Xenophon on Hunting

The Cynegeticus, probably written in the first half of the fourth century C.E., is a manual for hunters. Its author, Xenophon, was a disciple of Socrates, the able general who led ten thousand Greeks on a successful forced march from Mesopotamia to the Black Sea, as well as an historian and practical philosopher. In his book, he aims to acquaint the novice with not only the techniques but also the values of the hunter. The first chapter lauds the famous hunters of legend, the last two chapters discuss the moral value of hunting, and the middle books examine the techniques. He arranges his material to begin with the smallest game animal, the hare, proceeding through progressively larger prey, to end with a description of hunting as a preparation for war, in which one hunts the most dangerous game of all. This new edition of the Cynegeticus is an attempt to incorporate recent scholarship and at the same time provide a contemporary English rendering of Xenophon’s Greek in facing-page translation.