Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

​Xenophon was the son of Gryllus, an Athenian, of the deme of Erchia; he was modest and exceedingly handsome in appearance. The story goes that Socrates met him in a narrow lane, stretched out his staff to bar his way, and asked him where each of the provisions was sold. When he answered, Socrates asked him again where men became noble and good. And when he was at a loss, Socrates said: "Follow then, and learn." From that time on he was a hearer of Socrates. He was also the first to take notes of what was said and publish them to the world, entitling the work Memorabilia. Moreover, he was the first to write a history of philosophers. Aristippus also says, in the fourth book of On Ancient Luxury, that he fell in love with Cleinias;

​and that Xenophon said to him as follows: "For now I gaze upon Cleinias with more pleasure than upon all other beautiful things among men; and I would choose to become blind to all other things rather than with respect to Cleinias alone; I am vexed at both night and sleep because I do not see him, but to day and the sun I owe the greatest gratitude, because they reveal Cleinias to me." He became a friend to Cyrus in the following manner. He had a companion named Proxenus, a Boeotian by birth, who was a pupil of Gorgias of Leontini and a friend of Cyrus. This man, while staying in Sardis with Cyrus, sent a letter to Athens to Xenophon, inviting him to become a friend to Cyrus. Xenophon showed the letter to Socrates and took him as adviser.

​And Socrates sent him to Delphi to consult the god. Xenophon obeyed; he came before the god; but he inquired not whether he ought to go to Cyrus, but how he should go. For this Socrates reproached him, but advised him to depart. So he arrived at Cyrus's court and became no less a friend to him than Proxenus was. Now, as to the other events that occurred during the march inland and the return journey, he himself recounts them to us sufficiently. But he was on hostile terms during the period of the expedition with Menon of Pharsalus, the mercenary commander; on which occasion, in abusing him, he says that Menon had relations with favorites older than himself. Moreover, he reproaches a certain Apollonides with having his ears pierced.

​After the expedition, the misfortunes in the Pontus, and the breaches of faith on the part of Seuthes, the king of the Odrysae, he came to Asia to Agesilaus, the king of the Lacedaemonians, having handed over Cyrus's soldiers to him for pay; and he became his friend in the highest degree. About this time he was condemned to banishment by the Athenians on the charge of Laconism. Arriving in Ephesus and having a quantity of gold, he gave half of it to Megabyzus, the priest of Artemis, to keep until he should return; and if he did not return, to make an image and dedicate it to the goddess; and from the other half he sent dedications to Delphi. Thence he went to Greece with Agesilaus, who had been summoned to the war against the Thebans; and the Lacedaemonians granted him the status of proxenos.

​Thence, leaving Agesilaus, he came to Scillus, a place in Elis a short distance from the city. A woman named Philesia also accompanied him, as Demetrius of Magnesia says, and two sons, Gryllus and Diodorus, as Deinarchus says in his Speech against Xenophon on desertion of a client, who were also nicknamed the Dioscuri. And when Megabyzus arrived on the pretext of attending the festival, Xenophon recovered the money, bought a piece of land, and consecrated it to the goddess, through which flowed the river Selinus, bearing the same name as that in Ephesus. Thenceforth he spent his time hunting, entertaining his friends, and writing his histories. Deinarchus says that the Lacedaemonians also gave him a house and an estate.

​They also say that Phylopidas the Spartan sent him there a gift of captive slaves from Dardanus, and that he disposed of them as he wished; and that the Eleans marched against Scillus and, while the Lacedaemonians delayed, captured the place. On that occasion his sons escaped secretly to Lepreum with a few servants, and Xenophon himself went first to Elis, then to Lepreum to join his boys, and from there escaped with them safely to Corinth and settled there. In the meantime, when the Athenians had voted to assist the Lacedaemonians, he sent his sons to Athens to take the field on behalf of the Lacedaemonians.