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All text, translations, and maps copyrighted by Lawrence Douglas Ringer. Last modified on: 26-October-2015.
If you encounter a word or spelling with which you are unfamiliar, be sure to check the glossaries (see the links on the right under Reference Aids).
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| Bust of Xenophon, ca. 332 BCE – 395 CE. (Antiquities Museum, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt) A bust of the Hellenisitic Age (323–30 BCE) or later with the inscription ‘XENOPHON’ |
Unfortunately, Xenophon did not mention himself in his history of the years following his exile at Skillous. As a result, we do not know if he participated in any of the events of the next few decades. That being so, I will just briefly summarize these events, which Xenophon chronicled in his major historical work, the Hellēnika.
THE KING’S PEACE OF 386 BCE
The Korinthian War (395–386 BCE) finally came to an end in 386 BCE as a result of the King’s Peace, which was imposed upon the Greeks by the Persian king Artaxerxes II (reigned 405/404–359/358 BCE).[16] The Greek states were summoned by Tiribazos, the Persian satrap at Sardis, to his court to hear the Great King’s directive. The koinē eirēnē (common peace) had been negotiated by the Lakedaimonian (Spartan) admiral and diplomat Antalkidas after whom the peace is sometimes called the Peace of Antalkidas.
According to the terms of the treaty, the Lakedaimonians (Spartans) shamefully abandoned the Greeks of Asia to the Persians in exchange for the Persians giving them a free rein in Europe. This was despite the fact that the Lakedaimonian king Agesilaos had earlier promised the Greeks of Asia that, once the Korinthian War had been successfully concluded, he would return to liberate them from Persian rule. So much for a Lakedaimonian king’s pledge! Outside of Asia, each and every Greek city was technically guaranteed autonomy, but in effect the common peace guaranteed Lakedaimonian hegemony over the European Greeks as the Lakedaimonians acted as the enforcers of the treaty. The Lakedaimonians were especially insistent that the individual cities of the Boiotian League be free and autonomous and not be associated with the Thebans in a confederation.
The Persian king had been persuaded to switch his support away from the Greek allies and to choose instead to impose a common peace by means of an agreement with the Lakedaimonians (Spartans) as they were apparently the only side that was willing to officially cede the Greeks of Asia to the Persians. As Plutarch so profoundly observed it was not as a result of the battle at Leuktra (see below), but rather it was as a result of this peace that Sparta’s glorious reputation perished! (Xenophon. Hellēnika ???; Plutarch. Artaxerxes 21.4–22.2)
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| Translation by Lawrence D. Ringer Note the reference to the ‘Coalition of the Willing’! |
THE BEGINNING OF THE LAKEDAIMONIAN WAR AGAINST THEBES
In 382 BCE during the religious festival of Thesmophoria, the Lakedaimonian (Spartan) commander Phoibidas seized and garrisoned the Theban citadel, which was known as the Kadmeia, and imposed an oligarchical regime in Thebes. This was an obvious and blatant violation of Thebes’ autonomy and of the King’s Peace! Phoibidas was censured for this supposedly unauthorized act of war, but nonetheless the Lakedaimonians retained the garrison and even executed the captured Theban leader Ismenias! Shamelessly, King Agesilaos later rewarded Phoibidas with the governorship of the Boiotian city of Thespiai. (Xenophon. Hellēnika ???)
In the winter of 379 BCE, Pelopidas and a few other Theban exiles surreptitously entered Thebes as night fell disguised as returning hunters. During the night, they assassinated the Theban oligarchs who had sided with the Lakedaimonians (Spartans). The exiles were then joined by Theban leaders such as Epameinondas. Thereupon the Theban populace rose up in arms and with the assistance of a contingent of Athenian troops—whose unexpected appearance the exiles had prearranged—the Thebans forced the Lakedaimonian garrison of the Kadmeia to surrender. Fearing that they might be accused of having violated the King’s Peace, the Athenians executed one of the generals who had aided the Thebans! The other Athenian general escaped by going into exile. (Xenophon. Hellēnika ???)
