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A History of My Times (Penguin Classics) Paperback – May 31, 1979

by Xenophon (Author), George Cawkwell (Editor, Introduction), Rex Warner (Translator)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 176 ratings
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Xenophon's History recounts nearly fifty turbulent years of warfare in Greece between 411 and 362 BC. Continuing the story of the Peloponnesian War at the point where Thucydides finished his magisterial history, this is a fascinating chronicle of the conflicts that ultimately led to the decline of Greece, and the wars with both Thebes and the might of Persia. An Athenian by birth, Xenophon became a firm supporter of the Spartan cause, and fought against the Athenians in the battle of Coronea. Combining history and memoir, this is a brilliant account of the triumphs and failures of city-states, and a portrait of Greece at a time of crisis.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    432 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Penguin Classics
  4. Publication date
    May 31, 1979
  5. Grade level
    12 and up
  6. Reading age
    18 years and up
  7. Dimensions
    7.8 x 5.08 x 1.02 inches
  8. ISBN-10
    0140441751
  9. ISBN-13
    978-0140441758
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Xenophon was an Athenian gentleman born in the early 420s BC. He was a fine officer and leader for Athens, but his support of Socrates led to his banishment. He lived under the protection of Sparta on an estate near Olympia, where he began to write his histories and memoirs. Rex Warner was a Professor at the University of Connecticut. He taught in Egypt and England and was Director of the British Institute in Athens. He died in 1986. George Cawkwell is a Fellow Emeritus of University College, Oxford. He has specialised in the history of Greece from the sixth to the fourth century BC.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Classics; Reprint edition (May 31, 1979)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0140441751
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0140441758
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
  • Grade level ‏ : ‎ 12 and up
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.8 x 5.08 x 1.02 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 176 ratings

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  1. Rex Warner

    Rex Warner

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  2. Xenophon

    Xenophon

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    Xenophon (/ˈzɛnəfən, -ˌfɒn/; Greek: Ξενοφῶν [ksenopʰɔ̂ːn], Xenophōn; c. 430 – 354 BC), son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens, was a Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, and student of Socrates. While not referred to as a philosopher by his contemporaries, his status as such is now a topic of debate. He is known for writing about the history of his own times, the late 5th and early 4th centuries BC, especially for his account of the final years of the Peloponnesian War. His Hellenica, which recounts these times, is considered to be the continuation of Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War. His youthful participation in the failed campaign of Cyrus the Younger to claim the Persian throne inspired him to write his most famous work, Anabasis.

    Despite growing up in Athens and being an Athenian citizen, Xenophon is also associated with Sparta, the traditional enemy of Athens. His pro-oligarchic views, service under Spartan generals in the Persian campaign and beyond, as well as his friendship with King Agesilaus II endeared Xenophon to the Spartans, and them to him. A number of his writings display his pro-Spartan bias and admiration, especially Agesilaus and Constitution of Sparta. Other than Plato, Xenophon is the foremost authority on Socrates, having learned under the great philosopher while a young man. He greatly admired his teacher, and well after Socrates’ death in 399 Xenophon wrote several Socratic dialogues, including an Apology concerning the events of his trial and death. Xenophon’s works cover a wide range of genres and are written in very uncomplicated Attic Greek. Xenophon’s works are among the first that many students of Ancient Greek translate on account of the straightforward and succinct nature of his prose. This sentiment was apparent even in ancient times, as Diogenes Laertius states in his Lives of Eminent Philosophers (2.6) that Xenophon was sometimes known as the "Attic Muse" for the sweetness of his diction.

    Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Scan by User:Gabor [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
176 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Phillip Parotti
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, very readable translation.
Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2021
Verified Purchase
Professor Cawkwell provides an excellent introduction to Rex Warner's translation of Xenophon's Hellenica, applauding the book's value as a memoir while questioning its validity as a straight history and pointing out where more recent research has reached a similar conclusion.
4 people found this helpful
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an open mind
5.0 out of 5 stars great book for comparison with today
Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2011
Verified Purchase
Greetings all, This is another Penguin classic, a worthy addition to one's library, but a better gift for a senior in high school or early college. It is a tale about how the world really works, ready for comparison with today. Best regards.
4 people found this helpful
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Michael
4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful read, ignore the footnotes.
Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2022
Verified Purchase
I wanted to read some of the works of Xenophon and so I purchased this book as well as another one. Unfortunately Penguin publishing allowed some guy named George Cawkwell to obnoxiously try to denigrate Xenophon in almost each and every page of the book with his footnotes.
I assumed that Cawkwell was jealous of Xenophon since I really had the impression that Cawkwell personally disliked Xenophon due to his hostile footnotes.
I got around this though by simply ignoring and not reading his footnotes at the bottom of the pages and found that it greatly helped my reading experience.
I was then immersed in the world Xenophon was writing about and each time I saw a symbol by a word showing me that Cawkwell has written something at the bottom of the page, I purposely ignored it and did not read the obnoxious and hostile to Xenophon footnote.
As for the physical book itself, mine was used and obviously by college students since it had been written in and underlined in a few places, but those markings were not as annoying as Cawkwell's text within the book.
4 people found this helpful
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Luc REYNAERT
5.0 out of 5 stars Independence
Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2007
This is by all means a heavily underrated book.

