The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Memorable Thoughts of Socrates, by
Xenophon, Edited by Henry Morley, Translated by Edward Bysshe

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Memorable Thoughts of Socrates

Author: Xenophon

Editor: Henry Morley

Release Date: January 10, 2006 [eBook #17490]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEMORABLE THOUGHTS OF SOCRATES***

Transcribed from the 1889 Cassell & Company edition by David Price, email
ccx074@coventry.ac.uk

THE MEMORABLE THOUGHTS OF SOCRATES.
BY XENOPHON.

_TRANSLATED BY EDWARD BYSSHE_.

CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED:
LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK & MELBOURNE.
1888.

INTRODUCTION.

This translation of Xenophon's "Memorabilia of Socrates" was first
published in 1712, and is here printed from the revised edition of 1722.
Its author was Edward Bysshe, who had produced in 1702 "The Art of
English Poetry," a well-known work that was near its fifth edition when
its author published his translation of the "Memorabilia." This was a
translation that remained in good repute. There was another edition of
it in 1758. Bysshe translated the title of the book into "The Memorable
Things of Socrates." I have changed "Things" into "Thoughts," for
whether they be sayings or doings, the words and deeds of a wise man are
alike expressions of his thought.

Xenophon is said to have been, when young, a pupil of Socrates. Two
authorities have recorded that in the flight from the battle of Delium in
the year B.C. 424, when Xenophon fell from his horse, Socrates picked him
up and carried him on his back for a considerable distance. The time of
Xenophon's death is not known, but he was alive sixty-seven years after
the battle of Delium.

When Cyrus the Younger was preparing war against his brother Artaxerxes
Mnemon, King of Persia, Xenophon went with him. After the death of Cyrus
on the plains of Cunaxa, the barbarian auxiliaries fled, and the Greeks
were left to return as they could from the far region between the Tigris
and Euphrates. Xenophon had to take part in the conduct of the retreat,
and tells the story of it in his "Anabasis," a history of