Under the influence of rising Germanic classical scholarship, Xenophon's reputation slipped downward as he was compared unfavorably to Thucydides in the field of history and Plato in philosophy. In the twentieth century, especially since the 1960s, Xenophon's battered reputation has been rising among professional scholars, especially those who have been inclined to view him less in comparison to Thucydides or Plato and more in terms of his own internal themes and his powerful influence among Roman and Renaissance humanists.
Xenophon was born in Attica (the deme of Erchia) around 430 B.C., the son of Gryllus and Diodora. He grew to manhood in Athens during the Peloponnesian War, as recounted by Thucydides and also by himself in his Hellenica. Few details about Xenophon's life are known beyond the sketchy outline of his career as a soldier that is provided in some of his own works, especially the Anabasis. His biography by Diogenes Laertius in Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (circa A.D. 200) survives, generated often from information that was gathered from Xenophon's writings.
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