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The MouseionXenophon

Xenophon

14 works in the library, 14 with an English translation.

Greek philosopher, historian, soldier, born at Erchia. From Wikidata; Wikipedia.

Lived
5th–4th c. BC
Kinds of writing
Biography (3), Philosophic Dialogue (3), Philosophy (3), History (2), Biology (2), Military
Dialect
Attic
Analysed
359,242 words

The 14 works

First the work Xenophon is best known for; then the works here with a translation and the most familiar vocabulary: the fewest rare words to look up. That is vocabulary only; grammar, dialect and ideas may still be demanding.

The road of the text

Follow the text from Xenophon's own day to the book in your hands. The gaps are the long silences between one mark and the next.

Before you read. Little numbers like 1 are footnotes. Tap one and it jumps to the source at the bottom of the page, so you can check us. Ancient tradition / legend This is what ancient writers told; it may not be what happened. Debated among scholars The evidence allows more than one reading, and specialists disagree. No label? Then the sources simply state it as fact.

  • The author
  • Readers
  • Copies
  • Print and editions
  1. c. 430 BCThe authorBorn at Erchia, in Athenian territory, son of Gryllus3,4
  2. about 30 years later401 BCThe authorJoins Cyrus' march against the Persian king; after Cyrus dies at Cunaxa, the soldiers choose Xenophon as a general2,13
  3. 2 years later399 BCThe authorSocrates is put to death at Athens; the march ends when the Spartan Thibron takes over the army3,6,18
  4. 5 years later394 BCThe authorFights for Sparta, against Athenians, at Coronea; exiled from Athens about this time4,19 Debated among scholars
  5. 23 years later371 BCThe authorThe collapse of Spartan power ends his twenty-odd years at Scillus; he moves to Corinth4
  6. 9 years later362 BCThe authorHis son Gryllus dies fighting for Athens at Mantinea, the battle where the Hellenica ends4,28
  7. 7 years later355 BCThe authorWays and Means, thought to be his last work34
  8. about 1 years laterc. 354 BCThe authorDies, probably in 355 or 354 BC, at Corinth by Diogenes' account3,25
  9. about 500 years laterc. AD 150ReadersArrian, in the second century AD, writes that the Ten Thousand are famous because of Xenophon36,37
  10. about 100 years laterc. AD 250CopiesA papyrus of the Hellenica, now in Vienna, is copied in the 3rd century42
  11. about 700 years laterc. AD 950CopiesVaticanus gr. 1335 (A), the oldest manuscript for many of his works: tenth century by one view, eleventh or twelfth by others43 Debated among scholars
  12. about 370 years later1320CopiesParis, gr. 1640 is copied: the Cyropaedia and the Anabasis45
  13. about 150 years later1467Print and editionsFrancesco Filelfo's Latin translation of the Cyropaedia29
  14. about 30 years laterc. 1494Print and editionsThe Hiero, the first of his works in print (Florence, between 1494 and 1496)46
  15. about 9 years later1503Print and editionsAldus Manutius prints the Hellenica at Venice46
  16. 13 years later1516Print and editionsThe Giunta press at Florence prints his works, all but the Apology, Agesilaus and Ways and Means46
  17. 51 years later1567Print and editionsWilliam Barker's Cyropaedia, the first full English translation29
  18. about 330 years later1900Print and editionsE. C. Marchant's Oxford text begins (the Greek in the reader)52
  19. 98 years later1998Print and editionsBrownson's Loeb Anabasis, revised by John Dillery53

Life and work

Checked against sources · 2 October 2026

“There was a man in the army named Xenophon, an Athenian, who was neither general nor captain nor private”: that is how Xenophon walks into his own story, at the start of the third book of the Anabasis. He had come along, he says, because an old friend, Proxenus, had invited him and promised to make him a friend of the Persian prince Cyrus.1 Before the chapter is over the soldiers have chosen him as one of their generals: “Xenophon the Athenian in place of Proxenus”.2

He was born about 430 BC in Erchia, one of the country districts of Athens, the son of Gryllus.3,4,5 Soldier, exile, landowner and follower of Socrates, he wrote fourteen books of very different kinds, and every one of them survives: history, memoir, conversations of Socrates, a partly invented life of a Persian king, and handbooks on horses, hunting and money.4,29

