Tim Rood

A Delightful Retreat: Xenophon and the Picturesque

This chapter explores a number of portrayals of Xenophon living an idyllic life in picturesque Scillus. It begins by exploring through the lens of the eighteenth-century vogue for the picturesque the underpinnings of Mitfords fascination with Xenophons Scillus and the ideological complications that this fascination introduced into his work. The discussion of Mitford?s picture of Xenophon?s estate is enriched by comparison with the accounts of a number of early nineteenth-century travellers who (unlike Mitford) had ventured close to Scillus itself and who left equally striking recreations. By analysing this sample of responses to Scillus, the author hopes to shed light on the ideological implications of the image of Xenophon as English gentleman. One question this chapter raises is whether studying the reception of Xenophons Scillus adds anything to our understanding of Xenophon himself. Is there a danger that following the fortunes of Xenophon?s Scillus is itself a delightful retreat?. Keywords:eighteenth-century vogue; Mitford; retreat; Scillus; Xenophon

Cato the Elder, Livy, and Xenophon’s Anabasis

This article argues firstly that Cato the Elder’s account of a daring plan involving the tribune Caedicius in the First Punic War is modelled on a scene in Xenophon’s Anabasis . It then argues that Livy’s account of a heroic escape in the First Samnite War orchestrated by P. Decius Mus is modelled not just on the First Punic War episode described by Cato, as scholars have suggested, but on the same passage of Xenophon; it also proposes that Livy’s use of Xenophon may be mediated through Cato. The article then sets out other evidence for the use of Xenophon in Roman historiography and explores the implications of the proposed intertextuality for Roman self-positioning and for ideas of leadership and military hierarchy. The article as a whole suggests that the influence of Xenophon on Latin historiography is greater than has often been conceived.