Teaching the Anabasis in the twenty-first century: Challenges and prospects

In this essay I suggest that scholars of Xenophon need to take the initiative in promoting his works, and especially the Anabasis, as the most suitable text for beginning and intermediate level students of ancient Greek. The Anabasis, with its easy to follow plot and vivid narrative, is actually much more accessible to today's students than Plato's Apology or shorter dialogues. We need to make the case for the Anabasis, and not just assume that the old label of 'a war story for boys' will fade away on its own. Even the advent of new, narratologically sophisticated, monographs and commentaries will not convince teachers who have had little exposure to Xenophon to adopt him as a teaching text. Change will not happen without a concerted effort to explain why Xeno-phon is not an author of only limited interest to today's students.