Virtue and its absence in Xenophon’s Anabasis: talking about good behaviour among royal Persians and mercenary Greeks

Résumé

This essay approaches the role of cardinal virtues in Xenophon’s Anabasis through three salient passages: Xenophon’s speech to Seuthes in Book VII, the obituary of Menon in Book II, and the obituary of Cyrus in Book I. It shows that these passages are informed by the same rather selective framework of virtues and offers an explanation of the generally low incidence of classic virtue words in Anabasis.