[Side-note: Probable circumstances generating these reflections in Xenophon's mind.] The sentence just transcribed (the last sentence in the Oekonomikus) brings to our notice a central focus in Xenophon's mind, from whence many of his most valuable speculations emanate. "What are the conditions under which subordinates will cheerfully obey their commanders?"--was a problem forced upon his thoughts by his own personal experience, as well as by contemporary phenomena in Hellas. He had been elected one of the generals of the Ten Thousand: a large body of brave warriors from different cities, most of them unknown to him personally, and inviting his authority only because they were in extreme peril, and because no one else took the initiative.[30] He discharged his duties admirably: and his ready eloquence was an invaluable accomplishment, distinguishing him from all his colleagues. Nevertheless when the army arrived at the Euxine, out of the reach of urgent peril, he was made to feel sensibly the vexations of authority resting upon such precarious basis, and perpetually traversed by jealous rivals. Moreover, Xenophon, besides his own personal experience, had witnessed violent political changes running extensively through the cities of the Grecian world: first, at the close of the Peloponnesian war--next, after the battle of Knidus--again, under Lacedæmonian supremacy, after the peace of Antalkidas, and the subsequent seizure of the citadel of Thebes--lastly, after the Thebans had regained their freedom and humbled the Lacedæmonians by the battle of Leuktra. To Xenophon--partly actor, partly spectator--these political revolutions were matters of anxious interest; especially as he ardently sympathised with Agesilaus, a political partisan interested in most of them, either as conservative or revolutionary. [Footnote 30: The reader will find in my 'History of Greece,' ch. 70, p. 103 seq., a narrative of the circumstances under which Xenophon was first chosen to command, as well as his conduct afterwards.] [Side-note: This text affords subjects for the Hieron and Cyropædia--Name of Sokrates not suitable.]