A pupil of Socrates

Ancient tradition / legend Diogenes Laertius tells how they met. Socrates stopped the young man in a narrow passage, barred the way with his stick and asked where each kind of food was sold; then he asked, “where do men become good and honourable?” Xenophon had no answer. “Then follow me, said Socrates, and learn.”5

Diogenes also calls him “the first to take notes of, and to give to the world, the conversation of Socrates”, in the Memorabilia.5 The Anabasis shows the two men together. When Proxenus' letter came, Xenophon asked Socrates' advice. Socrates feared that friendship with Cyrus, who had helped Sparta in its war against Athens, might be held against him at home, and told him to put the question to Apollo at Delphi. Xenophon asked the god only which gods he should sacrifice to for a safe journey. Socrates scolded him for making up his mind first and asking afterwards, but told him to do what the god had said.1

Socrates was tried and put to death at Athens in 399 BC,6 while Xenophon was far away: Diogenes dates the march to the year before Socrates died.7

Xenophon's Socratic books defend his teacher. The Memorabilia opens: “I have often wondered by what arguments those who drew up the indictment against Socrates could persuade the Athenians that his life was forfeit to the state.”8 It closes with a portrait: “For myself, I have described him as he was”.9 In his Apology he says that others had already written about Socrates' defence, and he leans on the reports of Hermogenes, a companion of Socrates.10 His Symposium tells of a dinner party as “an experience of mine”,11 and in the Oeconomicus Socrates talks about how to run an estate.12

The march of the Ten Thousand

In 401 BC Cyrus the Younger marched inland to take the Persian throne from his brother, Artaxerxes II, with an army of Greek mercenaries.13 When the army was reviewed, Xenophon reports, the Greeks numbered 10,400 hoplites (armoured infantry) and 2,500 lighter-armed peltasts.14 At the battle of Cunaxa, near Babylon, Cyrus was killed, and the expedition lost its point.13,15 Soon afterwards the Greek generals were seized by treachery and beheaded before the King.13,16

Stranded, the army chose new leaders, Xenophon among them,2 and fought its way north through mountains and snow towards the Black Sea.13 The most famous scene comes on a mountain called Theches. A great shout goes up at the front. Xenophon, with the rearguard, thinks enemies are attacking, rides forward, and hears the soldiers shouting «θάλαττα θάλαττα», “The Sea! The Sea!” They embrace one another, generals and captains too, in tears, and pile up a great cairn of stones.17

The march ended in 399 BC, when the Spartan commander Thibron took over the army.3,18

Sparta, Scillus and exile

Xenophon went on serving with the Spartans, and when King Agesilaus went home to fight in Greece he went too. At Coronea, in 394 BC, he fought against his fellow Athenians.4 Plutarch says the same: Xenophon “was present himself and fought on the side of Agesilaüs, having crossed over with him from Asia”.19 Agesilaus made much of him, and told him to send for his sons and bring them up at Sparta.20

Debated among scholars When and why Athens exiled him is not clear. At the end of the march, he says, “not yet had sentence of exile been pronounced against him at Athens”.21 Pausanias gives the reason as his part in Cyrus' expedition, since Cyrus was the enemy of the Athenian people;22 Diogenes says it was for siding with Sparta.23 Whether Coronea caused the exile or came after it is disputed; that he was exiled is not.4

The Spartans settled him at Scillus, near Olympia. There, with money set aside for Artemis of Ephesus, he bought land for the goddess and built her a small copy of her temple at Ephesus, with a statue of cypress wood where Ephesus had gold. Every year he held a festival for the neighbours, with hunting in the sacred grounds.24 Diogenes says that at Scillus he “hunted, entertained his friends, and worked at his histories”.23 He stayed more than twenty years, until the collapse of Spartan power in 371 BC drove him to Corinth.4,7

Debated among scholars The people of Elis told a different ending. Their guides said that Xenophon was tried for taking the land, was pardoned, and lived on at Scillus in safety; near the sanctuary they showed Pausanias a tomb with a marble statue, which the neighbours said was Xenophon's.22

In the end Xenophon and Athens made peace. When Athens voted to help Sparta, he sent his sons to serve, Diogenes says,7 and his son Gryllus died fighting as an Athenian cavalryman at Mantinea in 362 BC.4

