Musings on an Attic Muse Three Ancient Responses to a Passage from Xenophon’s Anabasis

This chapter discusses three ancient scholarly comments and rework-ings of a passage from Xenophon’s Anabasis (4.5.32–3), which represent three distinct strands in the ancient reception of Xenophon’s language and style. First, a comment from the Antiatticist (ε 11 Valente) belongs to the claustrophobic world of “linguistic Atticism”, in which Xenophon’s Attic was sometimes called into question. Secondly, a passage from Hermogenes (Id. 406.1–7 Rabe) is ultimately rooted in the more relaxed environment of “rhetorical Atticism”. Thirdly, Philo-stratus (VA 2.28.2) alludes to the Xenophontic passage in ways which demonstrates the playfulness of creative Atticist writing. A final section addresses the undue influence which a tendency to take comments of ancient critics at face value has had on modern assessments of Xenophon’s literary achievement.