponnesian Wars. While there is substantial evidence to prove either side won the war, there is more information supporting Sparta and her allies as the victors of the Peloponnesian Wars. Sparta and her allies won the Peloponnesian Wars due to the strength of the Spartan military,…

Wise and humble to his admirers and self-righteous heretic to his critics, Socrates was a polarizing figure who made it his mission to understand what justice truly was and what it meant to live a just life. Socrates was a willing to engage with nearly anyone about these philosophical questions, however too often these discussions would lead to inconclusive answers. In the Republic, an account of Socrates written by one of his own followers known as Plato, Socrates finally offers an answer to…

There was some issues brought against Socrates at his trial some of them included: not recognizing the gods of Athens, introducing new gods, and corrupting the youth. In the actual trial of Socrates he was found guilty but if I was an Athenian jury back then I would have voted not guilty for three reasons: the gods that he was speaking to the youth about were the children of Athens gods, the youth in Athens weren’t being forced to listen to Socrates, and he wasn’t being paid to teach people…

Plutarch’s literary work may be slightly inaccurate, as he was not alive during the time of which he wrote about. However, it was likely that Plutarch would have gained information from other ancient historians who also wrote about the helots, such as Xenophon. This would have increased the accuracy of Plutarch’s account. Moreover, this excerpt from Plutarch was relevant in regards to explaining the nature of the members of the Crypteia and the intimidation they asserted over the helots.…

A modern military strategist would see Cyrus as a military officer guilty of mission creep. Cyrus expanded what was said to be a purely defensive mission into the triumphant establishment of an empire. Cyrus was not satisfied by simply pushing back the advancing Assyrian army, he wanted to annihilate them permanently. He was able to act for his own agenda despite being by all means a hired mercenary or at least a mercenary by obligation to his family. How is it then that Cyrus was able to…

The culture of the west and thought begun with the classical Greece. These officially started in the year 1500BC; however, the interruption of the culture of the West was about 1100-900BC during the dark ages of the Greek. The intrusion took momentum at the beginning of 900BC a classical period when the Greece would enter into their most glorious period (Merchant, 98). It is also a time when they were setting the basis for the dominant empires and nations in the millennia and the centuries to…

individual based fighting to a close-ranked battle where they “clash in the middle” resembles the construction of othismos. Specifically, this resembles Thucydides battle description: “the rese engaged with utmost obstinacy, shield against shield,” and Xenophon depicts a similar picture when the soldier: “setting shields against shields they shoved, fought, killed, and were killed” (Thuc. 4.96.2; Xen. 4.3.19). Beyond othismos, there are prominent parallels between hoplites and Homer in more…

It is fitting to begin a study on how modern English speakers describe aspect in Ancient Greek by exploring how the ancient Greeks described this concept themselves. In the Platonic dialogue The Sophist, the verb is defined as “the word indicating action,” or simply the action word. Aristotle defines the verb as “a sound compounded with meaning and indicative of time”. A verb, according to the Greeks, describes action, from which we can deduce further that it has a subject, and it indicates…

This wealth was put into the royal treasury which became important for financial administration and storage of wealth. Darius followed Lydian tradition and minted coins gold coins “darics” and silver coins “sigloi”, stamped with insignia. He also introduced a new weight, the “karsha”, in the shape of a pyramidion. The standardization of weights and measures and the introduction of coinage was effective in facilitating imperial trade and provided flexibility in the exchange of goods throughout…