Offers a novel reading of one of the ancient world's most famous and celebrated texts.
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PRODUCT INFORMATION
Summary
Offers a novel reading of one of the ancient world's most famous and celebrated texts.
Description
Xenophon's Anabasis has engaged and entertained readers from antiquity to the present day. Through his telling of the story of Cyrus the Younger's attempt on the Persian throne and its aftermath, Xenophon integrates many of the prominent themes and concerns in his writings, including leadership, panhellenism, Sparta and apologia.
Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, Brennan offers a fresh reading of the text which originates in a broad-ranging consideration of Xenophon's aims in writing the book some thirty years after the event. The central argument brings the presence of Socrates into relief and demonstrates how the author, representing himself in the story as a model pupil of the philosopher, perpetuates Socratic teachings and values through 'Xenophon's' leadership. Ultimately, Anabasis is revealed to be a 'Socratic history', a narrative rooted in a historical event or period and in which the author embeds a reflection of the philosopher and his values.
Critic Reviews
Brennan's major contribution to the ongoing assessment both of Xenophon himself and of his oeuvre is to have shown the various ways in which the influence of Socratic education on Xenophon is tangible throughout the Anabasis. [...] I find his a challenging and very worthwhile voice in the ongoing discussion of this sometimes elusive work... and Brennan has well served this constantly fascinating author.--Jan P. Stronk "The Journal of Hellenic Studies"
About the Author
Shane Brennan is Associate Professor of History and Classics at the Asian University for Women in Bangladesh. From 2016-22 he taught at the American University in Dubai, UAE, and from 2011-16 at Mardin Artuklu University in the south-east of Türkiye. He is co-editor of The Landmark Xenophon's Anabasis (Pantheon Books, 2021) and Turkey and the Politics of National Identity (IB Tauris, 2014) and author of In the Tracks of the Ten Thousand: A Journey on foot through Turkey, Syria and Iraq (Robert Hale, 2005).
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