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XENOPHON. ON GOVERNMENT. Edited by Vivienne J. Gray. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics). 2007. Pp. x, 231.
IN THIS CAMBRIDGE GREEK AND LATIN CLASSICS SERIES VOLUME Vivienne J. Gray brings together three short works on government, two by Xenophon: the Respublica Lacedaemoniorum (Constitution of the Spartans = Lac.) and the Hiero, along with a third, the Respublica Atheniensium (Constitution of the Athenians = Ath.), formerly ascribed to Xenophon but now generally considered to be earlier, perhaps the earliest surviving example of Attic prose, and whose unknown author scholars generally call "The Old Oligarch." Each work deals with a different form or aspect of government, Hiero with personal mie, Lac. with the rule of law as exemplified by the system traditionally ascribed to the Spartan sage Lycurgus, Ath. with the practices of the democracy at Athens. The book consists of a thorough general introduction, as well as separate introductory essays, the Greek text, and a grammatical and historical commentary for each work. There are also three short essays dealing with well-known interpretative controversies added as appendices: The Ironic Reading of Hiero, Topoi of Tyranny, and Lac. 14. Gray also includes a bibliography and indices.
Although Xenophon has given rise to an enormous outpouring of scholarship in the past two decades (including two important monographs and numerous articles by Gray herself), comparatively little of it has focused on the philosophical and Socratic writings and the bulk ofthat, at least in English, has been largely the province of Leo Strauss and his disciples. Gray's general introduction provides a succinct and consistent summary of key elements of Xenophon's political thought, utilizing not only his rwo works in this volume but also the rest of his corpus. She also...