Battle of Mantinea
For at least two millennia, Xenophon's many talents fueled the debate of whether to place Xenophon with generals, historians or philosophers. For the majority of time in the past two millennia, Xenophon was recognized as a philosopher. Quintilian in The Orator's Education discusses the most prominent historians, orators and philosophers as examples of eloquence and recognizes Xenophon's historical work, but ultimately places Xenophon next to Plato as a philosopher. Today, Xenophon is best known for his historical works. The "Hellenica" continues directly from the final sentence of Thucydides' "History of the Peloponnesian War" covering the last seven years of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) and the subsequent forty two years (404 BC–362 BC) ending with the Second Battle of Mantinea.