Xenophon lays bare the essential characteristics of his (and our) time and its crucial kernel, independence.

Inside the Greek cities, independence meant democracy, which was the political regime in Athens. The latter's arch-rival, Sparta, had an oligarchic rule, a government controlled by a king and the aristocracy.

When Sparta defeated Athens, it put immediately a lackey oligarchic government (the Thirty) in place. The oligarchs could `do exactly what they liked with the state.' They went on a killing spree, murdering all democratic opponents, in casu, `more Athenians than all the Peloponnesians did in ten years of war.' They confiscated illegally the property of resident aliens and when people could vote, it was in full view.

Xenophon knows perfectly the importance of education: `For I know that in Persia everybody except one man is educated to be a slave rather than stand up for himself.'

Inside the Peloponnesus, independence meant freedom for every city: `the cities must be independent, which means not to set up your own government ... what you aim at is not that they should govern in accordance with the laws, but that they should be strong enough to hold down the city by force. This makes it look like as though what gives you pleasure is dictatorship and not constitutional government.'

The Greek cities fought against each other to become `like the king of Persia ... the richest man on earth ... he gets his revenue from a continent.' The reward for control was solid tribute, but also the goldmines of Mount Pangaeum.

This continuous infighting and the relentless changes of alliances were a catastrophe for the populations. The inhabitants of the conquered cities were enslaved and sold or slaughtered, the crops and towns burned, cattle and precious metals stolen. The city was completely annihilated.

The war ended with the peace of Antalcidas in 387 B.C. on very favorable terms for Sparta.

Xenophon's book could also serve as a manual for vicious (bribery, infiltration, spying, informants) or clever diplomacy: `guard against the emergence of any single strong Greek state by seeing that they were all kept weak by constantly fighting among themselves.'

It is also an encyclopedia for military tactics: where, when and how to fight and how to keep the morale of the troops high.

He is also a fine psychologist: `people call a man `good' merely because he has been good to them.'

To the contrary of his joke, `even the golden plane tree was not big enough to give shade to a grasshopper', Xenophon's book puts many authors in the shadow.

A must read for all historians and lovers of classical literature.
5 people found this helpful
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Publius Fidesiuscultus
3.0 out of 5 stars Xenophon's problems
Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2013
Verified Purchase
The book is a history/memoir of the end of the pellopenesian war and the years after that led to the rise of Thebes and Macedonia. The writing is colored by the prejudices and biases of Xenophon but still gives a good basic account of the years that are detailed. The edition details the problems as the text progresses so the reader will not be confused.
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Michael Boyajian
5.0 out of 5 stars A warrior author
Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2015
This warrior author not to be seen again until Hemingway picks up with the Peloponnesian War where Thucydides left off.
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Jordan M. Poss
4.0 out of 5 stars Great book with annoying notes
Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2008
Verified Purchase
Xenophon's History of My Times picks up roughly where Thucydides left off. After finishing the account of the long and exhausting Peloponnesian War, Xenophon continues with stories of intrigues, betrayals, campaigns and bravery up to the year 362 BC. The Corinthian War, Greek incursions in Asia Minor, and Xenophon's Spartan heroes are all depicted in this work.

It's not nearly as good as Thucydides, nor nearly as exhaustive. Thucydides devoted about 600 pages (in my edition) to the first twenty years of the Peloponnesian War; Xenophon covers almost fifty years in about 350 pages. And while Thucydides's historical method has earned him the title of "first modern historian" and set the standard for centuries afterward, Xenophon is selective in his detail, sometimes wrong, and often biased. But Xenophon is still a gifted writer and the story he tells is brisk and exciting, if not necessarily the whole picture.

