=Xanthip´pe= or =Xantip´pe=. The wife of Socrates, remarkable for her
ill-humor and fretful disposition. She was a constant torment to her
husband, and on one occasion, after bitterly reviling him, she emptied a
vessel of dirty water on him, on which the philosopher coolly remarked,
"After thunder rain generally falls."
=Xenoc´rates.= An ancient philosopher born at Calcedonia, and educated in
the school of Plato, whose friendship he gained. Died B.C. 314.
=Xen´ophon.= A celebrated Athenian, son of Gryllus, famous as a general,
philosopher, and historian. He joined Cyrus the Younger in an expedition
against Artaxerxes, king of Persia, and after the decisive battle of
Cunaxa, in which Cyrus was defeated and killed, the skill and bravery of
Xenophon became conspicuous. He had to direct an army of ten thousand
Greeks, who were now more than six hundred leagues from home, and in a
country surrounded by an active enemy. He rose superior to all
difficulties till the celebrated "Retreat of the Ten Thousand" was
effected; the Greeks returning home after a march of two hundred and
fifteen days. Xenophon employed his pen in describing the expedition of
Cyrus, in his work the "Anabasis." He also wrote the "Cyropædia,"
"Memorabilia," "Hellenica," etc. He died at Corinth in his ninetieth
year, about 360 years before the Christian era.
=Xer´xes= succeeded his father Darius on the throne of Persia. He entered
Greece with an immense army, which was checked at Thermopylæ by the
valor of three hundred Spartans under king Leonidas, who, for three
successive days, successfully opposed the enormous forces of Xerxes, and
were at last slaughtered. From this period the fortunes of Xerxes waned.
His fleet being defeated at Salamis, and mortified with ill-success, he
hastened to Persia, where he gave himself up to debauchery, and was
murdered in the twenty-first year of his reign, about 464 years before
the Christian era.
=Za´ma.= A town of Numidia, celebrated as the scene of the victory of
Scipio over Hannibal, B.C. 202.
=Ze´no=, a celebrated philosopher, the founder of the sect of Stoics, was
born at Citium in Cyprus. He opened a school in Athens, and soon became
noticed by the great and learned. His life was devoted to sobriety and
moderation. He died at the age of ninety-eight, B.C. 264.
=Ze´no.= A philosopher of Elea or Velia, in Italy. He was the disciple,
or, according to some, the adopted son of Parmenides. Being tortured to
cause him to reveal his confederates in a plot he had engaged in, he bit
off his tongue that he might not betray his friends.
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