Ancient tradition / legend Xenophon was sacrificing, a garland on his head, when the news came. He took the garland off, and put it back on when he heard that his son had died gloriously. Some said he did not even weep, but said: “I knew my son was mortal.”7

Diogenes also reports a story that one decree of Eubulus banished him and another recalled him;25 whether he ever went home to live is not known.4 He died, Diogenes says, at Corinth, “obviously at an advanced age”.25 Most modern scholars put his death in 355 or 354 BC.3

Every kind of book

Xenophon wrote fourteen works, and all of them survive.4 Diogenes lists them and counts “some forty books in all”, since several of the works run to more than one book.25

History. The Hellenica takes up the story where Thucydides breaks off, in 411 BC, and carries it down to 362.26 It has no preface of its own, and simply begins «μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα», “After this”.26,27 It ends with the battle of Mantinea, which left Greece in more confusion than before, and a shrug: “Thus far be it written by me; the events after these will perhaps be the concern of another.”28

Memoir. The Anabasis, the march of the Ten Thousand, told with Xenophon in the third person.13

A life that is partly fiction. The Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, is a partly fictional life of Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian empire.29 It sets out to learn how one man could rule so many peoples who “obeyed Cyrus willingly”.30 Herodotus has Cyrus fall in battle against the Massagetae, and their queen, Tomyris, push his dead head into a skin full of blood;31 Xenophon's Cyrus dies an old man in Persia, after a farewell to his sons and friends: he “covered himself over, and so died”.32

Rulers and Sparta. Agesilaus, in praise of the Spartan king;4 the Constitution of the Lacedaemonians; and Hiero, on tyranny.25

Handbooks. On horsemanship, on the duties of a cavalry commander, on hunting, and Ways and Means, a plan to mend Athens' finances, with a chapter on getting more out of the silver mines.25,33 Ways and Means was written in 355 BC and is thought to be his last work.34 On Horsemanship begins politely by naming an older book on the subject by a man called Simon.35

Ancient readers loved the way he wrote. “By the sweetness of his narrative he earned the name of the Attic Muse”, says Diogenes: «Ἀττικὴ Μοῦσα».25

Ancient tradition / legend Diogenes adds two stories: that Xenophon and Plato were jealous of each other, and that Xenophon “made Thucydides famous by publishing his history, which was unknown”, when he could have passed it off as his own.25

Later readers

In the second century AD the historian Arrian37 remarked, early in his own history of Alexander the Great, that the march of the Ten Thousand, and the retreat Xenophon led, were far better known than Alexander's deeds, thanks to Xenophon.36 Arrian imitated Xenophon more than any other model, and was himself called Xenophon.38 His own book on hunting sets out to fill the gaps in Xenophon's, as a man with the same name, the same city and the same loves: hunting, generalship and wisdom.39

The Cyropaedia had famous readers. The Roman general Scipio Aemilianus is said to have carried a copy with him at all times, and it was a favourite of Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar. In the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance it shaped the mirrors for princes, books of advice for rulers, and Machiavelli's The Prince.29

The Anabasis, in its clear and plain Attic Greek, has long been one of the first complete texts that students of Greek read.13 Over the twentieth century Xenophon faded from school courses and scholarly journals alike; then, in the 1990s and 2000s, Xenophon studies boomed.40

How the words reached us

Manuscripts & transmission

Passed from hand to hand

In antiquity. Xenophon was copied on papyrus: A. H. R. E. Paap's collection, The Xenophon Papyri (Leiden, 1970), gathers papyri of the Anabasis, the Cyropaedia, On Hunting and Ways and Means.41 A third-century papyrus of the Hellenica, now in the National Library in Vienna, backs up the best medieval manuscript and keeps some right readings where all the manuscripts go wrong.42

The oldest book. The oldest surviving manuscript for many of his works is in the Vatican: Vaticanus gr. 1335, called A, a parchment book of 246 leaves. It holds the Cyropaedia, the Anabasis, the Apology, the Agesilaus, the Hiero, the Constitution of the Lacedaemonians, the Constitution of the Athenians and Ways and Means (missing its last thirty words). Its date is argued over: the tenth century in A. Diller's view, the eleventh or twelfth in others'. It later belonged to the Roman collector Fulvio Orsini, who left it to the Vatican.43

