Xenophon – ancient Greek historian, soldier, and philosopher of the 5th–4th centuries BCE, student of Socrates, and author of Anabasis and Memorabilia of Socrates. Born around 430 BCE in Athens, he joined Cyrus the Younger’s campaign against Persia and became famous leading the “Ten Thousand” Greeks back to the Black Sea. Exiled from Athens, he lived in Sparta and later in the Peloponnese. His works combine military narrative, political reflection, and philosophical testimony.
⚔️ Anabasis recounts the grueling retreat of the Greek mercenaries through Persia. 📚 His prose was admired for clarity and simplicity, taught as a model of Attic style. 👑 Favoured Sparta, earning suspicion among fellow Athenians. 🐎 Wrote treatises on horsemanship and hunting. 🎓 As Socrates’ student, he preserved a unique perspective distinct from Plato’s. 🏛 His Cyropaedia became a “mirror for princes” throughout antiquity and the Middle Ages. 🌍 Blended history with autobiography, a rarity for his time. 😅 Funny note: joked that it was “safer to fight Persians than to jest with Athenians,” after nearly being beaten for his irony.