The book by Xenophon is a Socratic dialogue principally about household management and agriculture.It is one of the earliest works on economics in its original sense of household management, and a significant source for the social and intellectual history of Classical Athens. Beyond the emphasis on household economics, the dialogue treats such topics as the qualities and relationships of men and women, rural vs. urban life, slavery, religion, and education.

Xenophon(430-345BC)was an ancient Greek philosopher,historian,soldier,mercenary,and student of Sccrate.As a historian,he is known for recording the history of his contemporary time,the late-5th and early-4th centuries BC,in such works as the Hellencia,about the final seven years and the aftermath of the Peloponnesian War(431-404BC),a thematic continuation of Thucydides'History of the Peloponnesian War.