Two families. Studies of the shorter works have found two families of manuscripts, one headed by A, the other by a lost ancestor. The Symposium survives only in the second family: John Cirignano examined twenty-three manuscripts holding twenty-five copies of it.44 For the Apology there are only five manuscripts, and Edward Schmoll concluded that A alone is enough to base the text on.43

The Anabasis and the Hellenica. The manuscripts of the Anabasis also fall into two families, called c and f. Editors used to prefer the c family; the papyri suggest each reading should be judged on its merits.42 A leading c manuscript is in Paris, gr. 1640, copied in 1320, which holds the Cyropaedia and the Anabasis and passed through the hands of Janus Lascaris, Cardinal Niccolò Ridolfi and Catherine de' Medici.42,45 For the Hellenica the chief manuscript is another Paris book, gr. 1738 (B), of the early fourteenth century.42

Print. Xenophon came into print piece by piece. The Hiero was printed at Florence, edited by Janus Lascaris, between 1494 and 1496; Aldus Manutius printed the Hellenica at Venice in 1503; Philippus Junta (Giunta) printed the works at Florence in 1516, all but the Apology, the Agesilaus and Ways and Means. Johannes Reuchlin printed the Apology and Agesilaus at Hagenau in 1520, and the Aldine press added Ways and Means, with the Constitution of the Athenians, in 1525.46

Textual variants

Where the copies disagree

Who wrote the Anabasis? In the Hellenica, Xenophon does not tell the story of Cyrus' march. He says instead that it “has been written by Themistogenes the Syracusan”.47 Plutarch's explanation is that Xenophon put another man's name on his own work, “his purpose being to win greater credence for his narrative by referring to himself in the third person”.48 The idea has been raised many times since, and Wikipedia's article on the Anabasis says most scholars agree that Xenophon wrote it all himself.13

Debated among scholars Passages that may not be his. Four short passages of the Anabasis add up the march in stages, parasangs and months, or list the King's governors, at 2.2.6, 5.5.4 and at the very end, 7.8.25–26.49,50 They are often taken for later additions, partly because the list of governors does not match the rest of the book; Iordanis Paradeisopoulos (2013) argues that Xenophon could have written them himself.49 Brownson's English, shown in the reader, sets them in square brackets, and the Loeb's note at 7.8.25 says that these figures, like the summaries at the head of most of the books, “must have been the contribution of a late editor”.50

Debated among scholars Brownson brackets those short summaries too, as at 2.1.1. Diogenes, though, seems to have known them: the Anabasis, he says, has “a preface to each separate book but not one to the whole work”.25

A book that is not his. A short pamphlet on the Constitution of the Athenians, by a writer who detests Athens' democracy, was handed down among Xenophon's works and is in A, the oldest manuscript.3,43,51 Doubts are old: Diogenes Laertius lists “The Constitutions of Athens and Sparta” among his works, and adds that Demetrius of Magnesia, a writer of the first century BC, denied that it was Xenophon's.25,51 It is now taken not to be his. Its unknown author is called the “Old Oligarch”, a name first used by Gilbert Murray, and the dates suggested for it run from 443 to 406 BC.51

Debated among scholars Parts that may not be his. Some or all of On Hunting has been doubted, above all its first chapter, which Philip Stadter calls “very dubious”. Arrian, in the second century AD, accepted the whole book as Xenophon's.38

Debated among scholars A history written in stages? Many think the Hellenica was not written all at once. Its first part (to 2.3.10), on the end of the Peloponnesian War, may have been written in the 380s BC, and most of the rest in the last years of his life.26

Older texts, older collations. The Greek in the reader is E. C. Marchant's Oxford text.52 Schmoll noted in 1990 that many earlier texts of the shorter works, Marchant's among them, rested on collations of only one or two manuscripts, sometimes faulty ones, and that the longer works still awaited fresh study.43

