Xenophon's philosophic odyssey: On the Anabasis and Plato's Republic

Xenophon's Anabasis, a military adventure interwoven with a story of philos ophical self-discovery, is a companion piece to Plate's Republic The Anabas is takes up in deed the two great political problems treated in speech in t he Republic, namely, how a just community can come into being and how philo sophy and political power may be brought to coincide. In addressing the fir st of these problems, Xenophon makes explicit a lesson about the limits of politics that is implicit in the Republic. He speaks to the second problem by clarifying the essential role of philosophical eros in his emergence, at the moment of crisis, as the founder and leader of a well-ordered communit y Xenophon's self-presentation in the Anabasis, which makes clear his debt to Socrates, illuminates the nature of philosophical courage as well as the saving integrity of the philosophical soul.