Plato's Reception of Xenophon

Abstract

Beginning with Platonic dialogues presently considered to be inauthentic like Alcibiades Major and Theages (including the still embattled Hippias Major), proceeding through middle period masterpieces like Symposium, Meno, and Republic, and ending with late dialogues like Statesman and Laws—which famously and directly attacks “the education of Cyrus”—this article’s purpose is to disrupt the modern prejudice that Plato wrote before Xenophon in every instance in which their writings may be seen to overlap, as well as the ancient prejudice that the two Socratics whose writings survive intact were rivals.