Sophainetus

Sophainetus of Stymphalos was a guest of the Persian prince Cyrus the Younger . At his request he took part in 401 BC. As a strategist (military leader) on the famous "train of ten thousand" (Anabasis) against the Persian great king Artaxerxes and wrote his own report about it. His exact life dates are not known.

Life

Sophainetos came from Stymphalos, a city in northeastern Arcadia , a region of the Peloponnese . It occurred at an unknown time before 401 BC. In the service of the Persian prince Cyrus . When Cyrus planned a rebellion against his older brother Artaxerxes II , Sophainetus was tasked with recruiting Greek mercenaries. Shortly after the start of Cyrus' campaign, Sophainetos joined them with 1,000 mercenaries. Despite his already quite old age, Sophainetus was one of the most important Greek commanders in Cyrus' army. The campaign also took Xenophon part of Athens; he was to play a central role in the withdrawal of the Greek mercenaries.

After a part of the Greek commanders after the Battle of Kunaxa in 401 BC. Having fallen into a trap and fell into the hands of the Persians, he took over negotiating with the Persians together with Kleanor from Orchomenos (a neighboring town of Stymphalos) due to his position. Sophainetus, who - as Xenophon states - was one of the oldest strategists along with Philesios, continued to exercise leading functions under the command of the Spartan Cheirisophos . Due to irregularities, he had to pay a fine at the end of the withdrawal. With Xenophon, who according to his own account shared the supreme command with Cheirisophos, he had at least one violent difference of opinion. Nothing is known about his further life.

Historiography

Xenophon wrote a historical report on the march of the Greek mercenary army into the depths of the Persian Empire with the title Anabasis , in which he also described his own role in the march back and the rescue of the Greek mercenary army, which changed after the untimely death of Cyrus and a a large part of the Greek generals without allies and without a specific mandate in the middle of the hostile Persian empire.

After the end of the procession, Sophainetus also worked as a historian, as this is the name of a report on the anabasis of Cyrus. Only very few fragments of this work have survived through quotations from Stephanos of Byzantium ( The Fragments of the Greek Historians , No. 109).

Based on the analysis of these fragments, modern historians suspect that the report of Sophainetus was the first to write and that Xenophon only wrote his report later in response to the report of Sophainetus, because it did not sufficiently appreciate his own role in the events. An indication of this arises from the fact that the Greek historian Ephoros von Kyme probably knew the account of Sophainetus and used it in his depiction of the “train of the ten thousand” in his universal history (also only fragmentarily handed down) . A summary of the portrayal of Ephoros from the “Train of the Ten Thousand” has been proven to be included in the traditional work of the historian Diodorus . Since Xenophon's role is only mentioned in passing in this presentation, Ephoros and probably also Sophainetus must have assessed its importance for the rescue of the Greek mercenary army as much more secondary than Xenophon himself. Whether the work of Sophainetus was used on a larger scale by later authors is however, ultimately speculation due to the sparse fragments.

output

• Felix Jacoby : The Fragments of the Greek Historians (FGrH), No. 109.

literature

• George Cawkwell: Introduction . In: Xenophon: The Persian Expedition . Translated into English by Rex Warner, introduction and notes by George Cawkwell. Penguin, Harmondsworth 1972, ISBN 0140440070 , pp. 9-48.
• Franz Schrömer: Sophainetus's report on the train of ten thousand . Diss. Munich 1954.

Remarks

1. ↑ Xenophon: Anabasis II 5.37.
2. ↑ Xenophon, Anabasis V 3.1
3. ↑ Xenophon, Anabasis IV 4.19; V 3.1.
4. ↑ Xenophon, Anabasis V 8.1.
5. ↑ Xenophon, Anabasis VI 5.13.
6. ^ Diodor, Library XIV 19–31.
7. ↑ See Cawkwell: Introduction . In: Xenophon: The Persian Expedition . Penguin Verlag, 1972, p. 17 ff.