Xenophon's Athenaion Politeia: A Study By Correspondence Analysis

The paternity of Athenaion Politeia and Lakedaimonion Politeia, two works traditionally credited to Xenophon, has been debated since ancient times by Diogenes Laertius (2, 6, 13). Philologists have mainly focused their efforts upon Athenaion Politeria. That Probably happened because it is the only work belonging to that period to contain, from an oligarchic perspective, a very harsh criticism of democracy in Athens. Almost nobody deems it possible to credit this work to Xenophon. This is an exemplary case in which attribution and date of composition have been amply debated. Athenaion Politeia was then suitable to verify whether computing and statistics could help identify the characteristics peculiar to an author. By correspondence analysis (as it is implemented in EXPLORE by Professor A. McKinnon, and SPAD. N and SPAD. T by CISIA) the disputed Politeia was studied against similar works from Xenophon [Lakedaimonion Politeia) and other Attic writers (Aristotle's Politica and Athenaion Politeria, and Thucydides' Historiai). All the works were analysed without any sampling operation, using a 386 PC. At the end of this research, on the one hand, it clearly appears that the Athenaion Politeia cannot be credited to Xenophon, neither can the Lakedaimonion Politeia; That brings in new light on the old attribution of Diogenes Laertius, while on the other hand the importance of studying the whole lexicon (Without any Preference for ’empty words‘ or particular grammatical categories) of the works under examination is assessed.