Nearly a decade of inconclusive warfare followed between the Thebans and Lakedaimonians (Spartans). However, the Thebans did manage to re-form the Boiotian League, which the Lakedaimonians had broken up in 386 BCE. In addition, Theban generals such as Epameinondas and Pelopidas honed their craft against the Lakedaimonians, who had the most professional army in Greece. (Xenophon. Hellēnika ???)
[INSERT MAP]
In 378 BCE, Sphodrias, the Lakedaimonian (Spartan) harmost (governor) of the Boiotian city of Thespiai, attempted to seize Peiraieus, the port of Athens, in a night-time surprise attack. However, dawn broke with Sphodrias and his army still short of reaching the city and he was forced to withdraw. Sphodrias was subsequently tried on a capital offence at Lakedaimon as his action—like that of Phoibidas—reportedly had not been sanctioned by the Lakedaimonian authorities. However, in a travesty of justice Sphodrias was acquitted due to his political connections. (Xenophon. Hellēnika ???)
In outrage over the Sphodrias affair, the Athenians formally allied with Thebes and formed what modern scholars call the Second Athenian Confederacy. The February/March 377 BCE decree of Aristoteles of Marathon proclaimed the mandate of the new confederacy as ensuring “that the Lakedaimonians leave the Greeks in peaceful enjoyment of liberty and autonomy” (IG II2 43). Athens subsequently allied with numerous anti-Lakedaimonian states not only in the Aegean Sea but in the Ionian Sea as well. In 376 BCE, the Athenian general Khabrias defeated a Lakedaimonian (Spartan) fleet at Naxos in the central Aegean Sea. This battle was the first major Athenian naval victory since the end of the Peloponnesian War. (Xenophon. Hellēnika ???)
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| A Greek Trireme (a sleek warship with 3 banks of oars). Triremes were the mainstay of the Athenian fleet as well as of all other Mediterranean fleets of the age. (Image compliments of telias.free.fr) |
In 376/375 BCE, while leading the 300 man Theban Sacred Band and a small troop of cavalry, Pelopidas defeated a larger force of Lakedaimonians—who were apparently at least twice as many as his own company—at Tegyra in northern Boiotia. This was the first time that Lakedaimonian (Spartan) hoplites had been defeated by a numerically inferior enemy in hand-to-hand combat! However, the number of troops involved on both sides was small and the battle was mainly significant for boosting Theban morale and as a harbinger of things to come. (Xenophon. Hellēnika ???)
THE COMMON PEACE OF 371 BCE
In early 371 BCE, the Athenians arranged a peace conference in Lakedaimon (Sparta) at which the koinē eirēnē (common peace) was restored according to the terms of the King’s Peace. However, the Lakedaimonian king Agesilaos would not allow the Theban ambassadors to sign the treaty on behalf of the Boiotian League and instead offered to blot their name from the treaty if that was what the Thebans preferred. According to Xenophon’s account, his hero Agesilaos behaved in a reasonable and fair manner. (Xenophon. Hellēnika ???)
Xenophon did not mention the name of any of the Theban ambassadors, but the much later biographers Plutarch (ca. 45–125 CE) and Cornelius Nepos (floruit 1st Century BCE) identified one of them as Epameinondas and wrote that he spoke eloquently and persuasively in denouncing heavy-handed Lakedaimonian (Spartan) imperialism. Plutarch presented a very different version of King Agesilaos’ actions than that given by Xenophon. According to Plutarch, Agesilaos was adamant that the Boiotian cities should all be free and autonomous. When Epameinondas countered that the cities of Lakonike—the home territory of the Lakedaimonians—should also be free and autonomous, the elderly Agesilaos leapted up in anger and violently blotted out the name of the Thebans from the treaty and foretold war.
