Anabasis - On the character of Clearchus

We only know what Xenophon chose to tell us. And that’s an important point. Xenophon, in the Anabasis, (or any writer of any book) can only say so much about any one person, or event, or place. So, if a writer tells us only one thing about a person, presumably that is the most important thing we should know. Thus, in the Anabasis, Clearchus is mentioned on several occasions, and, perforce, we must judge him on that basis.

Clearchus had to leave his homeland, Sparta. Now Sparta was an inflexible kind of a place, but that’s the first thing we know about Clearchus.

Whenever there is a dispute on the march, Clearchus seems to be involved, hitting his own men, beating Menon’s men, getting stoned by various groups, and so forth. On one occasion, he almost brought the Greek troops to their own private little civil war.

He also was duplicitous. When the Greeks balked at marching against the Great King, he cleverly feigned his resignation and while in cahoots with Cyrus, manipulated the soldiers to go along.

Nonetheless, Cyrus, and many of the Greek soldiers, preferred his leadership to others.

Comments

  1. Tim F wrote:

    Big bird.

    Posted 24 Jul 2007 at 1:41 pm

  2. Tim F wrote:

    Sorry that didn’t relate to Greek lit, but you don’t put up open threads.

    Maybe when you’re done with this series you can take a shot at the Peloponesian wars? The Syracuse excursion should provide a fun read. And topical!

    Posted 24 Jul 2007 at 1:44 pm

  3. commissar wrote:

    Tim,

    I posted Nicias’ letter last year. Apparently Thucydides’ Greek is quite challenging; there are some passages that are so convoluted, scholars still aren’t sure what he meant.

    Your links are always of interest.

    Posted 24 Jul 2007 at 1:53 pm

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