Book ChapterDOI
Xenophon's Cyropaedia: Fictive history, political analysis and thinking with Iranian Kings
Christopher Tuplin
- pp 67-90
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Xenophon's Cyropaedia tells the story of a Persian whose moral and practical education in different environments provides the military and human resource skills to defeat a tyrannous empire and win a kingdom.Abstract:
Xenophon's Cyropaedia tells the story of a Persian whose moral and practical education in different environments provides the military and human resource skills to defeat a tyrannous empire and win a kingdom. This chapter explains some distinctive features of Cyropaedia . First, it is an investigation of leadership. Secondly, Cyropaedia covers Cyrus’ life from cradle to grave wholly unsystematically, since most of the narrative occupies a single year. A third oddity is the way Cyropaedia ends. Throughout Cyropaedia Persia proper occupies a distinct position. At the beginning it is a place of very specific character—a sort of republican monarchy. At the end it is a place Cyrus merely visits and his relationship with it is expressed in a covenant under which he will defend Persia should anyone attack or attempt to overturn its laws, while the Persians will help him should anyone threaten his empire or revolt against his rule. Keywords: Cyropaedia ; Iranian kings; Persia; xenophonread more
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Dissertation
Politesse et savoir-vivre en Grèce ancienne
TL;DR: The authors define le code de politesse comme un ensemble of regles proposant des modeles de conduite adaptes aux different kinds of occasions of rencontre, i.e., conversation, gestuelle, and sociabilite.
The Satraps of Western Anatolia and the Greeks
Abstract: This dissertation explores the extent to which Persian policies in the western satrapies originated from the provincial capitals in the Anatolian periphery rather than from the royal centers in the Persian heartland in the fifth century BC. I begin by establishing that the Persian administrative apparatus was a product of a grand reform initiated by Darius I, which was aimed at producing a more uniform and centralized administrative infrastructure. In the following chapter I show that the provincial administration was embedded with chancellors, scribes, secretaries and military personnel of royal status and that the satrapies were periodically inspected by the Persian King or his loyal agents, which allowed to central authorities to monitory the provinces. In chapter three I delineate the extent of satrapal authority, responsibility and resources, and conclude that the satraps were supplied with considerable resources which enabled to fulfill the duties of their office. After the power dynamic between the Great Persian King and his provincial governors and the nature of the office of satrap has been analyzed, I begin a diachronic scrutiny of Greco-Persian interactions in the fifth century BC. Chapter four centers on a particular challenge the Persians faced in western Anatolia. On the one hand, the Persian conquest of Ionia in the middle of the sixth century BC triggered a gradual increase in the willingness of mainland Greeks to intervene in the affairs of Asia Minor, while on the other, Xerxes’ failure to subjugate European Greece resulted in a dramatic shift from a policy of westward expansion to a policy of entrenchment. The focus of chapter five is the limited interest of Artaxerxes I (r. 465-423 BC) in respect to the western satrapies. The last chapter deals with the machinations of the satraps Tissaphernes, Pharnabazus and Cyrus the Younger. I show that the alliance between Persia and Sparta was the outcome of satrapal action rather than royal initiative or intent. Accordingly, the satraps sought to exploit the power struggle between Athens and Sparta for their own favor while King Darius played a relatively secondary role in this conflict. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Classical Studies First Advisor Jeremy J. McInerney
Journal ArticleDOI
Xenophon the Philosopher: E Pluribus Plura
TL;DR: In this article, a reinterpretation of Xenophon's corpus by identifying conflicts and contradictions among the anonymous narrators of the Anabasis, Cyropaedia, and Symposium, among other texts, is presented.
Journal ArticleDOI
Alexander III., Dareios I. und das speererworbene Land (Diod. 17, 17, 2)
TL;DR: In this paper, Diodorus' episode about Alexander's crossing of the Hellespont by bringing ancient Near Eastern evidence into discussion is discussed. But the authors assume that Diodurus' report is a nesting of three different narrative-elements woven to a composition which provides a purposeful view ex post facto on the event in 334 BCE.