Interpreting the text of Pseudo-Xenophon

The main paradox of The Constitution of the Athenians consists of the fact that its author managed to unite in his personality or in his work two opposite positions, -- positions of the critic and of the apologist of the Athenian democracy. This is the main riddle of this work. Nevertheless, this riddle is not as inexplicable as it might seem at first sight. Firstly, the analysis we have done shows not only that the structure of the text rises to the aims of apology of democracy, but also the major part of the text is devoted to a justification of the criticized aspects of democratic governance.

Therefore, in view of ideological dichotomy, in The Constitution of the Athenians the general ideological bent of the author is rather clearly traced. Secondly, this work integrates perfectly into the context of sophistical rhetoric and symposium literature of that period of time, because within both of these genres the author could be in turn on the opposite ends In some sense Plato's dialogues represent it too, because their author with ingenious smarts repre-sented positions of both Socrates and his opponents, sometimes even combining them in one person. It is clearly evident in the dialogue “Charmides”, where the young Charmides gives mutually exclusive defini-tions of judiciousness under Socrates' supervision.. Moreover, it is not improbable that in one person's consciousness in that period of time two ideologies -- the old aristocratic system of values based on ethical postulates and the new democratic ideology based on the principles of pragmatism could really collide. Naturally, in this situation national mentality and patriotism led to the victory of a new ideology, which, in my opinion, The Constitution of the Athenians demonstrates. From the historical experience it is well aware that the interests of the state if they are put in the first place, overcome morality rather easily, and then it is possible to justify anything by these interests. Therefore, it is not improbable that in the person Pseudo-Xenophon we have the first antique Machiavelli...

Now, answering the question raised in the title, I have to conclude that I have no reason to subsume Pseudo-Xenophon neither under “young people”, nor under “old”, nor in general under an oligarch, but he is rather a democrat of aristocratic, or perhaps oligarchical, origin. As I am referring to a system of thought, one can say that a democrat or oligarch cannot be born, a democrat or oligarch has to be made.

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