ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an examination of Xenophon’s Oeconomicus, re-evaluating its status as a treatise on economic agency. The status of Xenophon in other academic discussions poses some problems. Pomeroy argues that much of the earlier criticisms of Xenophon’s style is prejudicial, framed by the notion of Xenophon ‘as a simple soldier’. The parallels may have as much to do with, ‘shared experience’ or ‘shared rhetorical strategy’ as with Xenophon as a direct source. Xenophon seems to appreciate, in his depiction of the ordered ship and the spatially ordered household, the costs implied by misused time and makes the link with lost output. The idea of ‘kingly character and kingly government’ is drawn from Xenophon’s account of Cyrus’s rational and ordered approach to the administration and development of his empire. John Ruskin included in his notion of economic agency the possibility of rational administration and management, as exemplified, at various levels, in Xenophon’s Oeconomicus.
