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VI. Kingdom and Empire
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 May 2024
Extract
Xenophon's thought on monarchy and the monarchical control of empire offers a distinctive contribution to political theorizing. He considers how an individual can be seen and agreed to merit the position of sole ruler, and so exercise power over his subjects identifies three main grounds for monarchical authority: ancestry, connection to the gods, and personal excellence (Cyr. 7.2.24). The phenomenon of royalty extends beyond the king himself, to his family and through his court. Royal women have a distinctive status compared with other women, with the possibility of greater agency. Xenophon depicts several such women, all from outside mainland Greece, as knowledgeable political actors and commentators: Mandane (Cyr. 1.3), Mania (Hell. 3.1.10–15), and Pantheia (Cyr. 4.6, 5.1, 6.1, 6.4, 7.3).
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References
1 Emily Baragwanath has shown how Xenophon exploits the difference in lifestyle of Athenian women and non-Greek royal women: see Baragwanath 2002, 2016.
2 See Atack 2020a: 122–50.
3 Degen 2019; Tuplin 2013. Socrates’ evocation of Persian kingship (Pl. Alc. 121b–122c) shows how Persian kings were productive examples for Greek thinkers.
4 Although the schema in Buzzetti 2014 is too rigid; see Tamiolaki 2016b.
5 Cf. Cyr. 1.4; Hom. Od. 19.428–66.
6 Azoulay 2018a.
7 On the terminology and its relation to Persian sources such as the Behistun inscription (DB 1), see Missiou 1993.
8 See Chapter 4; Atack 2020a: 101–4.
9 Antisthenes SSR V frs. 86, 97; Atack 2020a: 94–7; Prince 2015.
10 Dorion 2004, 2013: 147–69; see also Illarraga 2023.
11 Azoulay 2018a: 16; the reciprocal quality of charis is challenged in the context of monarchical superiority.
12 David Riesbeck offers a different interpretation: see Riesbeck 2016: 258–69; Atack 2020a: 187–8.
13 Brock 2013: 43–52; Haubold 2015; Atack 2020c.
14 See Pl. Rep. 1.345c–e.
15 See Atack 2020a: 154–58; on the Statesman myth, see Horn 2012.
16 Cf. Arist. Pol. 1.2.1253a2–7.
17 Strathern 2019: 155–218; Atack 2020a: 1–4. On the Axial Age, see Jaspers 1953.
18 Melville and Mitchell 2013b; Root 1979, 2013.
19 Gray 2011a.
20 Degen 2019, 2020.
21 Cf. Hdt. 1.6–7, and Xenophon's account of Agesilaus’ claim to rule (Ages. 1.2).
22 Ellis 2016.
23 See Atack 2023b.
24 Atack 2018a.
25 Humble 2022: 178–80.
26 Hell. 3.3.1–4; Ages. 1.5; Plut. Vit. Alc. 23. Cartledge 1987: 112–14 notes discrepancies between Xenophon's two accounts.
27 Compare stories of Romulus’ hut from Rome: Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1.79.11, Rood et al. 2020: 186–7.
28 Atack 2023a; Tuplin 1994.
29 On the Greek ‘despotic template’, see Dewald 2003; on Xenophon's presentation of Achaemenid courts, see Tuplin 2010.
30 Tatum 1989: 97–111; Azoulay 2004; Atack 2018a.
31 Bowden 2013.
32 Azoulay 2020.
33 Lenfant 2004; Gray 2016. On the historical Cyrus, see Briant 2002; Mitchell 2023.
34 On Xenophon and Persian culture, see Hirsch 1985.
35 Gray 2011b.
36 Azoulay 2018a.
37 Illarraga 2021.
38 Azoulay 2018a
39 Hesk 2000: 151–62; Schofield 2007, 2023: 139–62.
40 Reisert 2009: 302; see also Newell 1983; Nadon 2001.
41 Tamiolaki 2020b.
42 Hesk 2000: 122–41. See also Chapter 4.
43 See Newell 1983. On Xenophon, Machiavelli, and deception, see Rasmussen 2009 for a Straussian-tinged analysis.
44 Nadon 1996, 2001: 1–13, criticizing the literary readings of Due 1989 and Gera 1993 among others.
45 Detienne and Vernant 1974; Odysseus is the paradigmatic example of mētis in leadership.
46 Trédé 1992; Atack 2018b connects this to the account of the kairos in Plato's Statesman.
47 Cf. Croesus at Cyr. 7.2.28–9.
48 Baragwanath 2002.
49 E.g. Gorgo at Hdt. 5.51; cf. Tomyris, queen of the Massagetae, Hdt. 1.212–15.
50 The episode has a rich bibliography: Due 1989: 79–83; Gera 1993: 221–45; Tatum 1989: 163–88; Stadter 1991: 480–4; Whitmarsh 2018: 60–2.
51 See Chapter 2.
52 Azoulay 2007; Baragwanath 2016.
53 Gray 1986.
54 The term turannos may originate in a Lydian context, where it denotes a legitimate hereditary ruler, albeit one whose dynastic line came to power by force (V. Parker 1998).
55 Pl. Grg. 470d–471d, where Polus claims this status for the Macedonian king Archelaus; see also McGlew 1993: 32–3.
56 Strauss argues that Simonides, as a Socratic figure, conceals his wisdom in the dialogue (L. Strauss 2013: 38–40); cf. Zuolo 2017; Dorion and Bandini 2021.
57 Gray 2007: 34.
58 Arist. Pol. 3.16–17; Gray 2007: 30.
59 E.g. Too 2021: 119–30, who suggests that the didactic authority of poetry is also under question.
60 Mársico 2023.
61 McCoy 1999.
62 Dorion and Bandini 2021: cxlix–clxxvii.
63 The historical Hieron's teams competed and won at major festivals.
64 Dorion and Bandini 2021: lxiii–lxviii.
65 Wohl 2002: 241–4.
66 Zatta 2009.
67 Tuplin 1993.
68 See Low 2018.
69 Warner and Cawkwell 1972: 23–4.
70 Dillery 1995: 60.
71 Dillery 1995: 99–101.
72 Farrell 2016.