Memorabilia: A New English Translation

What was Socrates really like?Plato made Socrates one of philosophy's most enduring voices. Xenophon remembered him differently: as a teacher encountered in streets, workshops, gymnasiums, homes, and public spaces-a man concerned not only with abstract questions, but with the practical demands of living well.In the Memorabilia, Xenophon answers the charges that led to Socrates' execution. He argues that Socrates neither rejected the gods nor corrupted the young. Instead, he encouraged those around him to cultivate self-control, sound judgment, loyalty, competence, and reverence. Through conversations with soldiers, politicians, craftsmen, householders, ambitious young men, and troubled friends, Socrates tests easy assumptions and asks what people must know before they can responsibly govern themselves or others.Across four books, these discussions examine friendship, education, leadership, justice, gratitude, household management, civic duty, wealth, pleasure, physical discipline, and the nature of virtue. The result is an intimate and often surprising portrait of philosophy practiced in ordinary life.This Lyceum Press edition presents a new English translation of all four books, preserving the work's 39 chapters and 608 numbered sections. The translation follows Walther Gilbert's 1888 Teubner Greek edition. Passages Gilbert marked as doubtful or interpolated remain present and visibly bracketed, allowing readers to encounter both Xenophon's testimony and the surviving text's genuine uncertainties.For readers of Plato, ancient history, ethics, political thought, or the classical world, the Memorabilia offers an essential second witness to Socrates-and a direct, accessible inquiry into what it means to become useful, trustworthy, and good.