Riassunto
Riassunto di Elleniche
A chi è rivolto
For readers who love ancient history and war told by a soldier, and anyone who has read Thucydides and wants to know what came next.
Che cos’è questo libro
Hellenica is the history of the Greek world written by Xenophon, an Athenian soldier and writer who died in 355 BC. It picks up in the middle of the Peloponnesian War, at the exact point where Thucydides left his own history unfinished. From there it follows the Greek cities for almost fifty years, down to the battle of Mantinea in 362 BC. The title simply means Greek affairs.
Xenophon was not a distant scholar. He had marched with a Greek army deep into Persia, served under the Spartan king Agesilaus, and lived for years on an estate given to him by Sparta. He saw some of these events with his own eyes and heard of the rest from the men who made them. That gives the book its feel of a campaign report, full of marches, ambushes, oaths, quarrels and sudden reversals.
In this summary you will meet the last years of Athens at war, the Thirty Tyrants, the Spartan empire at its height, the Persian king as a judge of Greek quarrels, and the rise of Thebes. You will also see the author's habits, his love of good generalship, his belief that the gods punish broken oaths, and the things he chooses to leave out. Let us begin with where the book starts and why it starts there.
In questo riassunto
- 1Xenophon takes up where Thucydides stopsFree
- 2Athens fights on, wins, and then wrongs its own
- 3Lysander wins the war and Athens falls
- 4The Thirty Tyrants and the return of democracy
- 5Sparta spreads its power into Asia
- 6The Corinthian War and Persian money
- 7The King's Peace and Spartan overreach
- 8Thebes rises and Sparta breaks at Leuctra
- 9Mantinea settles nothing and the book simply stops
Punto chiave 1 di 9
Xenophon takes up where Thucydides stops
Thucydides wrote the story of the long war between Athens and Sparta, but his text breaks off abruptly in the year 411 BC. Xenophon begins his own first book at that very spot, with no introduction and no explanation. He simply carries on, year by year, in the same plain order of summers and winters. They are very different in spirit.
Who was Xenophon? He was born in Athens around 430 BC, into a family with enough money to ride horses and serve as a cavalryman. He knew Socrates and wrote about him in other books. Later he joined a Greek mercenary army that went to Persia with Cyrus the Younger, and he led the survivors home. That story is told in his Anabasis, and it shaped his view of leadership for the rest of his life.
Athens exiled him, probably because he had served Cyrus, who had helped Sparta against Athens. He then attached himself to the Spartan king Agesilaus and fought beside him. Sparta rewarded him with an estate at Scillus, near Olympia, where he hunted, farmed and wrote. Many readers think this is why the Hellenica leans toward Sparta and its king.
The book has seven parts, which we call books. Scholars have long noticed that the style shifts after the end of the Peloponnesian War, and they have argued whether Xenophon wrote the work in two stages, years apart. The later books have a more openly moral tone and are less even in what they cover. Keep that in mind, because it explains some oddities you will meet.
The method is simple. Xenophon tells what happened, names the commanders, and often stops to praise or blame a decision. He does not give long invented speeches the way Thucydides does. He gives short exchanges, quick quarrels and pointed remarks, which makes his pages lively. The first great subject is the last stretch of the war, when Athens was still fighting hard.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Alcibiades
- An Athenian commander recalled from exile, he helps Athens fight Sparta in the Hellespont.
- Lysander
- A Spartan naval commander, he leads the fleet against Athens and supports its oligarchic allies.
- Agesilaus
- A Spartan king admired by Xenophon, he commands campaigns against Persia and Sparta's Greek rivals.
- Thirty Tyrants
- A Spartan-backed group of Athenian rulers, they impose an oligarchic government and persecute their opponents.
- Thrasybulus
- An Athenian democratic leader, he organizes resistance to the Thirty and their supporters.
- Antalcidas
- A Spartan diplomat, he negotiates with the Persian king over peace among the Greek cities.
- Jason of Pherae
- A powerful Thessalian ruler, he commands a formidable army and pursues influence among the Greek states.
- Epaminondas
- A Theban commander, he leads armies into the Peloponnese against Sparta and its allies.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 126,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 8 h 25 min
- Listening time14 h 5 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 11 other languages
Questions about Elleniche
What is Hellenica by Xenophon about?
It is a history of the Greek world from 411 to 362 BC. It covers the end of the Peloponnesian War, the Thirty Tyrants, Spartan power, the Corinthian War, the rise of Thebes, and the battle of Mantinea.
Is Hellenica a continuation of Thucydides?
Yes. Xenophon begins in 411 BC, at the exact point where Thucydides' unfinished history breaks off. Many readers treat the two books as a pair, though Xenophon writes in a plainer and more personal style.
Is Xenophon biased toward Sparta?
Many historians think so. Xenophon served under King Agesilaus and lived on land given by Sparta. He praises Spartan discipline and piety, and he says little about some Theban achievements, such as the planning of Epaminondas.
Is Hellenica hard to read?
The prose is plain and the story moves by campaigns and events.
Why is Hellenica worth reading today?
It is one of the few surviving accounts of Greece from 404 to 362 BC, written by a man who knew many of the people involved. It shows how empires rise, overreach and lose their allies.