BIG BOYS, LITTLE BOYS: JUSTICE AND LAW IN XENOPHON’S CYROPAEDIA AND MEMORABILIA Gabriel Danzig 1 Abstract: Xenophon’s anecdote concerning the exchange of clothes between a big boy and a little boy in Cyropaedia (1.3.16–18) offers a valuable framework for under- standing his conception of justice and the problematics of administering it. Interpret- ers have erred by assuming that Cyrus’ teacher, as well as Socrates in Memorabilia, simply identifies the just with the lawful. Rather than identifying the two, both charac- ters argue that the law is just; but they differ widely in their explanations of what makes the law just. For Cyrus’ teacher, the obligation to observe the law rests on a uni- versal pre-legal ban on violence; for Socrates statutory law is to be obeyed for utilitar- ian reasons. Socrates’ view thus justifies both the teacher’s insistence that Cyrus obey the law — since the law is of benefit to the community — and also Cyrus’ decision to violate the law to achieve a just and beneficial redistribution. But it offers no justifica- tion for a universal ban on violence. In conformity with the Socratic principle, Cyrus avoids violence as far as possible, but only for the prudential reasons expressed by his mother. Once he acquires the power to coerce, Cyrus uses it to enforce the principle of proportional equality and meritorious redistribution he had approved in his judgment of the actions of the big boy. Distributive Justice While recent years have seen an increase in scholarly attention to the works of Xenophon, and to his Cyropaedia in particular, less attention has been paid to the work’s contribution to political theory. Cyropaedia is a largely fictitious work, which has rightly been characterized as pedagogical or didactic in character, 2 aiming to show that rule over human beings is possible and how it can be achieved (Cyr. 1.1). 3 A large part of it is devoted to an explication of techniques useful to gaining and maintaining power over a political or military organization. But together with this, Xenophon also aims to delineate a conception of social justice that is consistent with the pursuit of power. POLIS. Vol. 26. No. 2, 2009 1 Classics Department and Philosophy Department, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52100, Israel. Email: danzigg@mail.biu.ac.il 2 See e.g. H. Breitenbach, Xenophon von Athen (Stuttgart, 1966); D. Gera, Xenophon’s Cyropaedia (Oxford, 1993), pp. 1–2. 3 See N. Wood, ‘Xenophon’s Theory of Leadership’, Classica et Mediaevalia, 25 (1964), pp. 33–66; W. Higgins, Xenophon the Athenian (Albany, 1977), p. 44; P. Carlier, ‘L’idée de monarchie impériale dans la Cyropaedia de Xénophon’, Ktema, 3 (1978), pp. 133–63; W. Newell, ‘Tyranny and the Science of Ruling in Xenophon’s Education of Cyrus’, Journal of Politics, 45 (1983), pp. 889–906. J. Lendon has recently argued that the Cyropaedia describes a theory of domination in which reciprocity plays a great role as a technique for solidifying power: ‘Xenophon and the Alternative to Realist Foreign Policy, Cyropaedia 3.1.14–31’, Journal of Hellenic Studies, 126 (2006), pp. 82–98.