Spring 2022

Here’s what I’ve got to offer in Spring 2022.

CLAS 491: Adventures with Xenophon (TR 11:00-12:15, Classics Seminar)

Adventures with Xenophon (CLAS 491) will center on the two most famous works by the Athenian author Xenophon (c. 430 BCE-340 BCE). It’s a course aimed at Classics Minors and Majors, and some background in Classics will help, but all are welcome.

Xenophon’s Anabasis (“The March Up Country”) is the tale of how Xenophon helped an army of 10,000 Greeks escape from the midst of the might Persian empire (after they had unsuccessfully tired to replace the current Persian king with his brother). It’s a stirring story of survival, resilience, and leadership–but also a rather graphic account of how Greek soldiers treated their enemies and indeed anyone who got in their way, or whose territory they needed to cross. Some American soldiers who fought in Iraq (where Xenophon once marched) have made the Anabasis as sort of model text.

Xenophon’s Cyropaedia (“The Education of Cyrus”) is an exercise in historical fiction that is sometimes considered the first novel. Xenophon imagines how the founder of the Persian empire managed that feat, and thereby presents lessons in leadership that influenced many leaders to come.

This class should be of great interest if you are interested in leadership, military history, Greek relations with Persia (a fascinating parallel for the tortured relationship between the West and the Middle East today), or the earliest examples of literary memoir and the novel.

Questions: Feel free to email me at mjohnson@siu.edu.