Books to read it in

  • E. C. Marchant, Xenophontis Opera Omnia, 5 vols (Oxford Classical Texts, Clarendon Press, 1900–1921).52 The Greek text of every work in the reader.
  • Loeb Classical Library translations: C. L. Brownson (Hellenica, 1918–21; Anabasis, 1921–22), E. C. Marchant (Memorabilia, Oeconomicus, 1923; the shorter works, 1925), O. J. Todd (Symposium, Apology, 1923), W. Miller (Cyropaedia, 1914).52 The English translations in the reader.
  • C. L. Brownson, Xenophon: Anabasis, revised by John Dillery (Loeb Classical Library 90, Harvard University Press, 1998).53 A revised edition of the Brownson translation shown in the reader.
  • R. B. Strassler (ed.), The Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika, translated by John Marincola (New York, Pantheon, 2009).54
  • Shane Brennan and David Thomas, The Landmark Xenophon's Anabasis (New York, Pantheon, 2021).55 Full of maps; a reviewer found the translation sound.
  • L. Huitink and T. Rood, Xenophon: Anabasis Book III (Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics, 2019).56 A commentary on the Greek, for students.
  • M. A. Flower, Xenophon's Anabasis, or the Expedition of Cyrus (Oxford University Press, 2012).57 A study of the book.
  • M. A. Flower (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Xenophon (Cambridge University Press, 2016).40
  • A. A. Phillips and M. M. Willcock, Xenophon & Arrian On Hunting with Hounds (Warminster, Aris & Phillips, 1999).3 Both hunting books, with translation and commentary.

Where this comes from

Sources (57)
  1. Xenophon, Anabasis 3.1.4–7, in the reader (Xenophon joins the army; Socrates and the oracle)
  2. Xenophon, Anabasis 3.1.47, in the reader (the new generals)
  3. Wikipedia, Xenophon (birth and death, Erchia, Agesilaus, Coronea, the end of the Anabasis in 399, further reading)
  4. Christopher J. Tuplin, “Xenophon”, Encyclopaedia Iranica (2000, updated 2013)
  5. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 2.48, in the reader (Xenophon meets Socrates)
  6. Wikipedia, Trial of Socrates (399 BC)
  7. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 2.53–55, in the reader (Corinth; his sons; Gryllus; the date of the march)
  8. Xenophon, Memorabilia 1.1.1, in the reader
  9. Xenophon, Memorabilia 4.8.11, in the reader
  10. Xenophon, Apology 1–2, in the reader
  11. Xenophon, Symposium 1.1, in the reader
  12. Xenophon, Oeconomicus 1.1, in the reader
  13. Wikipedia, Anabasis (Xenophon) (401 BC, Cunaxa, the generals, the march, Themistogenes, its use in teaching)
  14. Xenophon, Anabasis 1.7.10, in the reader (the review of the army)
  15. Xenophon, Anabasis 1.8.27, in the reader (the death of Cyrus)
  16. Xenophon, Anabasis 2.6.1, in the reader (the generals beheaded)
  17. Xenophon, Anabasis 4.7.21–25, in the reader (the sea)
  18. Xenophon, Anabasis 7.8.24, in the reader (Thibron takes over the army)
  19. Plutarch, Agesilaus 18.1, in the reader (Xenophon at Coronea)
  20. Plutarch, Agesilaus 20.2, in the reader (his sons at Sparta)
  21. Xenophon, Anabasis 7.7.57, in the reader (not yet exiled)
  22. Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.6.5–6, in the reader (Scillus, the reason for the exile, the tomb)
  23. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 2.51–52, in the reader (exiled for siding with Sparta; life at Scillus)
  24. Xenophon, Anabasis 5.3.7–13, in the reader (Scillus and the temple of Artemis)
  25. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 2.56–59, in the reader (his death, his books, the Attic Muse, Demetrius of Magnesia, Eubulus)
  26. Wikipedia, Hellenica (411–362 BC, no preface, theories of composition)
  27. Xenophon, Hellenica 1.1.1, in the reader
  28. Xenophon, Hellenica 7.5.26–27, in the reader (the end)
  29. Wikipedia, Cyropaedia (a partly fictional biography; its readers; Filelfo 1467 and Barker 1567)
  30. Xenophon, Cyropaedia 1.1.3, in the reader
  31. Herodotus, Histories 1.205–214, in the reader (Tomyris, queen of the Massagetae; Cyrus killed in battle)
  32. Xenophon, Cyropaedia 8.7.1–28, in the reader (the death of Cyrus)
  33. Xenophon, Ways and Means 4.1, in the reader (the silver mines)
  34. Wikipedia, Ways and Means (Xenophon) (written in 355 BC; his last work)
  35. Xenophon, On the Art of Horsemanship 1.1, in the reader (Simon)
  36. Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander 1.12.3, in the reader (Greek only; the paraphrase is ours)
  37. Wikipedia, Arrian (about AD 86/89 to after 146/160)
  38. Philip A. Stadter, “Xenophon in Arrian's Cynegeticus”, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 17.2 (1976) 157–167
  39. Arrian, On Hunting 1.1–4, in the reader (Greek only; the paraphrase is ours)
  40. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2017.10.19, review of M. A. Flower (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Xenophon (2016)
  41. Internet Archive, catalogue record of A. H. R. E. Paap, The Xenophon Papyri: Anabasis, Cyropaedia, Cynegeticus, De Vectigalibus (Leiden, Brill, 1970)
  42. Roger Pearse, Some manuscript traditions of the Greek classics: Xenophon (after the introductions to the Loeb Anabasis and Hellenica)
  43. Edward A. Schmoll, “The Manuscript Tradition of Xenophon's Apologia Socratis”, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 31.3 (1990) 313–321
  44. John Cirignano, “The Manuscripts of Xenophon's Symposium”, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 34.2 (1993) 187–210
  45. Pinakes (IRHT), Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Grec 1640 (1320; Cyropaedia and Anabasis; owners)
  46. Wikipedia, List of editiones principes in Greek (Xenophon, 1494–1525, after D. Marsh, Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum 7, 1992)
  47. Xenophon, Hellenica 3.1.2, in the reader (Themistogenes)
  48. Plutarch, Were the Athenians More Famous in War or in Wisdom? 1, in the reader
  49. Iordanis K. Paradeisopoulos, “A Chronology Model for Xenophon's Anabasis”, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 53.4 (2013) 645–686
  50. Xenophon, Anabasis 7.8.25–26, in the reader (the governors and the totals, in square brackets in Brownson's English, with the Loeb note on them in the file)
  51. Wikipedia, Constitution of the Athenians (Pseudo-Xenophon)
  52. Perseus's copies of Xenophon shown in the reader: each file's header names its edition (Marchant, Clarendon Press, 1900–1921; the Loeb translations of Brownson, Marchant, Todd and Miller, Heinemann, 1914–1925)
  53. Harvard Book Store, Anabasis (Loeb Classical Library 90), Brownson, revised by Dillery (Harvard University Press, 1998)
  54. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2011.10.17, review of R. B. Strassler (ed.), The Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika (2009)
  55. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2022.09.40, review of S. Brennan and D. Thomas, The Landmark Xenophon's Anabasis (2021)
  56. The Classical Review 70.1 (2020), Jan Haywood, review of L. Huitink and T. Rood, Xenophon: Anabasis Book III (2019)
  57. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2014.03.54, review of M. A. Flower, Xenophon's Anabasis, or the Expedition of Cyrus (2012)

