ABSTRACT
The principle that Xenophon is challenging here is that greatness as a power ought to determine the historical importance of a place; further, people can tell that he is straining to make this point because Phlius, as he tells us himself elsewhere, was not a small polis but actually a fairly large one with a citizen body of 5,000. Closer to Xenophon’s way of thinking, but still fundamentally in line with Herodotus, is Thucydides’ famous discussion of the size of the Greek expedition to Troy. Xenophon elected to experiment with the latter approach, making moral evaluation of individuals in particular a central, not a marginal part of his history. Xenophon’s treatment of the Thirty is perhaps one of the most illuminating sections of the Hellenica, signalling for us the most important themes and attitudes found throughout the history, and at the same time permitting us to view Xenophon’s record against several other versions of the same events.
