SOURCE: "On the Peculiarities of Xenophon's Style," in The Anabasis of Xenophon, Vol. I, edited and translated by Alfred Pretor, Cambridge of the University Press, 1881, pp. 17-26.

In the following excerpt, Pretor prefaces his translation of Xenophon's Anabasis with comments on the author's limitations, including a tendency to be dry and "slovenly."

In the subject of his history Xenophon is fortunate beyond the majority of authors. The interest excited by the circumstances of the expedition and the desire to learn something of the unknown land through which the travellers made their way: above all, the dangers consequent upon the undertaking and the unparalleled bravery by which they were surmounted would have made the work acceptable, even if the shortcomings of the historian had been of a more decided kind. It is true that to one class of readers the Anabasis will present but few attractions, and the student...