Book Club: Xenophon’s Memorabilia, Part IV, Socrates Teaches a Lesson in Statesmanship

Xenophon’s Memorabilia is one of the classics of antiquity, and a frank and refreshing look at the figure of Socrates

The theater and temple of Apollo at Delphi, photo by the Author

Xenophon’s Memorabilia is one of the classics of antiquity, and a frank and refreshing look at the figure of Socrates, of whom Xenophon was an admirer, student, and friend. It is also the book that got Stoicism started, since Zeno of Citium — the founder of Stoicism — was inspired to turn to philosophy after his shipwreck when he read the second volume of the Memorabilia.

In part I of this series we have examined Xenophon’s defense of Socrates after his trial; in part II we have seen Socrates teaching a lesson to his son Lamprocles, about respecting his mother, Xanthippe; and in part III we have looked at Socrates giving lessons about political involvement to two fellow citizens, one of whom he discouraged, the other encouraged, to take part in the public thing, as the Romans used to call it (res publica). In this last installment we focus on one of a number of dialogues Socrates has with the Sophist Euthydemus (Plato wrote an important one by that title, which happens to also be crucial for the development of Stoic philosophy), where the subject is statesmanship. I wish this…