The excluded Thebans departed and the Lakedaimonians ordered King Kleombrotos (reigned 380–371 BCE) to lead his army—which was at that moment in Phokis on the western border of Boiotia—in an immediate invasion of Boiotia to bring the Thebans to heel! As Xenophon himself conceded, this was a violation of the terms of the treaty that the Lakedaimonians had just signed as all of the signees had sworn an oath to disband all of their forces currently in the field! (Xenophon. Hellēnika 6.3.2–6.4.3; Plutarch. Agesilaos 27.3–28.3; Cornelius Nepos. Epaminondas 6.4)
THE BATTLE OF LEUKTRA, 371 BCE
In the summer of 371 BCE, the Lakedaimonian (Spartan) king Kleombrotos, the second son of King Pausanias, invaded Boiotia with a large army. The Thebans mustered a smaller force of Thebans and other Boiotians to oppose him at Leuktra in southern Boiotia. The Thebans had been battling the Lakedaimonians since 379 BCE and their well trained and battle hardened troops were more than a match for the Lakedaimonians. Moreover, Theban generals had become innovative experts in the art of war. Consequently, the two Theban commanders Epameinondas and Pelopidas decided to gamble on a winner-take-all battle. They had an innovative battle plan that involved placing their best troops on their left wing (which was contrary to standard Greek practice) directly opposite the best Lakedaimonian troops, massing their best troops in a deep formation, and refusing to engage on their weaker right flank. (Xenophon. Hellēnika ???)
On the fifth day of the Boiotian month Hippodromios (July–August)—an historic day in Greek history—Epameinondas and Pelopidas employed these tactics to perfection and decisively defeated the larger Lakedaimonian (Spartan) army. King Kleombrotos was slain along with engys (nearly) 1,000 Lakedaimonian hoplites, which was an incredibly huge number especially considering that there had reportedly not been much—if any—of a pursuit. In ancient battles, it was generally during the pursuit of a broken and fleeing opponent that the majority of casualties were inflicted by the victors. According to Xenophon, the Lakedaimonians had not broken and run pell-mell from the battlefield, but instead had been steadily pushed back to their camp and had then taken up a defensive position behind a ditch. The dead included the infamous Sphodrias and peri (about) 400 Spartiatai (full Spartan citizens) out of the 700 who had been serving in the army.
In one of the most egregious examples of his biases, Xenophon did not even mention the two victorious Theban generals Epameinondas and Pelopidas in his account of the battle! Instead of crediting the two Thebans for their ingenious tactics, Xenophon incredibly ascribed the Theban victory to tykhē (good fortune, fate, chance)! In any event, the Theban victory brought an end once and for all to the undeserved legend of Spartan invincibility and at the same time established Thebes’ own brief era of pre-eminence. (Xenophon. Hellēnika 6.4.x)
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| Battle of Leuktra Victory Monument, Leuktra, Greece. Twentieth Century reconstruction by A. Orlandos of the ancient victory monument using fragments discovered at the site. The memorial is a hollow circular tower measuring 3.38 metres in diameter. (Image compliments of Vasilis Anastopoulos via www.panoramio.com) |
LEUKTRA’S AFTERMATH AND XENOPHON’S OUSTER FROM SKILLOUS
Following their momentous defeat of the Lakedaimonians (Spartans) at Leuktra, the Thebans promptly sent to Athens and to their Thessalian ally Jason of Pherai requesting their aid to finish off the Lakedaimonian army. They did not receive a reply from the Athenians! Despite having been Theban allies on and off since 395 BCE, the Athenians remembered that, at the end of the Peloponnesian War more than thirty years earlier, the Thebans had advised the Lakedaimonians to annihilate the Athenians! The Lakedaimonians had refused to do so. Now the Athenians declined to help to annihilate the Lakedaimonians as they began to fear the nearby Thebans more than they feared their old, now humbled rivals. (Xenophon. Hellēnika 6.4.19–20)
