Xenophon’s Hybris: Leadership, Violence and the Normative Use of Shame in Anabasis 5.8

Through a detailed analysis of Xenophon’s defence against a charge for hybris among the Ten Thousand, this paper discusses violence, reputation, and hierarchy in Greek military and social contexts. Contrary to other recent treatments of the episode, the study highlights the centrality of honour/shame dynamics and desert in establishing and upholding social order, showing that these notions are found consistently in numerous examples as early as Homer. Addressing the apparent lack of strict discipline in Greek armies, the paper concludes that shame and peer-pressure had a strong normative power in acknowledging and reconciling personal claims and common interests within a group.