What next?

My toilet is still blocked, but at about 4:00pm, Saturday March 23, 2024, a policeman and a policewoman came, looked at the toilet, full of black, presumably disinfectant water. In consequence, I ceased sending Oxford classicists any further emails about the blockage, I went for my usual three quarter of an hour walk on a near-by hill, then went to sleep.

When I woke up, I wanted to have a bath and shave; I entered the bathroom: ‘welcomed’ by the blocked toilet. No bath, no shaving.

I can understand that on Saturday and Sunday it is almost impossible to find the office manager and the handy man, so that the blockage could be removed. I shall resume my blocked-toilet emails to Oxford classicists, if the blockage is not removed by Tuesday morning, March 26.

The question is what next.

***

Two years ago, on March 31, I discovered in Diogenes Laertius a passage, which indicates that Plato wrote the Meno prior to Socrates’ trial and death:

‘Socrates would take to task those who thought highly of themselves, proving them to be fools, as to be sure he treated Anytus, according to Plato’s Meno. For Anytus could not endure to be ridiculed by Socrates, and so in the first place stirred up against him Aristophanes and his friends [writers of comedies (tou\j peri\ A0ristofa/nhn); then afterwards he helped to persuade Meletus to indict him on a charge of impiety and corrupting the youth.’ (Diog. Laert. II. 38)

I informed 18 Oxford classicists – Professor Allan, Rebecca Amstrong, professor Bown, Professor Coop, professor Crisp, Charles Crowther, Olivia Elder, Constanze Gűthenke, Alison John, Jane Lightfoot, Nino Luraghi, Tosca Lynch, Anna Marmodoro, Andrew Meadows, Jonathan Prag, Richard Rutherford, Karolina Sekita, Kathryn Stevens – about the discovery: ‘Allow me to inform you that in Diogenes Laertius I discovered a passage according to which Anytus was bent on prosecuting Socrates, incensed by the mockery and disparagement to which Socrates subjected him in Plato's Meno. See 'Socrates - Meletus and Anytus' on my blog, published on April 1. 2022.’

Two years elapsed and all those who are interested in Plato and go to Google for information are left blissfully unaware of the passage in Diogenes Laertius, which shows that the Meno must have been written before Meno became general of the army of the Thessalian mercenaries.

 

In the Anabasis Xenophon records ‘the facts which everybody knows’ (a4 pa/ntej i1sasi) about Meno: ‘From Aristippus he secured, while still in the bloom of youth, an appointment as general of his mercenaries – cf. the Meno 70b, where Socrates speaks of Aristippus as Meno’s lover (e0rasth/j) – Now when his fellow generals were put to death for joining Cyrus in his expedition against the King, he, who had done the same thing, was not so treated, but it was after the execution of the other generals that the king visited the punishment of death upon him; and he was not, like Clearchus and the rest of generals, beheaded – a manner of death which is counted speediest – but, report says, was tortured alive for a year and so met the death of a scoundrel.’ (II. vi. 8-29)

Xenophon does not say why was Meno treated in this manner, but he records an episode which allows the reader to surmise what the main reason was.

When Cyrus’ army came to the river Euphrates, the Greek mercenaries refused to go any further, for at that point it became clear that Cyrus went against the King, his older brother: ‘Clearchus [the unelected leader of the Greek mercenaries] was the first to try to force his men to go on, but they pelted him and his pack animals with stones as often as they began to go forward. At that time Clearchus narrowly escaped being stoned to death; but afterwards, when he realized that he could not accomplish anything by force, he called a meeting of his own troops.’ (I.iii.1-2)

‘But as for Menon, before it was clear what the rest of the soldiers would do, that is, whether they would follow Cyrus or not, he gathered together his own troops apart from the others and spoke as follows: “Soldiers, if you will obey me, you will, without either danger or toil, be honoured by Cyrus above and beyond the rest of the troops. At this moment Cyrus is begging the Greeks to follow him against the King; my own plan, then, is that you should cross Euphrates river before it is clear what answer the rest of the Greeks will make to Cyrus. For if they vote to follow him, it is you who will get the credit for the decision because you began the crossing … Upon hearing these words the soldiers were persuaded, and made the crossing before the rest gave their answer … When Cyrus learned that they had crossed, he was delighted … to Menon himself Cyrus was said to have sent magnificent gifts.’ (I.iv.13-17)

But for Meno, Cyrus might never have succeeded in making the soldiers cross the Euphrates.

A few words about Meno’s betrayal. Since the Persians did not dare to fight the Greek soldiers, their leader Tissaphernes and Clearchus agreed to march ‘together’, but the mutual suspicions were growing from day to day. Clearchus surmised that it was Meno who was feeding the suspicions, hoping to supplant Clearchus as the leader of the Greek army. So, Clearchus asked Tissaphernes for a meeting, desiring to make an end to the suspicions. Tissaphernes agreed and offered Clearchus a meeting, to which Clearchus would bring the leading generals and captains; in front of all of them Tissaphernes would reveal the culprit. Clearchus accepted the offer; when they came to the tent of Tissaphernes, the Greek generals were asked to come in, and arrested; the Greek captains were butchered in front of the tent.

After this event, a delegation of Persians came to speak to the Greeks. Ariaeus, formerly the most trusted friend of Cyrus, said: ‘Clearchus, men of Greece, inasmuch as he was shown to be perjuring himself and violating the truce, has received his deserts and is dead, but Proxenus and Menon, because they gave information of his plotting, are held in high honour. For yourselves, the King demands his arms; for he says that they belong to him, since they belonged to Cyrus, his slave.’

‘Xenophon said in his turn: “Well, then, if Clearchus was really transgressing the truce in violation of his oaths, he has his deserts, for it is right that perjurers should perish; but as for Proxenus and Meno, since they are your benefactors and our generals, send them hither, for it is clear that, being friends of both parties, they will endeavour to give both you and ourselves the best advice.’ To this the barbarians made no answer, but, after talking for a long time with one another, they departed.’ (II.v.38-42)

During the previous night, under the leadership of Xenophon, the Greek army reorganized itself, electing new captains. Xenophon replaced Proxenus as a general of the Thessalian army, but in fact he became the unelected leader of the Greek army. Xenophon led the Greek army over the mountains, where the Persians did not dare to tread.

I can’t help thinking that without Meno’s betrayal the Greek army’s anabasis under Xenophon’s leadership would never have happened, and Xenophon’s Anabasis, a gem of Ancient Greek literature, would never have been written.

***

Captivated by Xenophon, I left aside ‘What next?’

On Monday, April the 1^st, i.e. on the second anniversary of my discovery of the Diogenes Laertius passage (II. 38), which indicates that the Meno was written prior to the death of Socrates, I shall protest at Balliol: LET US DISCUSS PLATO.

Diogenes writes: ‘Xenophon took part in the expedition of Cyrus in the archonship of Xenaenetus (401-400 B.C.) in the year before the death of Socrates (Diog. Laert. II. 55).’ Diogenes again makes no reference to the source of this information; naturally, for the Greeks in all Greek settlements had relatives, or someone they knew, among the mercenaries.

Let me end this article with the words with which Socrates ends the Meno: ‘It is time for me to go my way, but do you persuade our friend Anytus (to\n ce/non to/nde A1nuton) of that whereof you are now yourself persuaded, so as to put him in a gentler mood; for if you can persuade him, you will do a good turn to the people of Athens also.’