Consequently, late in 371 BCE, the Athenians once again attempted to broker a common peace and hosted a peace conference to renew the terms of the King’s Peace. It is not clear if either the Lakedaimonians (Spartans) or the Thebans were invited to this peace conference as the goal of the Athenians seems to have been to make themselves the leaders of the Greek states that might be reconsidering their former allegiances in the aftermath of the battle of Leuktra. Of immense personal importance to Xenophon was the fact that the Eleians declined to sign the peace treaty. As defecting Lakedaimonian allies, the Eleians now claimed ownership of Marganeis, Skillous, and Triphylia and consequently refused to recognize their autonomy under the terms of a common peace. As mentioned above, these territories had been stripped from the Eleians by the Lakedaimonians in ca. 399–397 BCE. (Xenophon. Hellēnika 6.5.1–3)
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| Skillous in Triphylia |
At some point following the Theban victory over the Lakedaimonians (Spartans) at Leuktra in 371 BCE, it would seem that Xenophon was forced to flee from his estate at Skillous by the Eleians. In 370 BCE, the Eleians aided the Mantineans against an ineffectual invasion of Arkadia by the aged Lakedaimonian king Agesilaos. Having eagerly taken up arms against the Lakedaimonians, this was more than likely the moment when the Eleians reclaimed their lost territories and ousted Xenophon and his fellow Lakedaimonian colonists. The later writer Pausanias the periēgētēs (ca. 115–180 CE) related the improbable tale told to him by Eleian exēgētai (tourist guides)[17] that, when the Eleians recovered Skillous, Xenophon was tried by the Olympic Council for having appropriated the land assigned to him by the Lakedaimonians. However, according to the exēgētai, Xenophon was pardoned by the Eleians and continued to live at Skillous. The locals—no doubt for a small fee from sightseers—even pointed out a tomb that they claimed belonged to Xenophon! There is no other ancient tradition that Xenophon was buried at Skillous. (Xenophon. Hellēnika 6.5.19; Pausanias. 5.6.6)
THE THEBAN INVASION OF LAKONIKE, 370/369 BCE
In the winter of 370/369 BCE, the Theban generals Epameinondas and Pelopidas invaded the Peloponnesos with a large army. Their forces consisted of the Boiotians and their allies who included the Phokians, Euboians, eastern and western Lokrians, Akarnanians, Herakleots, and Malians as well as cavalry and peltasts from Thessaly. At Mantinea, the Theban allied army joined forces with the Arkadians, Argives, and Eleians and together they formed a massive military force numbering no fewer than 40,000 hoplites and altogether totalling 70,000 men. Urged on by their Peloponnesian allies and even by some of the perioikoi (‘dwellers around’, Lakedaimonian second-class citizens), the Thebans invaded Lakonike, the homeland of the Lakedaimonians (Spartans).
Arrayed against this enormous army, the Lakedaimonians mustered a large force which included the Korinthians, Phleiasians, Epidaurians, Pellaneians from Akhaia, mercenaries from Arkadian Orkhomenos, and more than 6,000 helots (serfs) who were promised their freedom. Nonetheless, the Lakedaimonian allied army was too small to oppose the huge Theban invasion force in battle and it was compelled instead to take up defensive positions inside the unwalled city of Sparta.
