Dialogue, Speeches, and the Acquisition of Virtue In Xenophon’s Memorabilia

The role that dialogue plays in the works of Xenophon is a deeply interesting issue that could be analyzed from a variety of different perspectives. From a literary point of view, it would be possible to raise the question of how dialogue fits into what is above all a narrative framework, in particular in the Cyropaedia and in the Anabasis. It would also be worthwhile to analyze from a literary point of view dialogues that have the form of a mise en abyme. Here I am mainly thinking of the dialogue between Virtue and Vice (Mem. 2.1.21-34), which is related by Socrates in a conversation with Aristippus, as well as of the dialogue between Socrates and Ischomachus (Oec. 7-21), which is also related by Socrates, but this time in a conversation with Critobulus. In addition, it would be interesting to ask whether the dialogues in Xenophon’s Socratic writings are models for the dialogues in his other works. For example, does the dialogue between Simonides and Hiero, in Xenophon’s Hiero, have the same literary form and the same philosophical aims as the Socratic dialogues in the Memorabilia? Is the irony that Simonides manifests in the first part of the Hiero of the same nature as Socrates’ irony? These are a few examples of questions, among many others, that it would be interesting to examine. I have decided, however, to examine Xenophon’s use of dialogue from another interpretative angle, one that is somewhat ambitious, for I propose to analyze the nature, the role, and the effectiveness of dialogue in the process of acquiring virtue as it is depicted in the Memorabilia. I shall try to convince you that the connection between dialogue and the acquisition of virtue is central to Xenophon’s philosophical project in the Memorabilia, but that is also problematic in many respects. To examine the role of dialogue in the Memorabilia, it is necessary to begin by taking a close look at an important passage in the fourth chapter of the first book. In the introduction to the Budé edition of the Memorabilia,1 I commented on this passage at some length when I