Virtue and Arms in Xenophon's Anabasis

• In Event: Realism: War, Participation, and Restraint?

Abstract

In Book V of Xenophon’s Anabasis, Xenophon is accused of striking men out of “insolence.” He gives a speech defending himself against a particular accuser, and the effectiveness of this speech is such that those gathered exclaim that “Xenophon struck him with too few blows.” After this, no other man will come forward to accuse Xenophon. Xenophon does not deny striking men during the campaign. Rather, he denies doing so out of insolence. His purpose in striking men was to prevent disorder. Such disorder would have led to the death of either the individual or the whole. In his speech, Xenophon appeals to the necessity of order in war—but his appeal to justice is more ambiguous. While the demands of order in wartime are not the same as the demands of justice in peacetime, there seems to be something about the necessity of order in war that makes its enforcement just for Xenophon. Additionally, the account that Xenophon gives points to an end besides survival alone. Xenophon’s account of war is both prudential and grounded in the good. This distinguishes him from realist scholars in contemporary international relations, who consider only the useful and not the virtuous.

Author

• Marlei Green, Baylor University