<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Andre,<div><br></div><div>Think of it this way - think of it the way Bob approaches the writing of an appendix for his books. He knows that if the appendix is longer than a few pages that readers won't read it. </div><div><br></div><div>He asks scholars who have spent a lifetime studying a subject to boil it all down to a few pages.</div><div><br></div><div>We have the same issue here - the longer the question, the fewer people will read it or other questions.</div><div><br></div><div>One trick you can use is to put the short questions in the main body of your text - and then put an appendix at the bottom below your signature with more context for the questions.</div><div><br></div><div>Phil <br><div><div>On Apr 6, 2010, at 10:14 AM, Andre Stipanovic wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div marginleft="10" marginright="10" margintop="10" marginbottom="10" style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; "><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Hey Phil,</font></div><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Thanks for the feedback. This is already my third pass on these questions so I have shortened them considerably. I'll see what I can do. The only problem is that some context is needed for each question since Xenophon's organization can be muddy. Do you want me to edit the contextual info or the actual questions?</font></div><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">A</font></div><br><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><b>Phil Terry <<a href="mailto:pterry@creativegood.com">pterry@creativegood.com</a>> writes:</b></font></div><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Andre,</font></span></div><br><br><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">First pass looks good. Can you shorten these at all? That would be my only request!</font></span></div><br><br><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Phil </font></span></div><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">On Apr 5, 2010, at 4:20 PM, Andre Stipanovic wrote:</font></span></div><br><br><br><div align="left" style="padding-left: 45px; margin-top: 10px; text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Hi Phil,</font></span></div><div align="left" style="padding-left: 45px; margin-top: 10px; text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">FYI, these questions and this material are taking a very long time to sort out. I have had to re-read everything twice since many events in Book 4 are re-arranged out of chronological order. Xenophon has written a very demanding narrative, opaque in many places and at cross purposes with other sources here in Book 4. Quite a challenge. I still have Book 5 to work through before the next conference call, but I thought I could at least get these questions out there for our readers to start chewing on. Let me know if you have any feedback so we can get these out soon. Book 5 looks to be a little better organized by Xenophon, but still full of items left out and assumed to be understood.</font></span></div><div align="left" style="padding-left: 45px; margin-top: 10px; text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Thanks,</font></span></div><div align="left" style="padding-left: 45px; margin-top: 10px; text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">A</font></span></div><br><div align="left" style="padding-left: 45px; margin-top: 10px; text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Xenophon Reading Group 2010</font></span></div><div align="left" style="padding-left: 45px; margin-top: 10px; text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Books IV-V Study Guide Questions</font></span></div><br><div align="left" style="padding-left: 45px; margin-top: 10px; text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">1. [4.1] Agesilaos the matchmaker</font></span></div><div align="left" style="padding-left: 45px; margin-top: 10px; text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">In 395 B.C., Book IV opens with Agesilaos commanding a foreign expeditionary force in Asia Minor against Persian interests and in Persian territory. Why does Agesilaos feel compelled to arrange a marriage between Otys, king of Paphlagonia, and the daughter of Spithridates? What are his strategic reasons? His personal reasons? How does the Spartan Herippidas both help and hinder Agesilaos’ intentions with this marriage arrangement?</font></span></div><br><div align="left" style="padding-left: 45px; margin-top: 10px; text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">2. [4.2-4.5] Spartans in battle (394-390 B.C.)</font></span></div><div align="left" style="padding-left: 45px; margin-top: 10px; text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Book 4 concerns itself mostly with the land battles raging in Greece between Sparta and an anti-Sparta coalition of Greek city-states. Sparta recalls Agesilaos from Asia Minor in 394 B.C. to help neutralize various rebel Greek city-states (4.1-4.2) like Athens, Argos, Thebes, and Corinth who are being funded and encouraged by the Persian king to attack Sparta. Xenophon describes these conflicts at the Nemea River in the Peloponnese (4.2) and in Agesilaos’ march from the other direction through Boeotia and Thessaly (4.3). Much of the fighting between Sparta and the other Greeks in alliance in 393-390 B.C. (Book 4.4-5) centers around Corinth, which is tenaciously held under siege by the anti-Spartan alliance and which Sparta is not able to completely subdue.