Politics & Power Quote by Xenophon

There is a soldierly pragmatism to Xenophon’s Socrates: politics isn’t judged by banners or bloodlines, but by who’s trusted to enforce the rules. “Aristocracy” here isn’t the romance of noble birth; it’s a compliment reserved for a city that selects magistrates from the law-abiding. The provocation is deliberate. By redefining aristocracy as rule by the compliant, Xenophon strips the term of its inherited glamour and turns it into an ethical performance metric: the “best” are the people who can submit to shared constraints.

The subtext is a quiet indictment of Athens’ democratic self-image. If officials come from those who merely win elections, flatter crowds, or weaponize rhetoric, the regime might call itself democracy while behaving like a lottery of appetites. Xenophon suggests a different legitimacy: authority flows from demonstrated obedience to law before it’s exercised over others. It’s less “rule by elites” than “rule by the disciplined,” which is exactly the kind of political ideal a soldier would respect.

Context matters. Xenophon writes after Athens’ humiliations and upheavals, in a world where “democracy,” “oligarchy,” and “tyranny” were not abstractions but lived crises. His Socrates becomes a vehicle for rehabilitating order without openly preaching authoritarianism. The line smuggles in a conservative preference: stable governance requires officials who have internalized the law, not merely mastered the crowd. In Xenophon’s hands, aristocracy isn’t a class; it’s a test of character.