WHEN WAS XENOPHON BORN? RETURN TO THE SOURCES AND NEW ARGUMENTS

Nikolay Penev

Sofia University

https://doi.org/10.53656/his2025-3-3-xen

Abstract. The Corpus Xenophonticum solidifies Xenophon’s status as a renown literary figure, while his philosophical reflections on the ideal ruler mark him as a precursor of a new epoch, namely the age of Alexander the Great and the rise of the Hellenistic kingdoms. Over the centuries, the „Attic Muse“ has stood as a paradigm of literary and rhetorical excellence, and as such, his influence resonates even today. Although the Alexandrian grammarians included him in the triad of the great Greek historians, alongside Herodotus and Thucydides, his biography remains shrouded in uncertainty. Many of the ambiguities surrounding Xenophon’s life stem from the loss of the Peripatetic works that laid the foundations of biography as a genre, as well as from a tendency in contemporary scholarship to dismiss certain written sources or interpret them with undue or inaccurate critical rigor.

The present study seeks to determine the year of Xenophon’s birth by analysing existing autobiographical evidence and testimonies from later Greek and Roman writers. To date, there are two main theories of Xenophon’s birth that have gained ground in modern historiography – ca. 445 – 444 BC, or about 430 BC, the latter being the most widely accepted. The present study introduces new arguments that challenge longstanding “contradictions” within the texts and offer a fresh perspective, arguing for Xenophon’s birth in 441 BC.

Reassessing the year of Xenophon’s birth is also crucial for evaluating the arguments concerning the authorship of the political treatise, The Constitution of the Athenians, traditionally attributed to an anonymous writer.

Keywords: Xenophon, biography, The Constitution of the Athenians

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