Xenophon, Atheniensis. (ca. 430-355 B.C.) Xenophon’s
History of the Affairs of Greece, In Seven Books: Being A Continuation of the
Peloponnesian War; from the Time where Thucydides ends, to the Battel at
Mantinea. To which is prefixed an Abstract of Thucydides, and a brief Account
of the Land and Naval Forces of the Ancient Greeks. Translated from the Greek,
By John Newman. London: Printed by R.H. for William
Freeman over against the Devil Tavern by Temple-Bar, in Fleet-Street, 1685. Reserved at $375.00. Estimated at: $625-$700.
John Newman:
Octavo, 7.2
x 4.6 in. Translated from the Greek by John Newman. First edition of this
translation. †8 (preliminary †1 blank and present), A6, a8, b2, B-Z8,
Aa-Gg8. This copy is in good condition
internally throughout. It has been recently rebound in quarter calf, period
style.
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“Hellenica is Xenophon’s seven-book history of
Greek affairs, written in two linguistically distinguishable parts. It was
perhaps created at widely differing times, the first possibly as early as the
380’s, the second in the mid-350’s. [The work] covers the Peloponnesian War
from 411 to the destruction of Athens’ walls, the overthrow of democracy and
the surrender of Samos in 404. The opening narrative links imperfectly with
Thucydides, but the intention can be only to ‘complete’ the Thucydidean
account, though this is achieved with little reproduction of Thucydides’
historiographical characteristics. Continuing the story, [Xenophon] covers the
Thirty Tyrants, Sparta’s Asiatic campaigns, the Corinthian War and King’s
Peace, Spartan imperialism in Greece, the rise of Thebes and the Peloponnesian
consequences of Leuctra. The text ends at Mantinea, with Greece in an unabated
state of uncertainty and confusion. The account is centered on Sparta and
characterized by surprising omissions, a tendency to expose the shortcomings of
all states, including Sparta, and recurrent hostility to imperial aspirations.”
(OCD)
Wing X-19.
Listed in Lowndes. Begins with 'A
brief account of the land and naval forces of the ancient Greeks'. Hellenica,
as this book is known, is Xenophon's attempt to imitate the method of
Thucydides. Xenophon write of Greek history from 411 B.C., the point where
Thucydides stops, to 362 B.C. He has a marked prejudice in favor of the
Spartans. (Feder, Handbook of Classical Literature). The Oxford Companion to
Classical Literature states that the two best works of Xenophon are 'Anabasis'
and the 'Hellenica' or History of Greece. 'Xenophon's writings reveal him as a lover of the country and of
rural sports, a keen soldier, pious to the gods, an easy, lucid, and agreeable
writer, sensible but not profound, an enthusiastic amateur rather than a
specialist in anything, above all a very natural human being behind the
author.' (DNB).