</font></span></div><div align="left" style="padding-left: 45px; margin-top: 10px; text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Consider the following two quotes as examples of how Xenophon represents the Spartans. </font></span></div><div align="left" style="padding-left: 45px; margin-top: 10px; text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">“Some Spartans from the camp, holding their spears, were following as guards, and they were being closely watched by those present, for those who are fortunate and victorious always seem for some reason to be worth looking at.” (p. 149)(4.5.6) “Now inasmuch as such a defeat was most unusual for the Spartans, there was much grieving throughout the army - except for those whose sons, fathers, or brothers had died in that battle: <i>these</i> men went around with beaming faces, delighting in their personal misfortune, as if they had been victors.” (p. 151) (4.5.10)</font></span></div><br><div align="left" style="padding-left: 45px; margin-top: 10px; text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">How do these two quotes represent the way Xenophon narrates these events vis-à-vis Sparta? What other quotes did you notice as you read about other battles, that showed Xenophon’s bias either one way or another? Does he ever show the Spartans in a less-than-favorable light? If so, how does Xenophon justify a Spartan defeat or setback? Who is Xenophons’ favorite person to write about?</font></span></div><br><div align="left" style="padding-left: 45px; margin-top: 10px; text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">3. [4.6] Agesilaos invades and checks Acarnanian influence? (389 BC)</font></span></div><div align="left" style="padding-left: 45px; margin-top: 10px; text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">In order to honor its alliance with Achaea, Sparta sends troops across the Corinthian gulf in order to repel an Acarnanian incursion on Calydos, an Achaean colony. Although the Spartan general Agesilaos sets up a trophy after a hard-fought land battle, he nevertheless withdraws his troops in autumn with little else to claim against the Acarnanians and their imminent threat on the Achaeans. Should the Spartans have done more for the Achaeans? Was Agesilaos as fault in any way? Does what happens in Acarnania really matter to Spartan interests on the macro level? How about earlier in this Book with Sparta’s operations around Corinth? Do you see the Spartans as not strong enough to capture the city of Corinth in Book 4.4-5? What might Xenophon be saying (albeit subtly or even subconsciously) about Spartan power? What could the explanation be for Sparta’s inability to completely subdue Greece? Is mismanagement the issue? Bad luck? Impiety? Lack of favor from the gods? Superior strategy from the other side?</font></span></div><br><div align="left" style="padding-left: 45px; margin-top: 10px; text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">4. [4.7] Piety and Warfare: the Spartan campaign against Argos (388)</font></span></div><div align="left" style="padding-left: 45px; margin-top: 10px; text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Agesipolis leads an invasion of Argos after carefully consulting Zeus and Apollo whether “it would be considered in accord with piety to reject a proclamation of a holy truce when it had been unjustly declared” (4.7.2). Having received positive responses, Agesipolis marshals his troops at Phleious (near the isthmus) and marches southward towards Argos. Xenophon makes an interesting comment on piety and warfare in this section. What oracles were consulted? The campaign begins and ends ritually with specific sacrifices. Why? What portents or omens are described in 4.7? To which deities would each portent/omen be ascribed to in Greek culture? How do we know? Using Agesipolis as his main example of generalship and ritual piety, Xenophon avoids using Agesilaos, why? Why haven’t we heard more about sacrifices before battle in other parts of the <i>Hellenika</i>? [See Appendix J for more information about Ancient Greek Religion.]</font></span></div><br><div align="left" style="padding-left: 45px; margin-top: 10px; text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">5. [4.8] War at sea: Persia and the Greek city-states (394-389 B.C)</font></span></div><div align="left" style="padding-left: 45px; margin-top: 10px; text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Persian interests are fueled by Sparta’s naval setback at Cnidus. For example, the Persian satrap Pharnabazos is emboldened and intends to reclaim Abydos in the Hellespont from Derkylidas the Spartan general. At the same time, Pharnabazos supports Konon the Athenian admiral who is temporarily allied with him, in rebuilding Athens’ walls and fortifying the city-state with a naval force. Corinth also re-arms its navy with Persian money. By 390, Teleutias also is dispatched from Sparta with naval reinforcements to help secure Rhodes. Diverse elements at Rhodes either ally or come into conflict for various reasons. With a commingling of so many different interests all fueled by Persian money, Xenophon thus shares this political paradox with us: “…both sides were acting in a way most opposed to their best interests, for the Athenians, who considered the King a friend, were making an alliance with Euagoras, who was fighting against the King, and Teleutias, even though the Spartans were at war with the King, was destroying those who were also sailing the wage war against him” (4.8.24). How are Persian interests understood in this political context? How does Xenophon comment on the way that Persia plays one Greek city-state off another? How effective is Persia’s policy vis-à-vis Greece at this point? Do you think the Persian King is aware of such undercurrents or cross purposes among his subordinates? If so, does he or should he care? What sort of irony is there from the Greek point of view?</font></span></div><br><br><br><br><br></div></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>