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  • Published: 30 March 2006
  • ISBN: 9780141959627
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288

Hiero The Tyrant And Other Treatises



Six classical treatises addressing the nature of leadership.

One of Socrates' Athenian disciples in his youth, Xenophon (c. 498-354 bc) fought as a mercenary commander in Cyrus the Younger's campaign to seize the Persian throne, and later wrote a wide range of works on history, politics and philosophy. These six treatises offer his informed insights into the nature of leadership. In the dialogue between the poet Simonides and Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse, Xenophon provides a consummate consideration of the burdens of being an absolute dictator and the superior happiness of the private man. Elsewhere, his biography of King Agesilaus II of Sparta depicts the author's patron as a model of piety, justice, courage and wisdom, while other texts consider the essential qualities of the cavalry commander, analyse the skills of the horseman and the hunter, and advance a bold economic plan for democratic Athens.

  • Published: 30 March 2006
  • ISBN: 9780141959627
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288

Other books in the series

On Sparta
Love
Annals
Military Dispatches

About the author

Xenophon

Xenophon was an Athenian country gentleman born about 430 BC. He may have helped to publish Thucydides' History, and certainly wrote his own Hellenica as a continuation of it. By his own (probably reliable) account he was a fine officer and outstanding leader, but his admiration for Sparta and devotion to Socrates, among other causes, led to his banishment. He was given an estate at Scillus and settled down to enjoy the life of a landed aristocrat, and it was during this period that he began to write histories, biographies, memoirs and specialist treatises. The defeat of Sparta in 371 forced him to move to Corinth where he probably lived for the rest of his life.

Also by Xenophon

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