The thing I disliked about reading this book, the Penguin Classics edition, was the notes by George Cawkwell. He sets out well enough in the introduction that Xenophon's history is flawed and among the least of his works, being far inferior to something like The Persian Expedition, but Cawkwell litters the text with footnote after footnote pointing out Xenophon's every mistake and omission. It was instructive, at first, to know how Xenophon's account differed with that of other historians, but by the time I was a third of the way through the notes had the exasperating effect of a know-it-all heckler during an admittedly flawed but entertaining speech.

That said, Xenophon's history is still worth reading, and this translation by Rex Warner is excellent--fast-paced and very readable. If you're looking for history that Thucydides did not live to write about, this is one good place to find it.

Recommended.
31 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Conor Withers
5.0 out of 5 stars A sequel with modest corrections
Reviewed in Australia on February 4, 2024
Verified Purchase
If you enjoyed the Peloponnesian war and wanted to know what happened next; Xenophon carried on the history. With focuses on different parts of the Hellenic world and including the relationship with Persia at the time, Xenophon writes the times of which he lived in and the personalities, speeches and developments of his time.

That being said, he was an Athenian with a very Pro-Sparta view which does affect his writings. The editor points to other sources which conflict with SOME aspects of his telling of the wars between Greek Leagues and cities. All and all, it is a well written history with detailed developments easy to digest and understand.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars very nice
Reviewed in India on September 30, 2017
Verified Purchase
very nice
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Horace Raschpiggi
5.0 out of 5 stars " a time of political and moral decline where the erstwhile centers of power are in long-term decline is useful to us in our tim
Reviewed in Canada on August 21, 2015
Verified Purchase
Xenophon is a clever, wise analyst. Well, he should be since he, along with Plato, was a student of Socrates. He advised Thucydides on writing "The Peloponnesian War." His credentials are above reproach. His observations on "his world," a time of political and moral decline where the erstwhile centers of power are in long-term decline is useful to us in our time. Perhaps our political leaders, if they can crawl their way to a library would benefit from his wisdom.
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Luc REYNAERT
5.0 out of 5 stars Independence
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 29, 2007
Verified Purchase
This is by all means a heavily underrated book.

Xenophon lays bare the essential characteristics of his (and our) time and its crucial kernel, independence.

Inside the Greek cities, independence meant democracy, which was the political regime in Athens. The latter's arch-rival, Sparta, had an oligarchic rule, a government controlled by a king and the aristocracy.

When Sparta defeated Athens, it put immediately a lackey oligarchic government (the Thirty) in place. The oligarchs could `do exactly what they liked with the state.' They went on a killing spree, murdering all democratic opponents, in casu, `more Athenians than all the Peloponnesians did in ten years of war.' They confiscated illegally the property of resident aliens and when people could vote, it was in full view.

Xenophon knows perfectly the importance of education: `For I know that in Persia everybody except one man is educated to be a slave rather than stand up for himself.'

Inside the Peloponnesus, independence meant freedom for every city: `the cities must be independent, which means not to set up your own government ... what you aim at is not that they should govern in accordance with the laws, but that they should be strong enough to hold down the city by force. This makes it look like as though what gives you pleasure is dictatorship and not constitutional government.'

The Greek cities fought against each other to become `like the king of Persia ... the richest man on earth ... he gets his revenue from a continent.' The reward for control was solid tribute, but also the goldmines of Mount Pangaeum.

This continuous infighting and the relentless changes of alliances were a catastrophe for the populations. The inhabitants of the conquered cities were enslaved and sold or slaughtered, the crops and towns burned, cattle and precious metals stolen. The city was completely annihilated.

The war ended with the peace of Antalcidas in 387 B.C. on very favorable terms for Sparta.

Xenophon's book could also serve as a manual for vicious (bribery, infiltration, spying, informants) or clever diplomacy: `guard against the emergence of any single strong Greek state by seeing that they were all kept weak by constantly fighting among themselves.'

It is also an encyclopedia for military tactics: where, when and how to fight and how to keep the morale of the troops high.

He is also a fine psychologist: `people call a man `good' merely because he has been good to them.'

To the contrary of his joke, `even the golden plane tree was not big enough to give shade to a grasshopper', Xenophon's book puts many authors in the shadow.

A must read for all historians and lovers of classical literature.
20 people found this helpful
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Ian McKillop
5.0 out of 5 stars Good History Book!
Reviewed in Canada on November 12, 2018
Verified Purchase
Good History Book! Wow! Have times changed!
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