Xenophon

About Xenophon

Xenophon was an Athenian historian, philosopher, and soldier who lived from approximately 430 to 354 BCE. His high ranking at #872 in MIT's Historical Popularity Index is largely attributable to his literary and historical contributions, most notably his eyewitness account, the Anabasis, which details the campaign of Cyrus the Younger and the subsequent retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks. As a student of Socrates, his dialogues also provide valuable, though sometimes biased, insights into Socratic philosophy and Athenian life during a turbulent period.

In terms of modern digital attention, Xenophon occupies a position of near-perfect alignment with his historical importance. He registered 338K Wikipedia views in 2025, yielding an Attention Gap of approximately 1x relative to his importance rank. This suggests that, within the scope of this study, the internet is paying roughly the attention expected to this key figure in ancient Greek literature and military history. For context, he garners significantly less traffic than some, such as Pope Pius VIII (#547 importance, 69K views in 2025), who is historically ranked higher but receives only about one-fifth of Xenophon's pageviews.

Interestingly, Xenophon shows positive engagement trends, with a 4.6% year-over-year increase in views and a notable 24% surge in momentum between Q1 and Q3 of 2025, suggesting his work continues to find a consistent, if modest, modern audience.