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| Peloponnesos prior to the Theban invasion of 370/369 BCE. Note the large extent of Lakonike, the Lakedaimonian (Spartan) homeland. |
According to Plutarch, Lakonike had not been invaded for over 600 years! This was likely an exaggeration, but certainly no enemy had invaded and pillaged all of Lakonike within living memory. As a result, the Lakedaimonians (Spartans) were greatly dismayed and some of the Lakedaimonian perioikoi even defected to the enemy. During the Theban siege of Lakedaimon (Sparta), King Agesilaos murdered about fifteen Lakedaimonians in the night and murdered another larger group of Spartiatai (full Spartan citizens) without a trial. These individuals were dissidents evidently plotting revolution. They may simply have been Agesilaos’ political opponents who disagreed with his disastrous policies that had brought about this unprecedented crisis. Plutarch noted that no Spartan had ever before been slain in this fashion! Not surprisingly, Xenophon did not mention these nefarious events involving his revered hero Agesilaos. (Plutarch Agesilaos. 32.3–6)
The Athenians despatched an army under the command of Iphikrates to aid the Lakedaimonians (Spartans). This was the same Iphikrates who had famously mauled a Lakedaimonian mora (division) at Lekhaion twenty years earlier in 391/390 BCE. Iphikrates advanced into Arkadia, but he did not seem to be enthusiastic about helping the Lakedaimonians. As the Theban army returned home in the dead of winter, the Athenians fell back to Korinth. Xenophon criticized Iphikrates for failing to block the Thebans’ return march. However, it is unclear what advantage there would have been to preventing their exit from the Peloponnesos. (Xenophon. Hellēnika 6.5.19–52)
Though Xenophon did not mention himself, it is very likely that he was present in Lakedaimon (Sparta) at this time. As mentioned above, Xenophon had almost certainly been ousted from his estate at Skillous by the Eleians just months earlier. The elderly Xenophon—who was roughly 60 years old—was probably unable to take a particularly active role in the fighting, but he certainly could have held a spear and shield in order to help defend the streets of his beloved Sparta alongside King Agesilaos.
Be that as it may, Xenophon did attempt to defend Lakedaimon with his pen. Unfortunately, Xenophon once again failed in his duty as a historian to report the basic and essential facts. In his account of this campaign, Xenophon still disdained to even mention the names of the Theban generals Epameinondas and Pelopidas! He also blatantly and shamelessly downplayed the monumental importance of the Theban invasion of Lakonike. However, Xenophon’s greatest failing was his refusal to chronicle the two most significant Theban accomplishments in this campaign:
- First of all, Xenophon failed to record the historic liberation of the Messenians from their centuries long Lakedaimonian (Spartan) enslavement! To ensure their continued freedom, the Thebans founded a Messenian capital and stronghold at Ithome, which was later called Messene. The establishment of an independent Messenia eventually reduced the size of Lakonike by nearly one third and was a serious economic loss to the Lakedaimonians.
- Secondly, Xenophon failed to report the foundation of Megalopolis as the capital of the new Arkadian League.[18] Though the Arkadian League did not prosper, Megalopolis did and it almost immediately became a bulwark against Lakedaimonian imperialism in Arkadia.
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| Peloponnesos following the Theban invasion of 370/369 BCE. Note the new state of Messenia, the new Messenian city of Ithome (later called Messene), and the new Arkadian city of Megalopolis. The Lakedaimonians evidently still retained control of Asine, Mothone, and Kyparissos in the west. |
XENOPHON’S RETURN FROM EXILE, ETC.
In 369 BCE (probably in the spring), the Lakedaimonians (Spartans) and their allies went to Athens and concluded a formal alliance with the Athenians. Xenophon must have been overjoyed! After roughly 23 years of banishment, Xenophon was apparently recalled from exile in 369 BCE or shortly thereafter. Some modern scholars believe that Xenophon’s banishment wasn’t lifted until around 365 BCE. (Xenophon. Hellēnika 7.1.1–14)
The next few years saw several more Theban campaigns into the Peloponnesos. However, the Thebans were unable to hold their alliance of Peloponnesian states together as these states pursued independent foreign policies.
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| Silver Stater, Thebes, Greece, ca. 364–362 BCE. The coin depicts a so-called Boiotian shield on the obverse and an amphora on the reverse with the inscription EPAM, which is the name of the issuing magistrate likely Epameinondas. |
In addition to campaigning in the Peloponnesos, the Thebans also sent armies north into Thessaly in support of the Thessalian League. These campaigns were led for the most part by Pelopidas. In 364 BCE, Pelopidas defeated the Thessalian tyrant Alexander of Pherai at the battle of Kynoskephalai. However, the victory was an unmitigated disaster for the Thebans as Pelopidas himself was slain in the battle.