We checked every statement above against these sources on 2 October 2026. Where they disagree, we say so. What we could not confirm, we left out.

In The Painted Stoa

Entries that quote or point to Xenophon's Greek.

The Melian DialogueIn the summer of 416 BC an Athenian fleet of thirty-eight ships anchored off Melos, a small island that wanted no part in the war between Athens and Sparta.The silver of LaurionThe fleet that beat the Persians at Salamis in 480 BC was paid for with silver dug out of the hills of southern Attica.The helots and the krypteiaSparta's citizens could spend their lives training for war because someone else grew their food.Going to school in AthensThere were no state schools in classical Athens.
All 12 entries
Growing up SpartanEverywhere else in Greece a father decided how to bring up his son.The symposiumA symposion means "drinking together".Chosen by lot: the allotment machineModern democracies choose their officials by election.The trial of SocratesIn the spring of 399 BC, a jury of about five hundred Athenian citizens found the philosopher Socrates, aged about seventy, guilty of not believing in the city's gods, of bringing in new divine beings, and of corrupting the young.Drugs and poisonsThe Greeks had one word for a medicine, a poison and a magic spell: pharmakon.Love, sex and marriageA Greek marriage was a deal between two households, made so that a man would have legitimate children to inherit his house.The householdA Greek oikos was more than a house.Women's livesAlmost everything we read about Greek women was written by men.

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