The Hiero Of Xenophon

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.

I Once upon a time Simonides the poet paid a visit to Hiero the "tyrant," (1) and when both obtained the leisure requisite, Simonides began this conversation: (1) Or, "came to the court of the despotic monarch Hiero." For the "dramatis personae" see Dr. Holden's Introduction to the "Hieron" of Xenophon. Would you be pleased to give me information, Hiero, upon certain matters, as to which it is likely you have greater knowledge than myself? (2) (2) Or, "would you oblige me by explaining certain matters, as to which your knowledge naturally transcends my own?" And pray, what sort of things may those be (answered Hiero), of which I can have greater knowledge than yourself, who are so wise a man? I know (replied the poet) that you were once a private person, (3) and are now a monarch. It is but likely, therefore, that having tested both conditions, (4) you should know better than myself, wherein the life of the despotic ruler differs from the life of any ordinary person, looking to the sum of joys and sorrows to which flesh is heir. (3) Or, "a common citizen," "an ordinary mortal," "a private individual." (4) Or, "having experienced both lots in life, both forms of existence."

Since classical antiquity, Hiero has been the most popular of Xenophon's minor works. This new critical edition clears up manuscript errors from the Marchant Loeb edition of 1920, and has a contemporary facing-paged translation which makes the language much more accessible to the current reader. about the pleasures of the tyrant's life. It is a study of the form of government called tyranny and an ethical treatise as well.

Xenophon of Athens was a Greek poet, historian, soldier and philosopher, living at a time of momentous events in Ancient Greek history. He wrote about the philosophy of Socrates, the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, and the Persian expedition that formed the basis of his most famous work, Anabasis. In addition to his own works, he influenced the account of the Peloponnesian War written by the famous Greek historian Thucydides. Although he was recognized as a great writer and poet in his lifetime, Xenophon's involvement with Spartan politics and fighting led to his exile from Athens, and his association with Socrates probably did not help. His short treatise on Sparta's government is considered one of the first examples of political philosophy.

On Tyranny is Leo Strauss’s classic reading of Xenophon’s dialogue Hiero, or Tyrannicus, in which the tyrant Hiero and the poet Simonides discuss the advantages and disadvantages of exercising tyranny. Included are a translation of the dialogue from its original Greek, a critique of Strauss’s commentary by the French philosopher Alexandre Kojève, and the complete correspondence between the two. This revised and expanded edition introduces important corrections throughout and expands Strauss’s restatement of his position in light of Kojève’s commentary to bring it into conformity with the text as it was originally published in France.