Also in 364 BCE, armies clashed at the Olympic Games. On one side were the Eleians—who had been ousted from their administration of the games by the Arkadian League—and their allies the Akhaians. On the other side were the Arkadians, Argives, and Athenians. This dispute over the Olympic Games and over the use of Olympic treasures led to the disaffection of Mantinea and the subsequent fracturing of the Arkadian League in 363 BCE. (Xenophon. Hellēnika 7.4.28–7.5.3)
THE BATTLE OF MANTINEA, 362 BCE
In 362 BCE, two new re-aligned coalitions met in battle at Mantinea in Arkadia. The battle of Mantinea was a watershed event in Greek history and was the last event to be recorded in Xenophon’s Hellēnika. Xenophon was roughly 68 years old at the time of the battle. His two sons, Gryllos and Diodoros, fought in the battle in the Athenian army as Lakedaimonian (Spartan) allies. Xenophon must have been very proud to see his sons and Athens fighting on behalf of his beloved Lakedaimon. See: Battle of Mantinea 362 BCE Part One for a full description of the campaign and battle.
XENOPHON’S FINAL YEARS
Diogenes Laertios (2.6.53, 2.6.56) stated that Xenophon settled in Korinth after being expelled from Skillous and that he also died in Korinth. However, in order for his two sons to have served in the Athenian army at Mantinea in 362 BCE, Xenophon would probably have been required to return to Athens, establish a residence, and re-establish his membership in his ancestral phratria (phratry, a descent group). This would have been necessary in order to attest to his sons’ legitimacy as children of both an Athenian father and an Athenian mother. Only then could Gryllos and Diodoros have been registered as Athenian citizens. However, it is possible that Gryllos and Diodoros could have served in the Athenian army as metoikoi (metics, foreign residents).
According to Diogenes Laertios (2.6.56), Xenophon died in Korinth in the first year of the 105th Olympiad (360/359 BCE), in the archonship of Kallidemides (i.e. Kallimides, the archon of 360/359 BCE), at the beginning of the reign of Philip II of Makedon (359 BCE). Nonetheless, statements in Xenophon’s own works have convinced modern scholars that Xenophon wrote Hipparkhikos (For the Cavalry Commander), Peri Hippikēs (On Horsemanship), and Poroi (Ways and Means) in Athens. It is also theorized that Hipparkhikos was written in ca. 360–358 BCE, Peri Hippikēs not long afterwards, and Poroi in 355 BCE. It is therefore thought that Xenophon may have died in Athens in approximately 354 BCE at the advanced age of roughly seventy-six.[19]
Xenophon’s life had been long and eventful. As a young man, he experienced the Peloponnesian War and the fall of Athens. Xenophon may have collaborated with the Thirty Tyrants and may have committed war crimes against his fellow citizens of Athens. He marched into the centre of the Persian Empire and back as part of the celebrated ‘March of the Ten Thousand’. Xenophon was an acquaintance of some of the great men of his age including Sokrates, Plato, Cyrus the Younger, and Agesilaos. Xenophon was a successful military commander and became a renowned author. Near the end of his life, he witnessed the fall of Lakedaimon (Sparta) from the sole Greek superpower to a second rate city state. He may have lived long enough to see the Second Athenian Confederacy collapse during the so-called Social War (357–355 BCE). Xenophon may have possibly been aware of the accession of the Makedonian king Philip II (reigned 359–336 BCE), the founder of Makedonia as a major power, but he may not have lived long enough to recognize his importance.
GO TO XENOPHON ON CAVALRY
FOOTNOTES
[11]↩ Xenophon (Anabasis 2.6.16–20, 3.1.4, 3.1.8–10) stated that he was invited to join the expedition of Cyrus the Younger by his old xenos (guest-friend) Proxenos the Boiotian. Xenophon stated that Proxenos himself was motivated to join Cyrus by a desire for “great fame, great power, and great wealth”. It seems likely that Xenophon shared those dreams.
