Such was the use to which Xenophon applied the tithe voted by
the army at Kerasus to the Ephesian Artemis; the other tithe,
voted at the same time to Apollo, he dedicated at Delphi in the
treasure-chamber of the Athenians, inscribing upon the offering his
own name and that of Proxenus. His residence being only at a distance
of twenty stadia from the great temple of Olympia, he was enabled to
enjoy society with every variety of Greeks,—and to obtain copious
information about Grecian politics, chiefly from philo-Laconian
informants, and with the Lacedæmonian point of view predominant in
his own mind; while he had also leisure for the composition of his
various works. The interesting description which he himself gives of
his residence at Skillus, implies a state of things not present and
continuing,[293] but past and gone; other testimonies too, though
confused and contradictory, seem to show that the Lacedæmonian
settlement at Skillus lasted no longer than the power of Lacedæmon
was adequate to maintain it. During the misfortunes which befel
that city after the battle of Leuktra (371 B.C.), Xenophon, with
his family and his fellow-settlers, was expelled by the Eleians,
and is then said to have found shelter at Corinth. But as Athens
soon came to be not only at peace, but in intimate alliance, with
Sparta,—the sentence of banishment against Xenophon was revoked; so
that the latter part of his life was again passed in the enjoyment
of his birthright as an Athenian citizen and Knight.[294] Two of
his sons, Gryllus and Diodorus, fought among the Athenian horsemen
at the cavalry combat which preceded the battle of Mantineia, where
the former was slain, after manifesting distinguished bravery; while
his grandson Xenophon became in the next generation the subject of
a pleading before the Athenian Dikastery, composed by the orator
Deinarchus.[295]
[293] Xen. Anab. v. 3, 9.
[294] Diogen. Laërt. ii, 53, 54, 59. Pausanias (v, 6, 4) attests
the reconquest of Skillus by the Eleians, but adds (on the
authority of the Eleian ἐξηγηταὶ or show guides) that they
permitted Xenophon, after a judicial examination before the
Olympic Senate, to go on living there in peace. The latter point
I apprehend to be incorrect.
The latter works of Xenophon (De Vectigalibus, De Officio
Magistri Equitum, etc.), seem plainly to imply that he had been
restored to citizenship, and had come again to take cognizance of
politics at Athens.
[295] Diogen. Laërt. ut sup. Dionys. Halic. De Dinarcho, p. 664,
ed. Reiska. Dionysius mentions this oration under the title of
Ἀποστασίου ἀπολογία Αἰσχύλου πρὸς Ξενοφῶντα. And Diogenes also
alludes to it—ὥς φησι Δείναρχος ἐν τῷ πρὸς Ξενοφῶντα ἀποστασίου.
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