[12]↩ Diogenes Laertios (2.41) stated that the vote was 281 votes for conviction. Plato (Defense of Sokrates 36a) wrote that, if only 30 more jurors had voted for acquittal, Sokrates would not have been found guilty. If both of these statements are true, then there must have been either 502 or 503 jurors as follows:
- 502 jurors = 281 versus 221. A change of 30 guilty votes to not guilty would have resulted in a vote of 251 versus 251 and Sokrates would have been acquitted by a tied vote.
- 503 jurors = 281 versus 222. A change of 30 guilty votes to not guilty would have resulted in a vote of 251 versus 252 and Sokrates would have been acquitted.
- 501 jurors = 280 versus 221. A change of 30 guilty votes to not guilty would have resulted in a vote of 250 versus 251 and Sokrates would have been acquitted. A tie was not possible with 501 jurors assuming that all of them voted.
[14]↩ Aristodemos was the prodikos (guardian) of the boy king Agesipolis I (reigned ca. 395–380 BCE), the elder son of King Pausanias.
[15]↩ The date and circumstances of Xenophon’s exile from Athens are unknown. In the Anabasis (7.7.57), Xenophon wrote that he had considered returning to Athens in 400 BCE as he had not yet been exiled. As Lakedaimonian (Spartan) allies, the Athenians sent a troop of 300 Athenian cavalry to aid the Lakedaimonian general Thibron in Asia in ca. 399 BCE (Xenophon. Hellēnika 3.1.4). The Athenians also sent an allied contingent to join the Lakedaimonian invasion of Elis in 399/398 BCE (Xenophon. Hellēnika 3.2.25). As long as Athens remained a Lakedaimonian ally it is unlikely that Xenophon would have been exiled from his homeland. In 395 BCE—a decade after their defeat in the Peloponnesian War—the Athenians allied with the Thebans against the Lakedaimonians (Xenophon. Hellēnika 3.5.6–22). So, it was likely in that year or in 394 BCE following the battle of Koroneia that Xenophon was exiled. Pausanias the periēgētēs (5.6.5) stated that Xenophon was exiled from Athens for aiding Cyrus the Younger in 401 BCE. That is possible, but unlikely due to the reasons just given.
[16]↩ Following the negotiations of the King’s Peace, Antalkidas returned to the Aegean in 387 BCE and carried out military operations against the Athenians. The Persian satrap Tiribazos summoned the Greeks to his court possibly in the autumn of 387 BCE to hear the terms of the King’s Peace. The Greek ambassadors then returned to their home cities where the peace was ratified individually by all of the Greeks and the peace came into effect apparently in the spring of 386 BCE.
[17]↩ The Eleians were the hosts and administrators of the Olympic Games. The Eleian exēgētai were the tourist guides who catered to the sightseers who came to visit the site of Olympia. As Skillous was only a few kilometres away, it is understandable that their spiel to tourists also included details—imagined or otherwise—about Skillous’ most famous resident, Xenophon.
[18]↩ Pausanias the periēgētēs (8.27.8) claimed that Megalopolis was founded a few months after the battle of Leuktra in 371 BCE. However, the plan to found Megalopolis was undoubtedly formulated in the winter of 370/369 BCE by the Thebans and Arkadians. However, some writers contend that the settlement of Megalopolis may not have proceeded in earnest until 368 BCE or even 367 BCE. Though there may certainly have been delays due to interstate wranglings, it seems to me that, at the very least, the foundations of Megalopolis must have been laid down in 369 BCE. Megalopolis was the capital of the Arkadian League in the sense that it was a federal foundation of the Arkadians and apparently was planned to be the site where the federal assembly met. (An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis: An Investigation Conducted by The Copenhagen Polis Centre for the Danish National Research Foundation. [Edited by] Mogens Herman Hansen and Thomas Heine Nielsen. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Pages 520–522(
[19]↩ Joseph Nicholas Jansen. After Empire: Xenophon’s “Poroi” and the Reorientation of Athens’ Political Economy. 2007.
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